UGA’s Bobo old friends with Ga. Tech coach

Athens — Brian Bohannon and Mike Bobo both attended Georgia and played football for the Bulldogs under Ray Goff. But their coaching pursuits after graduation led them down different paths.

Saturday those paths will collide as the coaches — and good friends — will be on opposite sidelines for the Georgia-Georgia Tech game.

“It’s definitely a competition,” Bobo said. “You definitely want to beat your buddy or your friend. It’s like playing your brother in the backyard. But, after the fact, it’s over. You congratulate each other and move on.”

Bohannon, who played flanker for the Bulldogs from 1990-93, coached at four different schools (West Georgia, Gardner-Webb, Georgia Southern and Navy) before ending up as quarterbacks and B-backs coach at Georgia Tech.

Bobo, a Georgia quarterback from 1994-97, left the UGA campus for barely a year to coach quarterbacks at Jacksonville State. The rest of the time he has been with the Bulldogs, rising from graduate assistant to his present position of offensive coordinator.

“I guess I didn’t teach them right,” quipped Goff, who recruited and coached both players at Georgia before getting fired in 1995. “I thought they’d know better.”

Bobo and Bohannon are just two of five Goff protégés now excelling in coaching. Will Muschamp is defensive coordinator at Texas and was recently named “head coach in waiting.” Kirby Smart is defensive coordinator at Alabama and Travis Jones coaches defensive line for the New Orleans Saints.

Reflecting on it, Goff is not surprised to see “his boys” succeed in the business.

“Well, three of them had fathers that were high school coaches,” Goff said of Bobo, Bohannon and Smart. “And you could tell when all of them played they were smart. I’m not going to say they were the fastest and the bestest but they all knew how the game was played.”

Bobo said that’s not the common thread.

“None of us were very good players,” he said with a laugh. “Our future wasn’t playing after college. If you wanted to be a part of it you had to coach.”

Bobo said they’re all good friends but he and Bohannon are particularly close.

“When I first got into the coaching business and got my first real job at Jacksonville State, he was one of the first people I called,” Bobo said. “I wanted to ask him what to expect, how to go about doing things in recruiting, stuff like that. We talk some in the offseason but not as much during the season for obvious reasons.”

Both men said it’s easy to put allegiances and friendships aside during the football season.

“There are all kinds of people who went different places who are working at Georgia Tech,” Bohannon said. “When you get in this profession, you don’t think about things like that. You’re trying to do the best you can as a professional. Wherever the opportunity lies in coaching, that’s where you go.”

Having left the UGA campus only briefly, it’s still hard for Bobo to imagine working at Tech.

“I can’t, but sometimes you have to take care of your family and do what’s best,” he said. “Georgia Tech is a great program and a great place to be and to coach. It’s a wonderful opportunity for him.”

Said Bohannon: “This has been a great opportunity for me to come to Georgia Tech, to be in the ACC, to be back in the state of Georgia. There are a lot of things for me personally that are huge.

I’m always going to be a Georgia graduate, that’s always going to be with you.”