JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Today's TaxSlayer Bowl is more like the Transition Bowl.
When Penn State and Georgia collide at EverBank Field, the Nittany Lions will be without offensive coordinator John Donovan and the Bulldogs will be without head coach Mark Richt, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt.
Georgia is being guided by interim coach Bryan McClendon, who will leave after the game to become a South Carolina assistant, and he insists the multitude of departures will not be a distraction.
"I definitely think it's talked about more than it should be, to be honest with you, especially this late in the season," McClendon said Friday afternoon. "Systematically, you have everything you're going to have, and you're going to tweak things from game to game anyway. It's talked about, and it should be because there are changes, but we're not calling anything differently or undergoing an offensive or defensive overhaul."
Georgia tight ends coach John Lilly will call the plays for a second straight bowl, having assumed those duties from Mike Bobo after the 2014 regular season, when Lilly helped the Bulldogs to a 37-14 win over Louisville in the Belk Bowl. Outside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer will handle the defensive signals, with Pruitt now back at Alabama and getting ready to replace Kirby Smart as the Crimson Tide's defensive coordinator.
Smart, of course, was named Georgia's new head coach Dec. 6.
Penn State second-year coach James Franklin fired Donovan after a 7-5 regular season ended with three straight losses and has since hired Fordham head coach Joe Moorhead to run his offense. Coordinating the offense today for the Nittany Lions will be quarterbacks coach Ricky Rahne. Donovan oversaw tight ends.
"It's a little bit different now than it was maybe 10 or 15 years ago," Franklin said. "Our graduate assistants who we hire now are experienced coaches who are trying to get their foot in the door at this level, and then you look at the staffs. Coach Lilly has called a bowl game at Georgia before and been successful, and I think Coach Rahne is a rising star in the profession and has handled it extremely well.
"Neither staff is going to reinvent the wheel."
Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Bob Shoop, who was with Franklin for three seasons at Vanderbilt before accompanying him to Happy Valley, remains in his role.
Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg said Friday that adjusting from Donovan to Rahne has not been difficult, pointing out that Rahne has "been involved in the offensive game-planning ever since I've been here." He added that the biggest difference was a new voice.
Georgia players on both sides of the ball believe they will be fine as well.
"At the end of the day, the players are the ones who play," senior inside linebacker Jake Ganus said. "These coaches are not much of a dropoff, so it's on us to go out there and perform. There has been a lot of talk about our coaches, but we still have players and leaders, and we're ready to go out there and shut everybody up."
Said receiver Malcolm Mitchell: "Last year, we had a coaching change on offense before the bowl, and the year before that we had a coaching change on defense right after the bowl. For me, it's nothing new."
While Georgia's seniors perform a final time, the underclassmen will compete knowing their new boss is watching. Smart is attending today's game before heading back to Tuscaloosa to begin preparations for the national championship game against Clemson on Jan. 11.
"We're just going to go out there and do what we can do," junior linebacker Ryne Rankin said. "We want to prove that he has something to work with when he gets to Athens."
Today is also an audition for McClendon, who may never get this opportunity again.
"I'm watching these bowl games and thinking what would I do in this situation or that situation," he said. "Hopefully, I won't make any boneheaded decisions, and if I do, you guys will take it easy on me. If there was a proverbial book on being a head coach, I would've read it three times by now."
Odds and ends
Georgia redshirt sophomore outside linebacker Davin Bellamy suffered a knee injury this week - "It was one of those freak accidents where nobody was touching anybody," McClendon said - and will not play today. Rankin on today's game: "We want to send the seniors out with 40 wins and send (UAB transfer linebacker) Jake Ganus out with 21. Franklin on having faced Georgia three previous times: "Obviously history and experience counts, and the fact we have familiarity with their staff and team and with their conference helps, but at the end of the day, it's about watching film and studying tendencies."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.