ATHENS, Ga. -- By now you might have read that Hutson Mason likes to operate Georgia's offense at a quicker tempo than predecessor Aaron Murray -- a possible foreshadowing of a faster pace for the Bulldogs when Mason takes over as the full-time starting quarterback next fall.
Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo didn't want to wait for next season, however. His plan entering Saturday's game at Georgia Tech was for the Bulldogs to run the hurry-up offense for much of the afternoon before the Yellow Jackets jumped out to an early 20-0 lead.
"We tried to go fast really all night tonight. We just early in the game, we had some guys and we missed them and couldn't really get anything going," Bobo said, later adding, "They don't play a lot of people on defense, so I thought if we could wear them down with the screens and with the hurry-up, no-huddle, we'd be able to run the ball late. And we just got so far behind, we kind of had to stay in the pass mode and some one-back runs out of the gun."
Mason shook off a poor start to lead Georgia to its first touchdown on a one-minute drive late in the second quarter. He was 5-for-5 for 71 yards on the drive, ran for a 16-yard gain and hit Todd Gurley with a 9-yard touchdown pass that made it 20-7 at halftime.
It's no coincidence that the Bulldogs set an up-tempo pace on the possession, much like the style Mason used to become a record-setting passer at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Ga. In fact, Mason has practiced as the Bulldogs' No. 1 quarterback in similar situational drills each week for much of the season.
"Every Thursday we've done one-minute this year, and except for one time, he did it every time with the offense, and [we] let him run it to get experience, because Aaron had had so many reps," Bobo said. "So he's been doing it in practice all year on Thursdays and has done a nice job, so I knew he would feel comfortable with that."
Bobo installed a no-huddle scheme before the 2011 season, which Georgia has used intermittently over the last two seasons. Don't expect Bobo to completely revamp Georgia's offensive thinking next season -- "we'll still control the tempo that we feel will give us the best chance to win the ballgame," he said last week -- with a workhorse tailback like Gurley in the backfield. But it would not be surprising to see more of an up-tempo style under Mason than the Bulldogs employed under the more deliberate Murray.
"I like to keep things going a little quick," Mason admitted. "Not like Oregon, you know, but I just have a tendency from playing at Lassiter, we were a no-huddle offense, so just by my nature I'm a little faster than Aaron."
If Bobo goes in that direction, it would bring its own set of new challenges for the Bulldogs. For one thing, it would require them to have the proper depth and conditioning level to be able to move quickly without sacrificing their effectiveness.
Exhibit A was the one-minute drive that Mason led as soon as he took over for the injured Murray against Kentucky. Georgia drove 43 yards for a touchdown in only 53 seconds, with Mason going 4-for-5 on the possession, but receiver Michael Bennett admitted he felt the effects of the up-tempo pace afterward.
"As soon as the play's over, he's yelling, screaming to get everyone on the ball, let's get another play going," Bennett recalled. "It's good, but that one-minute drive, for instance, right before the half, I was sucking [wind]. I was dying. But it's just the way he rolls."
It also would require quick thinking, not just quick physical action, receiver Chris Conley said.
"You can't be celebrating. You can't be thinking, 'Oh that was an awesome run.' You've got to get back to the line, you've got to get the play in, you've got to analyze the defense, you've got to go," Conley said. "Whether it's a great play or a bad play, you've got to shuck it out of your mind, and you've got to move forward. It's at a rapid pace, and you have no time to sit and praise or pity yourself."
The main objective in playing that quickly is that it weakens defenses physically and makes it more difficult to counteract what the offenses are attempting, which is why Conley said he expects to utilize more of the up-tempo pace in 2014.
With Mason at the trigger and impressive depth at the offensive skill positions, the Bulldogs should have all the ingredients to execute effectively.
"The fact that Hutson likes it and he's good at it is all the more reason why we'll probably be doing more of that," Conley said. "We brought the no-huddle into this offense a couple years ago to get teams off balance, and it's worked. It's really worked because of the personnel that we have and their ability not only to recover, but make plays down the field and continue to make plays at a rapid pace. The fact that we have the people to do it, yeah I could see that happen."