The arrival of Jim Chaney has given Georgia steady growth in almost all major offensive categories.
From year one to two, Georgia went from averaging 24.5 points a game to 35.4, 385 yards per game to 435 yards per game, and the most shocking stat going from the #77th total offense to the #10th ranked total offense.
Even though there was substantial improvement throughout the offense, one position group did not get as much love. The tight ends numbers fell drastically. In 2016 the group was targeted for a total of 485 yards and those statistics dipped almost in half to 245 yards in 2017.
Specifically, Isaac Nauta had twenty-nine receptions for 361 yards in 2016. In 2017, he was only targeted nine times for 114 yards. Despite these statistics, none of that matters to Kirby Smart.
“The end line for me is how many points do we score,” head coach Kirby Smart said. If they give us fourteen points for Isaac Nauta to catch a touchdown well start throwing it to him more. If we get 21 points for Charlie to catch one, I promise you well design a play to get a twenty-one-point play. Right now were just trying to score points and if that includes tight ends that’s great.”
Kirby finished by saying this about how often the tight ends are being targeted this spring and how they’re progressing.
“Do I think our tight ends have caught more balls this spring? Probably so because we’ve thrown the ball more this spring than we have in the past. Tight ends have to be a matchup disaster. Charlie had a big catch today, Isaac Nauta had a big catch today. I don’t know if they’re being targeted more or if they’re getting open more, but a lot of it has to do with what that GPS number is which is how fast they’re running.”