Mike Bobo pleases Kirby Smart, Georgia quarterbacks in first spring

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia played its first “game” with Mike Bobo as the offensive coordinator on Saturday, and while it was just a spring game, it’s safe to say his quarterbacks were pleased with the play calling. If it’s any sign of what’s to come in the fall, the comfort and connection between coach and player already appears to be there, at least for the projected starter.

Carson Beck had a successful first half on the Red Team with Bobo, throwing for 211 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-18 passing. He would switch over and work with the Black Team briefly in the second half, completing two passes for 20 yards to finish his day out 15-for-22 overall with 231 yards and a score.

“I felt like everything was working,” Beck said. “You know, Bobo was really dialing it up. I just told him that afterward when we just talked. He was dialing it up, we were executing, guys were getting open, guys were catching balls, guys were making plays. You know, it’s really easy whenever we do that and we’re executing on all levels.”

“I mean, it was a lot of fun, you know? We do a lot of, like, situations in practice where we’ll move the field and try to simulate game-like reps and stuff,’ Beck added. “I’ve had a little experience with him calling plays, but obviously today it worked pretty well.”

When Beck made the switch over to the Black, it came with Brock Vandagriff getting some reps with the Red. He wasn’t quite as crisp in his operation of the offense, going 4-for-11 for 40 yards with the first team and just 13-of-25 for 175 in total. Vandagriff threw two touchdown passes while with the second-team and an interception in his second half action on the first-team against the top defense.

“It’s pretty relative,” Vandagriff said about going back and forth between the two teams. “You go out there and you’re going against great defenses either team you’re on. You’re going to have great dudes on the Red or Black, whatever team you’re on, and at the end of the day, you’ve got to put the ball in the hands of the same color you’re wearing.”

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Georgia coach Kirby Smart was pleased with the transition from Todd Monken to Bobo this spring, he said after the scrimmage. Smart specifically pointed several times to the fact that the concepts weren’t changing much considering he spent last season under Monken, as did all the other offensive assistants.

“Yeah, it was an easy transition. I mean, he was here last year. Everybody else was in place. He was part of it. He learned the language last year,” Smart said. “He’s had 15 practices. Somebody told me the other day we’ve had 52 practices because of our walk-throughs we have. We’ve had a lot of practices to get the language barrier connected, and that’s been smooth. The biggest transition has been the number of wideouts that didn’t know the language because you add the two portal guys and the 3-4 mid-years with some freshmen who didn’t play, so the biggest thing has been communication from that standpoint. But not really like getting calls in or offensive plays. I mean, we’ve got plenty of plays.”

“I don’t know that he’s changed a lot,” Smart continued about Bobo. “He has adopted some words and verbiage and terminology that wasn’t his. You’ve got to remember, he’s worked with Bryan McClendon, he’s worked with Stacy Searels, he’s worked with Todd Hartley. He’s worked with people in that room. They can co-exist and say, ‘Well, you want to call it this or do you want to call it this?’ It’s either apples or oranges. Nobody’s going to argue over what we call something. They’re good football coaches and they have good football players at their disposal. We should be good. We should be productive. We’ve got good football players, and we have good coaches. That combination has allowed us to be a good football team.”

Georgia moves into its offseason program now with players taking the reins from the coaches. Smart described the player-driven throwing sessions as an opportunity for continued development for all positions as quarterbacks and pass catchers work through the system in routes-on-air and 7-on-7 situations.