Brian Schottenheimer: Was He a Bad Hire for the Dawgs?

Brian Schottenheimer’s offense at Georgia has struggled mightily in the last month. Was Schotty a bad hire for the Dawgs or is it still too early to tell?

Brian Schottenheimer came to the University of Georgia from the NFL’s St. Louis Rams to replace Mike Bobo as offense coordinator earlier this year. Bobo earned his first head coaching opportunity and now coaches the Colorado State Rams in Fort Collins.

Schottenheimer, son of longtime NFL Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer, had two stints in the NFL as an offense coordinator with mixed results. The New York Jets made it to back-to-back AFC Championship Games with Mark Sanchez as their quarterback. When Brian Schottenheimer left the Big Apple to join Jeff Fisher’s staff in the Arch City, the Jets offense went from okay to downright terrible.

In St. Louis, the Rams offense never really got going. That was due to their starting quarterback at the time Sam Bradford almost always succumbing to season-ending injuries when Schotty was there. At both stops, Schottenheimer’s offenses still made plays in space in the short to medium passing game. Tight ends were very important in his offensive game plan.

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Schottenheimer had a hankering for a return to the college level, this time as a coach. He played under Steve Spurrier in Florida, backing up 1996 Heisman Winner Danny Wuerrfel. Brian Schottenheimer was supposedly the runner-up to Derek Mason in the vacated Vanderbilt Commodores head coaching gig two years ago.

With Bobo leaving for Colorado State, it seemed that bringing in Brian Schottenheimer was a smart move at the time because of his coaching pedigree and NFL experience. Schottenheimer also runs an offense that is similar to the pro-style attack of the departed Bobo.

However, the Georgia Bulldogs’ offense since RB Nick Chubb went down has been abysmal. The Dawgs haven’t scored a touchdown since the fateful road date in Knoxville on October 10th. How much of this offensive ineptitude is on the offensive coordinator? Is it time to admit AD Greg McGarity and HC Mark Richt made a bad hire?

We as society tend to believe that change is a good thing and that new is always better. Brian Schottenheimer came to Athens having to fill some pretty big shoes at offensive coordinator. While Bobo wouldn’t run the darn ball in obvious situations, his offensive scheme was too sound to stay at UGA forever as a coordinator. In my opinion, UGA did the best they could at replacing Bobo at OC with Schottenheimer.

Replacing an OC at UGA is a more daunting task that replacing a DC, as Richt wants to keep his pro-style offensive philosophies intact. So he wouldn’t want his coordinator/quarterbacks coach to favor spread or hurry-up offenses over the pro-style. On defense, there is more freedom for DC Jeremy Pruitt to build his unit, as Richt is an offensive-minded coach naturally.

Since Bobo left for Colorado State shortly after former CSU Rams HC Jim McElwain took over at Florida, there wasn’t much time for Schottenheimer to recruit his players that would fit into his system. The same issue arose when Pruitt took over the defense two years ago from Todd Grantham who left for Louisville.

When Brian Schottenheimer took over the UGA offense, he inherited a healthy stable of running backs and a veteran offensive line. He also had to deal with youth at both tight end and wide receiver and unresolved issues at quarterback. UGA got by on the legs of Nick Chubb, but once his season came to an end, so did the Dawgs offensively.

None of the three scholarship quarterback at Georgia have shown that they can get it done in the SEC. Not having its bell-cow in the backfield limits what UGA can do on the ground. The wideouts are slowly getting there (Terry Godwin), but still drop too many passes (Reggie Davis). Tight ends have been especially bad in 2015. To me, that’s the most concerning part of Schottenheimer’s offense this season.

Brian Schottenheimer had great success in the NFL with his tight ends (Dustin Keller, Jared Cook, Lance Kendricks). At UGA, it’s becoming a rarity to see Jeb Blazevich, Jay Rome, or Jackson Harris come down with a reception. If this is Tight End University in Athens, what’s the deal with the group this year? It’s the only position group on Georgia’s offense that retained its coach in John Lilly. Remember former RBs Coach Bryan McClendon took over for WRs Coach Tony Ball who went to LSU in the offseason.

I can’t say that Brian Schottenheimer was a terrible hire, since I think we all kind of knew that the 2015 Georgia Bulldogs’ offense was trending towards a one-dimensional attack from the onset. When Schotty couldn’t hand the ball off to Nick Chubb anymore, there went the Dawgs’ bite on offense.