ATHENS — Carson Beck entered the 2024 season with Heisman Trophy, national championship and No. 1 overall pick aspirations. He will do so again in 2025, just playing for Miami instead of Georgia.
Beck and Georgia had some successful moments in 2024. The win over Tennessee. The thrilling comeback against Georgia Tech. And an SEC Championship, even if it ended Beck’s season and ultimately his Georgia career.
The Georgia quarterback wasn’t perfect this season, throwing an SEC-high 12 interceptions while also having some critical fumbles and misses along the way. But it also wasn’t all on him in 2025, as the Georgia offense was far from perfect.
“You know, we get into this society where we want everything to look perfect and look great, but I told him on several occasions, you’re going to grow more and you’ve proven more to me this year of your resiliency if things don’t go, not going well and finding a way to win games in the fourth quarter,” Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said of Beck. “I think, says a lot about him and his football team.”
Beck may be gone, but the Georgia offense still remains. Bobo will be the team’s offensive coordinator and Gunner Stockton is likely to be the starting quarterback to open next season. And the Bulldogs can’t let these mistakes doom their offense once again.
Georgia football has to simply catch the ball
No program had more drops than Georgia this past season. Per ESPN Stats and Info, the Bulldogs finished with 36.
Per Clark Brooks of On3, Beck lost 665 passing yards because of those drops, and that just assumes that those receptions don’t have any yards after the catch.
“Sometimes it becomes a confidence thing, kind of like my putting,” Bobo said. “If I’m missing the short putts, then I overthink it, and then I can’t make a short putt. But just the routine of catching ball, day in and day out of what you do at practice. Obviously, we’ve tried to catch more balls, whether it’s jugs, whether it’s throwing to guys, throwing to each other, whether it’s quarterbacks throwing them extra balls.”
The drops didn’t stop in the loss to Notre Dame, with Dillon Bell having a particularly rough one. Georgia still ended up scoring a touchdown on the drive following Bell’s drop but his message after the loss made it clear that the Georgia receiving room has to be better in 2025.
“It’ll be fixed, you know. We got a brand-new season coming up,” Bell told DawgNation. “All I got to say is if you’re a fan, you don’t got to bring somebody down because of something, you know. It’s going to get fixed. Drops happen, you know. They don’t know what nobody’s going through. I don’t think there’s anybody going through, so I can’t really care less. But if I just said to somebody, Gunner, the drops are going to get fixed for sure. I had, like, five drops this year. Five too many, but, hey, it happens, you know. I can’t control all players’ drops passing.”
Bell will be back, while the Bulldogs brought in new blood in the form of Zachariah Branch, Noah Thomas, Talyn Taylor and CJ Wiley. Colbie Young could rejoin the group as well.
The Bulldogs have more talent in this room than they did for the 2024 season. It needs better production as well.
Keep the tight ends involved
In each of Georgia’s three losses this past season, the Georgia tight ends finished with just two combined catches in each of those games. This room is too talented for that to be the case.
Yes, you have to take what the defense can give you. But with what Lawson Luckie and Oscar Delp showed throughout the season, they are capable of making big plays when called upon. Delp and Luckie both did it with Stockton at quarterback in the second half of the SEC Championship game.
Georgia has to replace Benjamin Yurosek, but Jaden Reddell seems primed to step into his role on the offense. Todd Hartley also signed 4-star prospects Elyiss Williams and Ethan Barbour, who are already turning heads at practice.
The Bulldogs don’t need Brock Bowers-level production from this group. But they need more than they got in 2024. There is a medium to be found in this offense. It would help Stockton tremendously if they did.
Find your five best offensive linemen and keep them healthy
Georgia’s offensive line underperformed in 2024. Now it enters the 2025 season with a ton of uncertainty as the Bulldogs have to replace four starters from that unit.
Even with two All-Americans leaving the program, Georgia still has talent on this offensive line. It’s recruited well and invested considerably in this group. It needs to do a better job of putting those players in a position to succeed.
Earnest Greene battled injury during the second half of the season, missing four games. Monroe Freeling stepped in for Greene, but based on what we saw against Notre Dame, he was not ready to be the full-time replacement for Greene.
Freeling now has an offseason to prove that he can be the left or right tackle and allow a healthy Greene to play the other spot.
Drew Bobo seems like a natural replacement at center for Wilson, with Bobo starting two games for Georgia this season.
As for guard, Micah Morris is likely to start at one of the spots after starting five games this season. Daniel Calhoun could possibly start at the other spot, or Georgia could move Greene to guard and play one of Jah Jackson, Bo Hughley or Jamal Meriweather at tackle.
Georgia has a lot of options. It had a lot in 2024. Yet it could never find the right combination to unlock this offense.
Stacy Searels has to be able to do that this coming season for Georgia. The Bulldogs invest way too much in this position group for it to continue to be as troubling as it was in 2024.
Find the explosive runs
Georgia had just 55 runs of 10 yards or more. While the Bulldogs normally consider an explosive run at least 12 yards, the Bulldogs weren’t ripping off big runs like they used to. The only season where Georgia had fewer than 85 rushes of 10 yards or more was the 10-game 2020 season. Georgia had 51 runs of such length in that season.
Georgia has talent at running back Trevor Etienne has proven he can play at an SEC level, while Nate Frazier made a strong first impression this past season.
Part of the lack of explosive runs can be blamed on the offensive line. Part of it can be blamed on the struggles of the passing game.
Point being, Georgia’s rushing attack was substandard in 2024. It can’t be that again in 2025 as Georgia has to replace Beck.
“You know, we got to find ways to move the ball on the ground,” Bobo said. “You know, we’ve got to be committed to the run, whether things are going good or things are going bad, to still run that ball, to help us be balanced and run and pass.”
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