ATHENS, Ga. -- Say what you want about Jim Chaney and the year Georgia’s offense had last season, but he has never shied away from the fact that the Bulldogs didn’t meet expectations -- their own or those placed on the program from fans.

When he met with reporters on Saturday before UGA’s Fan Day, he said this offseason was a chance for him to do a little “soul searching” in a way that would allow him to be a better play caller and game planner.

One of the places he looked was to the NFL and just 70 miles down the road to the league’s top scoring offense.

“I’m a big video guy, get in tons of video watching,” Chaney said. “I like the cutting edge of NFL, it’s always fun to me. I thought at Atlanta did a wonderful job last year so studied a lot of their stuff.”

The Falcons racked up 540 points as a team last year, 71 more than New Orleans, the next closest team. Their performance on that side of the ball led them to the Super Bowl and allowed Kyle Shanahan to land his first job as a head coach with San Francisco.

Chaney says UGA’s staff also looked at other college programs to find new ideas and tweaks to the offense but didn’t want to go into detail.

Some coaches, especially ones who have served as an assistant for 32 years, can be resistant to change but that’s not something that Chaney has done. The play caller for the run-and-shoot attack at Purdue for nine years, he spent some time in the NFL where he altered his philosophy to more of a run-heavy attack. His scheme versatility was one of the reasons Kirby Smart to hire him in the first place.

But evolving isn’t just something the long-time assistant sees as necessary. He actually has some fun with it.

“It was time to do,” Chaney said. “It was much-needed for me, freshening up with everything. So I enjoyed that this off season.”

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