ATLANTA — Something on Todd Monken’s leg was bothering him. It was his left leg, the upper thigh, and periodically Monken looked down and rubbed it. It looked like it may have been a spot on his sweatpants. Or maybe a slight but nagging pain. Or maybe just a nervous tic, but that seemed very unlikely.
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The man was in his element.
“I’m going to go on a little rant here,” he said at one point. “Because I don’t get to talk very often, and so this is when I get to talk.”
And that’s a shame. Monken, as good as he is at coordinating the Georgia offense, is even better at issuing quips. His offense is not dry. His sense of humor is. Let’s not use this space to belabor media policies that prevent Monken from talking more than a couple of times per year. Let’s use it to celebrate all the Georgia offensive coordinator was able to pack in when allowed (or mandated) to meet the media.
For just fewer than 27 minutes Wednesday morning, Monken held court with print reporters. He cursed liberally. He made fun of himself. He talked honestly about money. He made fun of Kirby Smart pretending to seek his advice. Along the way, Monken also provided insight on his three years at Georgia, which have served to modernize the Georgia offense and help propel it to one, perhaps two, national titles.
It was three years ago at this time that Monken was out of a job and began talking to Smart about taking a job that wasn’t open. But Smart was seeking an upgrade over James Coley and promised Monken, just let go along with most of the Cleveland Browns staff, that he would have the autonomy to run the offense as he wanted.
“I didn’t know if I believed it at the time,” Monken recalled Wednesday. “I didn’t know if it was a sales pitch to get me to come, but he has done exactly that. The things that he said he needed and that he wanted, he’s done all of that, and hopefully, I’ve held up my end of the bargain.”
— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) December 28, 2022
Georgia’s offense ranks seventh nationally in yards per play, after finishing fourth last year, up from 46th the year before Monken arrived. He has helped turn a walk-on quarterback into a Heisman Trophy finalist. Yes, Monken has held up his end of the bargain.
But for a while, Monken wasn’t sure he would. He remembered his first preseason at Georgia when his offense was getting pushed around by a defense that featured Jordan Davis, Travon Walker, Nakobe Dean and all those players who eventually would be drafted.
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“We just got knocked in the dirt like every day in fall camp, and I’m thinking, ‘This sucks. Why the heck did I come here?'” Monken said.
That use of “heck,” by the way, was an exception. Children under a certain age, or those uncomfortable with bad language, can feel free to turn away now.
Such as Monken’s answer for what worked against Oregon in this year’s season opener: “Sometimes s— just works.”
There was more to his answer, but that pretty much summed it up.
Someone asked Monken when he knew Stetson Bennett was “the guy” to be his quarterback.
“Oh, I don’t know. S—, there’s plays in the game I’m not sure he’s the guy,” Monken said. “There’s times I call some s— I don’t know if I’m the guy.”
Monken gave a more serious answer in August, saying it was in the latter part of the 2021 season when he decided Bennett’s mobility better suited the team. This time, Monken riffed about Bennett’s tenacity, ability to put mistakes behind him and “sustained success,” which allowed Monken another crack.
“Sustained success is the greatest indicator of your confidence in any given player — just like any relationship,” he said. “My marriage has gotten better over the years with sustained — I don’t know if success is the word, but sustained her putting up with my ass, I guess.”
Mike Bobo’s name came up: The former Georgia offensive coordinator and former Georgia quarterback and best friend of Smart was a coaching free agent earlier this year. Monken, whipping out the dry humor, remembered the conversation with his boss about it.
“Well, it’s interesting because when Kirby came to me, he talked about Mike Bobo joining the staff, which I knew he was going to join the staff whether I agreed to it or not,” Monken said. “It didn’t matter. So he made it seem like it was my choice, but it really wasn’t.”
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For the record, Monken added that Bobo has been “awesome,” doing the work of 22-year-olds just starting in the business by drawing up play cards and other things. Bobo has Monken’s admiration in large part because he’s a Georgia man through and through, just like Smart, just like Will Muschamp.
“I’m a vagabond,” said Monken, a native of Illinois who has coached at various stops in the NFL and college, including Oklahoma State, where his son is a graduate assistant.
GO DEEPER
Schultz: Georgia-Todd Monken relationship working for both sides
Speaking of which, that could be a source of valuable intel this week because Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was at Oklahoma State from 2019 to 2021. Tendencies and such could be culled from Monken’s son — and yet …
“He didn’t give me s—,” Monken said. “It’s sad.”
Family, the word and the concept, came up when Monken was asked about his relationship with Smart. It’s great, he said, and all indications around the program are that’s true. But Monken was also realistic.
“This is a business,” he said. “I’ve done organizations where, ‘This is a family.’ This isn’t a family. You’re going to fire me if we suck, so don’t say it’s a family. This is the way it is.”
He was asked if he wanted to be a head coach again. He was a successful head coach at Southern Miss, only leaving to become an NFL offensive coordinator, so he would have seemed a good fit for Purdue, but that didn’t happen. Monken wasn’t asked why or how involved he was there. But does he want to be a head coach again?
“Well, first off, no one wants my old ass, so that’s usually why that’s the case,” he said.
Then Monken acknowledged what many coaches don’t.
“They pay me a lot of money. We all know that,” said Monken, who is earning $2 million this year in the first of a three-year extension he signed after the national championship win and after LSU pursued him for a lateral move. “You have to be careful. The grass isn’t always greener, and money isn’t everything. Now, I value getting paid. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t do this for nothing, but the reality is you have to be careful because your happiness is in winning. It’s about winning. It’s the fight song in the locker room. That’s what it’s about. Anybody that says, ‘Hey, I’m at school A, and boy the city is great, I love it. It’s great for my family, and we’re 4-8, and I’m happy as hell.’ That’s not me. I’d rather be winning in Alaska than losing in San Diego.”
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For now, Monken is winning in Athens. He hopes to be winning in Atlanta on Saturday. And if that happens, he will be available to talk again next week in Los Angeles.
Or he could, in his estimation, go back to being an idiot if things go awry later this week — as he pointed out when someone referred to him as a “guru.”
“First off, let’s not go that far,” he said. “First off, there is no such thing as guru. What’s important is this Saturday because none of the rest of the s— matters if we don’t do it on Saturday. So it’s the consistency of what you do.
“It’s been the coaches that have been around me throughout any of my time I’ve had success and the players because cookies taste better with sugar, not with vinegar.”
(Photo of Stetson Bennett, left, and Todd Monken: John Adams / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
