surely he could do it for another. <\/a><\/p>\n\u201cLot of respect for Buster obviously, was on our staff,\u201d Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. \u201cJust think he\u2019s one of the best offensive minds in the country. It\u2019s really hard to defend, but I\u2019m so happy for his success and how well he\u2019s done. Close friend and a lot of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet as Smart points out, Faulkner did spend some key years working on his staff at Georgia. <\/p>\n
Faulkner was hired as an offensive analyst for Georgia starting in 2020. During his time in Athens, he was most notable for the work he put in with Stetson Bennett. While Todd Monken may have overlooked Bennett, Faulkner played a big part in helping Bennett become a Heisman Trophy finalist and two-time national champion. <\/p>\n
Monken departed for the Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator job following the 2022 season. Yet Faulkner had already taken the Georgia Tech job by that point in time. Smart quickly turned to Mike Bobo to be Georgia\u2019s offensive coordinator when Monken left. <\/p>\n
Despite drawing up the offenses at arguably Georgia\u2019s two biggest rivals, Faulkner was quick this week to note he wouldn\u2019t be in this position were it not for Smart. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, relentless in everything that he does,\u201d Faulkner said of Smart while speaking to reporters on Tuesday. \u201cOne of the most competitive human beings that I\u2019ve ever been around. That, you know, and that hasn\u2019t changed since I met him 25 years ago. So that\u2019s still there, just a little older and grayer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faulkner and Smart\u2019s time together predates the latter becoming the head coach at Georgia. The two were at Valdosta State together in the early 2000s when Faulkner played quarterback and Smart served as the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n
Prior to joining the Georgia staff, Faulkner bounced between Arkansas State and Southern Miss as the offensive coordinator. <\/p>\n
After his three seasons in Athens, he became one of the most impressive play callers in the sport. <\/p>\n
Despite Georgia having a massive talent edge over Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets played three straight one-score games with Faulkner as the team\u2019s offensive coordinator. The 2024 game between Georgia and Georgia Tech saw Faulkner\u2019s Yellow Jackets finish with 42 points and 563 yards of offense, as Georgia had its hands full trying to stop Haynes King. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat one will always stick with you, you know, but on to a new team, new journey, new opportunity, new challenge, you know, so, you know, can\u2019t live in the past, right,\u201d Faulkner said on the eight overtime loss. \u201cThat was a great, great football game play between two great teams that night. No, didn\u2019t come out on top, but you got to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the three games against Georgia, Faulkner\u2019s offense has just two three-and-outs. <\/p>\n
Yet Faulkner\u2019s offense didn\u2019t have much success the last time he faced off against Smart.<\/a> Georgia kept Georgia Tech out of the end zone in the 2025 game between the two schools, with the Bulldogs winning 16-9. That game was played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is where Saturday\u2019s game will be held. <\/p>\nFor as much as Faulkner has excelled since leaving Athens, he\u2019s still looking for his first win against his college defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a part of winning,\u201d Smart said. \u201cHe knows what winning looks like. There\u2019s no surprise at this point, after being around him for three years, at, you know, what he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy to see Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner as a rival of the Georgia program. He spent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-897655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}