Kirby Smart speaks on recent additions to Georgia offensive staff

Georgia coach Kirby Smart met with the media on Wednesday to discuss the additions the Bulldogs made to their Class of 2022 on National Signing Day. However, that wasn’t all that was addressed though. Smart also shared his first comments on the recent hirings of offensive assistants Mike Bobo (analyst) and Bryan McClendon (wide receivers).

Bobo, who comes back to Georgia after serving as the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator from 2007-2014, was teammates with Smart during their playing days between the hedges. A quarterback, Bobo completed 199 of 306 passes during his senior year for 2,751 yards and 19 touchdowns. After his playing days were done, it was on the coaching ranks where been in various roles including quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and head coach at stops like Jacksonville State, Georgia, Colorado State, South Carolina and, most recently, Auburn.

“There is a lot of value in the experiences he’s had,” Smart said. “He’s been a head coach. He’s been an offensive coordinator in our conference. He knows our conference. The five hour radius we recruit in, he’s extremely versed. He has a ton of relationship value. As far as his role, that’ll play out as we go along.”

In the case of McClendon, who also both played and coached at Georgia before coming back to Athens now, he too was complimented for his experience. The former Georgia wide receiver coached the Bulldogs’ running backs from 2009-2014. He transitioned back to the wide receiver position that he knew so well during his playing days in 2015 and has stuck to the pass catchers since, serving as the South Carolina wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator form 2016-2019 and Oregon’s wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator in 2020 and 2021. He was set to take on the same role at Miami on Mario Cristobal’s first staff at “The U” before being offered and accepting the job in Athens.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect Brian and the job he’s done,” Smart said. “I’ve always respected him on the road recruiting. Had a lot of years at Alabama where I recruited against him in the state of Georgia. Coached him as a player here. In terms of the ways he carried himself, he’s a special team, a leader. I have a lot of respect for him.”

“He’s worked for people on our staff and he’ worked with people on our staff,” he continued. “I’m big on ‘fit’. Does someone fit the culture we are trying to create? We don’t look at a lot of things that people on the outside world look at. I look at, can they make our staff better, can they make our players better, do they fit our culture. He checked the box, was the best fit, and wants to be here. That’s important to me and what we create at Georgia.”

As a result of the coaching openings and the need to fill them, Smart admitted that his lead-up to Signing Day and the actual day itself have been out of the ordinary.

“Today was the most different signing day I’ve had,” Smart said. “We worked with things going on here in house – our team, quality control, different positions we have to fill in terms of GAs. We’ve been dealing with and interviewing for different roles on our staff that we are trying to fill. I haven’t even stopped for Signing Day where most of the time that was all you did. To that, that certainly is a December movement in the world we live in.”

Just because Smart didn’t stop for Signing Day didn’t stop the Bulldogs from bringing in a couple of big pieces for their future. Georgia added defensive lineman Christen Miller, running back Andrew Paul and linebacker E.J. Lightsey on top of the commitments and signatures that it already had. However, it’s back to the grind of filling out the staff for Smart with one spot remaining, thanks to the departure of outside linebackers coach and defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.