Mike Bobo and Glenn Schumann enter 2026 season with pressure to deliver

ATHENS — Mike Bobo and Glenn Schumann know their way around the Georgia sideline.

This upcoming season will be Schumann’s 11th in Athens. No assistant has been with coach Kirby Smart longer.

For Bobo, it will be his fourth as Georgia’s offensive coordinator under Smart. If you add up all the other years he’s been in Athens, this will be his 20th season as a coach for Georgia.

It’s a luxury for the Bulldogs to have two experienced play-callers. Consider that Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who Schumann replaced in Athens, is rolling with two first-year coordinators this year.

Yet all that time comes with history and scars and bad play calls. One’s fans don’t forget and rarely forgive.

Bobo and Schumann will both make the same salary this season. The former was a finalist for the Broyles Award for the second time in three years. But the year in between saw a substantial step backward.

For Schumann, Georgia’s run defense returned to being a top-five unit in 2025. But the pass defense gave up too many explosive plays, especially against Ole Miss and Tennessee. Add in that Georgia had just 20 sacks last season — the fewest in Smart’s tenure — and Schumann faced real scrutiny for the first time in his time as Georgia’s defensive coordinator.

The two Georgia coaches will speak to the media on Wednesday. If history holds, it will be the only time during the regular season either faces questions about their plans, hopes and thoughts on the upcoming year.

For Bobo, the questions will likely be about the passing game. He did a largely good job getting the most out of quarterback Gunner Stockton last season.

But the Georgia quarterback regressed at the end of the season, due in no small part to the loss of starting center Drew Bobo.

With major questions among Georgia’s pass catchers this upcoming season, Mike Bobo will have to put Stockton in an even better position for the upcoming season.

Bobo was a popular talking point during SEC Media Days. Some wonder why Smart employs the much-maligned coordinator. Outsiders point to their friendship dating back to their time as teammates.

Yet Bobo is now Smart’s longest-tenured offensive coordinator. Consider that after just one season, Smart cut ties with James Coley as the team’s play-caller.

“I look at the production he’s had, the success he had, the team success where he doesn’t worry about, he worries about winning football games, and the way he coaches our players day-to-day is unmatched in this country,” Smart said of Bobo at SEC Media Days.

The questions around Schumann weren’t as pointed. Instead, Schumann saw his name pop up on various “Future head coaches” lists.

It’s nothing new for Schumann. The previous two defensive coordinators were hired to be the head coach at Colorado and Oregon, respectively. Schumann was a strong candidate for the North Carolina opening ahead of the 2025 season, only for the Tar Heels to hire Bill Belichick.

Perhaps Schumann can be a candidate for that job again this coming offseason, as Belichick went 4-8 last season.

Georgia’s defense is too talented not to be at least good this upcoming season. The question in this unit concerns levels of greatness.

The Bulldogs could very well have a First Team All-American at every level of the defense this coming season. And Schumann’s group isn’t just top-heavy, but deep as well.

Sacks will almost certainly be how this defense’s success is judged. Georgia may not lead the country in sacks, but it can’t finish 107th in the category like it did a season ago.

Georgia always prides itself on stopping the run. Just because Smart talks more about forcing turnovers and getting sacks doesn’t make clogging rushing lanes any less important.

“You look at the national champions the last five, six years,” Smart said. “They’re effective running the football, and they’re effective stopping the run. It’s one of the leading statistics over the last 10, 15 years in national championship teams. They’ve had really good run defenses. So you better be able to run the ball, stop the run.”

For Schumann, a great year could once again elevate his coaching credentials. He’s been at Georgia longer than Smart was at Alabama as he waited for the right job to open. Perhaps Schumann is doing the same.

The ability to run one’s own team is enticing. It’s something Bobo knows, as he was the head coach at Colorado State for five seasons after a previous stint as Georgia’s offensive coordinator.

While Schumann could use a great year to elevate his coaching resume, there is only one way this is a great year for Bobo.

That ends with Georgia winning a national championship, proving once and for all that Georgia can do so with Bobo calling plays.

Georgia has won back-to-back SEC championships with Bobo at the helm, something Georgia didn’t win once during his first stint as Georgia’s offensive coordinator from 2007 through 2014.

There’s pressure on both Schumann and Bobo this coming season. They both need to have better seasons than they did in 2025, especially at the end of the year.