Paul Finebaum: Georgia fans 'will be blaming Mike Bobo' for demoralizing loss to Notre Dame

Kirby Smart’s Georgia squad is a bit crestfallen after their loss in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The shine is off the rose a bit for the Bulldogs, who have been the class of the college football world over the past couple of seasons. A 13-point loss to Marcus Freeman’s squad has some re-evaluating where Georgia stands, including ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, who’s been a staunch supporter of the team over the past couple of seasons.

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While the SEC Network analyst had a bunch of problems with Georgia’s performance on Thursday afternoon, he focused on offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. Evidently, Finebaum believes the Bulldog assistant deserves a ton of blame for the loss to the Fighting Irish due to some nonsensical play calls that gave Notre Dame some much-needed momentum.

The one call that everyone is analyzing as the dust settles on Georgia’s season is the decision to be aggressive down three with less than a minute left in the first half. Bobo put the ball in the hands of inexperienced quarterback Gunner Stockton, and it led to a fumble and a Notre Dame touchdown to close out the half. The Fighting Irish wouldn’t look back afterward.

“They will not be blaming Kirby Smart,” Finebaum said, regarding who should take the blame for Georgia’s demoralizing loss, via Get Up on ESPN. “They’ll be blaming Mike Bobo, who is the offensive coordinator. He came in and took over from (former Georgia offensive coordinator) [Todd] Monken, who went to the NFL, and quite frankly, nobody is very happy with him. He’s Kirby Smart’s best friend. They were roommates, and many believe that Kirby Smart has looked past reality and simply respected and honored a friend who used to work for Mark Richt at Georgia, and then moved on and failed as a head coach.

“It was just a terrible call in every respect, and I think Kirby Smart even admitted that at halftime. It’s easy to say after the fact, but when you have a quarterback who is struggling, he’s made some good plays, but you’re not that confident in him, don’t put the game in his hands when you’re only three points behind, and everyone in America saw what happened after that mistake.”

Alas, there’s plenty of blame to go around for Georgia’s subpar finish to the season, but Paul Finebaum is sticking the knife in Mike Bobo. Time will tell if the Bulldogs opt for change, but Kirby Smart recognizes that Athens won’t be happy with the way the 2024 campaign came to an end on Thursday.