Georgia’s longtime OC is often the focus of fan ire — and Mike Bobo himself is well aware
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Seth Emerson
Mike Bobo's run at Georgia has inspired memes and social media consternation. But his offense has the Bulldogs in contention to win a title.
ATHENS, Ga. — Amanda Mull was livid. By day a columnist at Bloomberg Businessweek, living in New York City, at heart Mull is a Georgia football fan carrying the weight of tormented years and plays associated with a certain offensive coordinator. And so this past September, after watching another Bulldogs loss to Alabama seemingly defined by one bad call, she went to her Bluesky account and vented:
“Free me from Mike Bobo.”
“Can we drive Bobo to some tarmac and leave him there.”
“I’m gonna see God and I’m gonna ask him why the University of Georgia still employs Mike Bobo.”
Mull wasn’t alone. As any check of social media and Georgia message boards noted after the 24-21 loss to Alabama, the key play — arguably, at least — was a blown fourth-down call fans perceived to be the fault of Georgia’s longtime offensive coordinator. One Georgia fan called in to a popular podcast, “Shutdown Fullcast,” and just ruefully repeated over and over: “Mike Bobo … Mike Bobo … Mike Bobo …”
This is a discourse that’s been going on around Georgia for most of the past 18 years. It’s the story of a love-hate relationship between a fan base and its (successful) offensive coordinator — who happens to be one of their own. And is well aware of the discourse.
For the uninitiated: Bobo was a Georgia starting quarterback in the 1990s, and is now in his second stint as Georgia’s offensive coordinator. He was the play caller under Mark Richt from 2007 to 2014, left to become Colorado State’s head coach, then had one-year stints as the OC at South Carolina and Auburn before Kirby Smart brought him back to Athens as an analyst for the 2022 season. A year later, Bobo got his old job back when Todd Monken left for the Baltimore Ravens.
And it has gone pretty well. Back-to-back SEC championships. Twice in these past three seasons, Bobo has been a finalist for the Broyles Award, which goes to college football’s top assistant. Bobo was also a finalist during his first stint, when he coordinated what is still the highest-scoring offense in school history (2014). Bobo has shown he can win with run-first or pass-dominant offenses, and in this second stint took Monken’s system and basically stuck with it, just adapting to the personnel. Georgia’s offense is a big reason the Bulldogs are 12-1 and a popular pick to win the national championship.
The five finalists for the Broyles Award, which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach:
This would all seem set up to make Bobo coordinator for life in Athens, where he has already spent 25 of his 51 years, between his playing and coaching days. (He was also born and raised in the state.) But a decent amount of fans — how many is unclear, and to what degree is also hard to gauge — still harbor ill feelings. They begrudge high-profile calls that went sideways: This year’s fourth down against Alabama, when walk-on Cash Jones got the handoff out of the shotgun rather than a quick sneak. The end of the 2012 SEC championship game. The goal-line call at South Carolina in 2014, when quarterback Hutson Mason dropped back to pass, rather than giving the ball to Todd Gurley.
That last one led to the “Run the damn ball, Bobo” meme, which Georgia fans still wear on hats and shirts. There are defenses to each of those calls, and in each case, the head coach signed off on them, maybe even caused them with the strategy to run quick plays, especially the 2012 SEC championship and this year’s Alabama game. But when the head coach is winning and/or popular, it’s easier to blame the offensive coordinator. Especially one with so much history.
“I remember going to see Georgia games as a kid while Bobo was the quarterback, and then he assumed the OC role for the first time when I was in college, just in time to be associated with the post-2007 slide,” Mull said in a message this week. “Bobo has been so closely associated in my mind with so much underperformance and disappointment at a team level that I’m not sure I could ever evaluate his performance dispassionately, even though I know on an intellectual level that he’s not responsible for most of the negative feelings he provokes in me.”
Mike Bobo played at Georgia from 1994 to 1997, helping the team to a 10-2 record as a senior. (Jamie Squire / Allsport via Getty Images)
Bobo used to hear the negative feelings directly. During his first stint, after a 2013 loss at Vanderbilt, Bobo was talking to the media under the bleachers when a Georgia fan leaned over and shouted: “Bobo gotta go!” Bobo ignored it.
He has also learned to make light of the criticism. When his son Drew threw a successful fake punt pass in last year’s SEC championship, his father cracked: “Glad he executed and didn’t screw it up. Then we’d have two Bobos everybody could yell at.”
Drew Bobo, as a 2-year-old, was the ring-bearer at Smart’s wedding. (This year, Drew became the starting center, but is expected to miss the rest of the season with a foot injury.) Smart and Bobo have been close since their college days, and Smart has always been a strong advocate for Bobo. He stood by him after last year, when the offense struggled despite having Carson Beck back at quarterback and four offensive linemen who would make NFL rosters. This year, with lower expectations, the offense has been a strength. And under Bobo’s guidance, quarterback Gunner Stockton finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting.
“He’s done a great job,” Smart said of Bobo. “And what he’s done with our offense, where we’re not a stat-padded, hurry up, take a lot of snaps, get a lot of plays. He doesn’t chase numbers.”
Indeed, Georgia’s offense isn’t spectacular in the traditional statistics. It’s 33rd in scoring, 44th in total yards, 66th in yards per play.
But Bobo’s offense has been efficient, ranking tenth in the nation in points per drive (3.31) and sixth in opponent-adjusted efficiency, per the respected FEI ratings. Smart also pointed to the red zone, where Georgia’s touchdown percentage (79 percent) is second-best in the nation.
When the offense most needed to be good, it was, the first meeting with Ole Miss — Thursday’s College Football Playoff opponent — a prime example: Georgia’s defense gave up touchdowns on each of its first five possessions, but Georgia’s offense also scored every time it touched the ball, buying time for the defense to finally get stops in the fourth quarter. Georgia won 43-35. There was also the shootout win at Tennessee in September. And while the offense stumbled in the first Alabama game, it atoned in the rematch in the SEC championship.
This second stint has now given Bobo two SEC championship rings, and he has a national championship from his 2022 spell as an analyst, helping Monken. But he was asked Sunday night if he needs to coordinate a national championship winner to complete his career — and finally shut everyone up?
“I don’t listen to the noise,” Bobo started to say, then amended it. “You don’t pay attention to it. You hear it, but you don’t listen to it. You focus on what’s important. And what’s important is those coaches and those players and me doing my job here at University of Georgia for our head coach, Kirby Smart.
“As a competitor, you know you want to win every game you play, and there’s a championship to be won. You want to win it. And you know, we accomplished one of our goals this year, and that’s win the SEC championship. Now we got a chance in the playoffs to accomplish another goal.”
Then Bobo harkened back to his father, George, who was a high school coach, but modeled for his son what was most important: relationships, and impacting players.
“Whether my dad coached the team and they won the state championship or he didn’t, that didn’t change who he was and how he coached and how he loved on those kids,” Bobo said. “So that’s why I do what I do, not for somebody to say, ‘Hey, you know you did a great job. You’re a great coach.’ I want to get that letter from that young man that I coached two to three years from now saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why I coach.”
Of course, if Bobo’s offense wins a national title, maybe the letter will be from Georgia fans, saying: Thank you. All is forgiven, all credit is due, all trust going forward.
Right until the first play call next year that goes wrong.
