The best thing about this spring for Georgia's football veterans is that it is unlike last spring or any other spring they've known.
For the first time since 2013, the Bulldogs are practicing under the same offensive and defensive coordinators from the season before. This is the second year with Jim Chaney guiding the offense and Mel Tucker the defense under head coach Kirby Smart, and Georgia's players are appreciative of the long-awaited stability.
"Having the same offense saves me a lot of studying and a lot of stress and a lot of time spent away from here learning it," senior tight end Jeb Blazevich said during Tuesday's news conference in Athens that preceded the first of 15 spring workouts. "We're able to take bigger steps forward, because there is less of learning the terminology and learning the ins and outs of 'What's this formation?'
"We know the basics, and we can help the young guys because we've been there and because we've gone through it all."
When Blazevich and fellow members of the 2014 signing class arrived, the Bulldogs were transitioning defensively from Todd Grantham to Jeremy Pruitt but had Mike Bobo back for a 14th season as quarterbacks coach and an eighth full season as offensive coordinator. Bobo left after the 2014 season to become head coach at Colorado State, which led to Brian Schottenheimer running the 2015 offense in Mark Richt's 15th and final season as head coach.
Georgia was arguably the most stable Southeastern Conference program throughout the 2000s from a head coaching and coordinating standpoint. Now, all seems calm again.
"It's big," junior inside linebacker Natrez Patrick said of the familiarity. "Everybody's expectations for one another have gone up so much, because we know what we're capable of."
The Bulldogs are looking to build on last season's 8-5 record, which included a 31-23 win over TCU in the Liberty Bowl, and have 17 of 22 starters returning.
Both Blazevich and senior tailback Sony Michel said Tuesday that Chaney will add some wrinkles to the offense. Blazevich told reporters there would be more run-pass options this year, though Michel doesn't believe the changes will be drastic.
"If we do make major changes, I'm sure it won't be perfect at the beginning," Michel said.
Smart knows there are advantages to staff continuity - Tray Scott replacing Tracy Rocker as defensive line coach is the only change from a year ago - but he doesn't want that resulting in complacency.
"I think it helps any time you have a lot of carryover," Smart said, "but I think the flip side of that is you've got to be careful of 'Do they get too comfortable?' I think sometimes that's the case. I challenge our coaches each year and each day to change up the drills and to change up the environment.
"Do something different every day that they have to respond to, because that's what they'll see in the game. We don't want them getting comfortable at all."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.