When Todd Monken accepted the opportunity in January to become Georgia’s offensive coordinator after a season in the same role with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, he did not receive a going-away party or any words of advice from Bulldogs-turned-Browns running back Nick Chubb.
“I had been fired, and I wasn’t allowed back in the building,” Monken said Tuesday afternoon on a Zoom call. “Plus, Nick is not the most talkative young man in the world. He is, however, a tremendous football player.”
Chubb, who would be Georgia’s all-time leading rusher were it not for some guy named Herschel Walker, ran for 1,494 yards and 5.0 yards per carry a year ago in his second season for the Browns. It would be quarterback Baker Mayfield’s second-year inconsistencies, however, that helped result in a 6-10 disappointment that yielded the one-year stint for Monken.
Monken came to Cleveland from Tampa Bay, where he helped the 2018 Buccaneers to a No. 1 ranking in passing offense and a No. 3 ranking in total offense, but he is now back in the college game, where he excelled both as an Oklahoma State offensive coordinator and as the head coach of Southern Mississippi.
At Georgia, he takes over an offense that averaged 408.1 yards and 30.8 points per game in James Coley’s one season in charge, which followed averages of 464.9 yards and 37.9 points under predecessor Jim Chaney in 2018. Five key members of last season’s offense – quarterback Jake Fromm, running back D’Andre Swift, and linemen Cade Mays, Andrew Thomas and Isaiah Wilson – left with eligibility remaining, providing an instant challenge for Monken.