ATHENS — Turns out that Mike Bobo returning as Georgia’s offensive coordinator is turning out all right.
On Monday, the 49-year-old former Bulldogs quarterback was named one of five finalists for the Broyles Award, which goes each year to the person deemed the best assistant coach in college football. The other finalists are LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker and Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein.
All five have been invited to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the awards luncheon next Tuesday. The winner will be announced at that time.
Whether Bobo wins is immaterial at this point. He already has answered the many skeptics within the Georgia fan base and beyond who panned coach Kirby Smart’s hiring of his best friend and former teammate as a retread from a failed past.
Succeeding heralded offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who left for the NFL, all Bobo has done is match the Bulldogs’ offensive productivity almost exactly from a year ago. Georgia’s per-game averages of 39.6 points (8th in FBS) and 496.4 yards (6th) are just slightly behind last season’s marks of 41.1 and 501.1. The Bulldogs’ 7.25 yards per play average is on pace to set a school record.
Bobo has done that despite having to replace starters at quarterback, running back and both tackle positions and having players shuffle in and out of the lineup all year because of injuries. The Bulldogs have had all their projected starters available to play for only one game this season. All-American tight end Brock Bowers has missed three games, flanker Ladd McConkey five and tackle Amarius Mims six, among others.
Bobo last spoke to media in early August in preseason camp. At that time, he said he wasn’t at Georgia to prove anything, but rather to learn. He said he joined the Bulldogs’ staff as an analyst in 2022 to learn the internal ways of the infamous Nick Saban “process” that Smart brought with him from Alabama.
“I always wanted to be under the coach Saban tree and learn how they practice, how they organize and how they went about things,” Bobo said at the time. “I didn’t come here last year to become the offensive coordinator. I came here to learn and grow as a coach.”
Smart and Bobo went head-to-head as opposing coordinators when Smart was coaching the Crimson Tide’s defense and Bobo was Georgia’s OC in the 2012 SEC Championship game. The Bulldogs lost 32-28, but only after turning the ball over on downs at the Alabama 5-yard line.
Smart has downplayed Bobo’s impact on Georgia’s offense this season, saying he’s simply running the same stuff they have the past three years. But Smart made a point to praise Bobo after the Bulldogs executed a fourth-quarter, come-from-behind win over Auburn in late September. In addition to executing a 98-yard, third-quarter touchdown drive, Georgia had zero procedural penalties in the road game played at noisy Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“I thought coach Bobo and his offensive staff did an incredible job,” he said after the 27-20 victory. “You take a quarterback who’s never played on the road and start at Auburn and not have procedural penalties, you had good organization, good substitution patterns, you had good snap-count variation, changing tempos. I thought they did a good job managing that.”
Georgia’s players seem like they’ve enjoyed working with Bobo.
“He came in and said he’s got a point to prove,” sophomore guard Dylan Fairchild said last week. “He’s got a mission that he wants to fulfill.”
Said junior guard Tate Ratledge: “He’s just gotten hotter and hotter with his play-calling.”
As for this year’s Broyles Award, Bobo has some tough competition. Denbrock and Stein’s offenses are ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, in FBS, each producing more than 540 yards a game. And Parker’s Iowa defense is giving up just 12.2 points (4th) and 279.9 yards (7th) per game.
Meanwhile, handicappers are favoring Michigan’s Moore for obvious reasons. The Wolverines’ OC/line coach has served as interim head coach for four different games this season while Jim Harbaugh served suspensions. Michigan won all those games, over Bowling Green early in the season and over Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State in the past three weeks. Harbaugh returns for Saturday’s game against Iowa in the Big Ten Championship game.
But Bobo might be able to pull some votes with a dominant day against Alabama’s defense. The Crimson Tide ranks 14th in points allowed (17.6) and 17th in yards allowed (317.7).
Said Smart of the Alabama defense: “Size, speed, toughness, aggressiveness, multiple coverages, players that can play multiple positions. The depth across the defensive line is one of the things that pops out of you. They roll guys, and they constantly have fresh guys in there striking, playing blocks, playing with great toughness; really good at the star position, very experienced. Got two corners that are going to be drafted that are good players; play with great safeties. I mean, they’ve got an all-around really good defense, but that’s what you would expect. I mean, you would expect nothing less from this group.”
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