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ATHENS - Kirby Smart wants to be more explosive. It’s all the guy can talk about.
Last season Georgia “ran the damn ball.” They controlled the clock. Dominated in the red-zone. They played efficient, winning football on offense the classic Georgia way.
But they weren’t explosive. They had an explosive player that brought explosive plays, but overall, Georgia’s offense overall was not as explosive as it needed to be.
Last year the Dawgs made it a top priority to improve the run game. And whatever they did worked. Now the focus is on becoming a more explosive offense and doing so without last year’s biggest weapon.
It won’t be easy, but that’s football.
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When Georgia’s spring concluded Kirby Smart sat down with Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy at the Regions Tradition to talk about the upcoming season and the improvements he’s hoping to see from his team on offense.
“I think our explosives in our history, the years we've been in the top 10, which we’ve done about 3 or 4 times, have primarily been off of play-action. That's set up by the run game. We had one of our better years running the ball last year. So you would beg the question, if you're able to run the ball in the SEC effectively, then you should be able to use play-action. We missed some of those opportunities, whether it was vision, whether it was a busted route, whether it was busted protection. So when you use play-action, you should have safe, good protection there, and we didn't get our bang for our buck out of those play-actions.”
“But we were really good at time possession and those things help your defense. We were able to run the ball which we weren't able to do the year before. So they were both upgrades, but being explosive is one of the best indicators of a great offense and we’ve got to improve on that.”
Of course a lot of that comes down to the play of Gunner Stockton. For most of the 2025 season, Gunner Stockton played like one of the best quarterbacks in college football. He had more ups than downs, ending the season 7th in the Heisman Trophy race and leading the Bulldogs to a second consecutive SEC Championship.
Still. The reality is that Gunner Stockton has the help the offense be explosive. He can create explosive plays on his own, but he needs to lead the offense to be explosive more organically. Smart added that Stockton’s big-play experience and clutch moments on the road could lead to more bigger plays this upcoming season.
“He’s been impressive on third downs, play clock management, playing on the road. There's nothing like having to go on the road in the SEC and play in those tough environments. He’s got better at managing things, understanding things, checking the system. I think he’s an asset when he has a broken play that he can turn into an explosive. Those are things you can't coach. I thought he did a better job of that last year.”
