Reasons why Mike Bobo will keep the Georgia offense rolling in 2023

You may not like it. Hell, you may hate it. But the offensive coordinator post at Georgia is once again manned by Mike Bobo. He was in Athens for five seasons as a player, 14 as an assistant coach (eight full seasons as offensive coordinator) and one as an analyst.

Like any coaching hire, it may or may not work out. Below, DawgsHQ tells you why we think he can pick up where Todd Monken left off. We also give you a reason or two why he might not.

Why Bobo keep the Georgia train rolling

Relishes all that comes with the college game: There are guys, like Monken, who are excellent coaches but don’t really like all that comes with the college game. Monken was that way back when he left his post as Southern Miss head coach to become the non-play-calling offensive coordinator in Tampa. In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, who can blame him for feeling even more adamant about that now?

Bobo is one of those coaches, like Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp, who loves doing it at the college level. It’s more work but there are more relationships. It’s a pain in the ass to spend so many spring and summer weekends at the facility to host young recruits and run camps, but it’s also fun to land a handful of future first-round picks in one recruiting cycle. Add to it the fact that he’s coaching at a place he really loves, and the want-to will be there in spades.

Quarterback development: We’ll talk more about quarterbacks here in a bit but one thing that needs to be brought up is Bobo’s ability to develop. David Greene, DJ Shockley, Matthew Stafford and Aaron Murray combined to take up 12 of Bobo’s 14 years as an assistant coach from 2001 to 2014. Each of those guys got better as their careers went on and they played their best football late in their careers.

This is especially the case for Murray who went from turnover prone youngster to play-making, put-the-team-on-his-back alpha at times as a junior and senior. Monken is almost 10 years older than Bobo but the latter has a lot more experience when it comes to coaching the guys behind center.

Adaptability: We’ve seen this thrown around as a weakness but let’s look at his final years at Georgia as a sample. His best two scoring offenses were his last two as UGA’s offensive coordinator, 2013 and 2014. Well, in 2013 the Bulldogs threw the ball 45 percent of the time on first down. That’s well above the national average and that team had the ability to shoot it out with anybody. Well, until the impact of losing Malcolm Mitchell, Justin Scott-Wesley, and Keith Marshall for the season plus Todd Gurley and Michael Bennett for significant portions of the year was felt.

The very next year the Bulldogs were running it almost 68 percent of the time on first down because Gurley was still around and had guys like Nick Chubb and Sony Michel under his wing. Even when Gurley got a four-game suspension for profiting off his own Name, Image, and Likeness, Chubb, a true freshman at the time, kept it rolling. The Bulldogs didn’t win them all those two years but the offenses, while inconsistent at times, were potent.

The machine itself: That last sentence is a good transition into what we’re about to say here. Why didn’t Georgia win more in Bobo’s last two or three years with the program? Well, the fact that it gave up 30-plus points 13 times in 2013 and 2014 combined didn’t help. If you add 2012 in there, the Bulldogs gave up 30 or more points 17 times — IN THREE YEARS. For what it’s worth, the Bulldogs were 9-8 in those games. Georgia has given up 30-plus points just five times over the past three years and one of those was the 2022 SEC Championship game when the Bulldogs led 50-23 in the fourth quarter.

But wait, there’s more. Bobo had some tremendous skill talent at different times the first time around. Guys like A.J. Green, Knowshon Moreno, Tavarres King, Gurley and so on. But the trench talent wasn’t at all impressive. When UGA averaged almost 42 points per game in 2014, the Bulldogs had just one draft pick on the offensive line and he went in the fifth round. Georgia is so much more talented up front with Smart in the big office and the skill depth is also much-improved.

Why it might not happen

There are a few of reasons this might not work out and they’re not really ones you can expound upon. They’re quick and to the point.

Reunions don’t always work out. Sure, Bobo did a really good job as an analyst this past year. Trusted sources tell DawgsHQ that Bobo earned Monken’s respect right away and brought a great deal to the offense in 2022. But while Bobo has experience doing so, building the plan, getting the guys to execute it, and putting them in the best position possible with the call is a different story.

The Bulldogs are also hitting reset at the quarterback situation. Carson Beck is the favorite to win that job but he wasn’t recruited by Monken or Bobo. We don’t know much about Monken’s ability to evaluate quarterbacks and it’s far to question Bobo’s evaluations once he moved into the role of offensive coordinator. The Bulldogs had some misses at that position.

And, finally, the expectation is that Georgia will win a National Championship in 2023. In a perfect world Monken gives Georgia one more year, the chips fall where they may, and Bobo isn’t blamed (right or wrong) for UGA (GASP) being unable to do something that has never been done before — win three straight titles with more than eight games in a season. Monken, who had built up a massive amount of capital, wouldn’t have been blamed — no way, no how.

The Bulldogs WILL be fighting complacency and entitlement in 2023. The schedule is favorable and then some but winning a third-straight title was always going to be very, very hard. That’s how it goes at the top. There’s but one way to meet expectations.