Mike Bobo bringing intensity to Georgia QB room
ATHENS, Ga. — Mike Bobo is no stranger to the quarterback position at Georgia. He played it and he coached it. In fact, the 2023 season will be his 15th as leader of the Bulldog signal callers.
Two of the three guys he’s working with right now, Carson Beck and Brock Vandagriff, stood behind the podium after Tuesday’s practice where each were asked about their experience working with the veteran assistant.
So far, so good.
“Coach Bobo, he’s pretty intense,” Vandagriff told reporters during a 12-minute interview. “On the first day he came in the quarterback room and said, ‘I’m going to coach y’all hard, and I hope y’all are open to that.’ Heck, he didn’t really give us a choice. He said, ‘I’m going to coach y’all hard, and that’s the way it’s going to go.’ We all said, ‘Yes sir,’ and I think it’s been really good. He has a reason for everything he does. His meetings go well.”
There’s a reason Kirby Smart quickly tapped Bobo when Todd Monken decided to move on to the NFL and work in the same role with the Baltimore Ravens. Smart has coached against Bobo on multiple occasions.
The two long-time friends worked together last season with Bobo serving as an offensive analyst and focused on helping with the tight ends. Monken credited Bobo with some of the plays that helped Georgia get to and win it all for a second straight season.
Then there’s the fact that Bobo, in his final season of his first stint as Georgia’s offensive coordinator, led the highest-scoring offense in UGA history. He did that without an NFL draft pick at quarterback and with only one on the offensive line.
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There’s also a reason, probably more than one, that some Bulldog fans weren’t all that fired up about running it back. They remember the quarterback situation UGA was left with in 2015 and beyond when some guys Bobo recruited didn’t pan out.
They harken back to UGA being a little late in offering and pursuing Deshaun Watson despite the fact that he lived less than an hour from Athens. Coaches are people, people make mistakes, and Bobo made more than one before taking the head coaching job at Colorado State.
But that’s not where the Georgia quarterbacks’ heads are at. It’s also not their concern. They’re full-speed-ahead in a battle for the starting job and they’re trying to soak up as much as they can.
“It’s been really good,” Beck said of working with Bobo. “Obviously, him playing the position of quarterback, being here, he knows what we’re going through. He connects and relates to us on that level because he’s done it before. He’s really positive. He does a really good job with the offense of rallying guys and getting guys going for practice. I’m really excited to keep working with him and see how it goes.”
