Mike Bobo Departure Shows Upward Direction of Georgia Football Program
Mike Bobo leaving for Colorado State may be a temporary inconvenience to Georgia head coach Mark Richt, but it proves things are moving in the right direction.
More from Georgia Football
- Georgia Football: Top 5 Nick Chubb Moments at Georgia
- Georgia Football: Know the enemy UAB Blazers
- Georgia Football: Should laundry list of injuries be a cause to panic?
- Georgia Football: Report cards for Week 3 game against South Carolina
- Georgia football: Sunday afternoon thoughts and feelings
For those of you who championed the cause of “Bobo Must Go”, I’m sure you’ve been lifting glasses of eggnog on an hourly basis since the announcement that Mike Bobo would no longer be Georgia’s offensive coordinator. Although perhaps his leaving on his own terms may have spoiled the I-told-ya-so party.
The nice thing about the entire situation is that the irrepressible minority who were unhappy with Bobo’s work got their wish, but the rest of us don’t have to eat any crow or admit that they were even remotely correct.
If fact, they were 180 degrees wrong.
Bobo being hired at Colorado State as a head football coach proves that not only was he doing a superb job here at Georgia, but that the football program headed by Mark Richt has come light years away from where it was in 2001 when he stepped in.
A football program has to be measured in more than just wins and losses and championship rings. The view of Georgia football from the media and other programs across the nation has reached a point that not even Vince Dooley was able to bring it.
Bobo groomed and coached some of the greatest quarterbacks in SEC history, and two of the winningest in all the nation in David Greene and Aaron Murray. His offenses have continued to set school records and lead the conference in many categories, and those facts have not gone unnoticed by people in the know.
Those whose job it is to evaluate the success of a coordinator and his readiness to step into a head coach job obviously see a lot in Georgia’s former offensive play-caller.
Mike Bobo is a Georgia product, through and through. He played here, he worked as a grad assistant here and he worked as an assistant coach and coordinator here. He’s as Bulldog as you can find, and another school thinks he’s the best man to head their on-the-rise program. That speaks volumes for the job that both Richt and Bobo have done.
When other schools begin raiding your staff for head coach and coordinator jobs, it means that you are getting it right.
Nov 1, 2014; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Georgia Bulldogs defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt during the first half against the Florida Gators at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
And now, as the search for a new offensive coordinator begins, Richt no longer has to lean on in-house candidates (although there are some very good ones). Top offensive minds all over the nation are going to be clamoring to join Richt’s staff and coach the huge pool of talent that Bobo helped wrangle together.
That didn’t even seem possible 15 years ago.
We saw the same thing last season on defense. When Todd Grantham spared Richt the pain of having to dismiss him by beating him to the punch and jumping ship, there wasn’t the usual fear of wondering which leftover, coulda-been defensive coordinator we could land. Instead, we plucked the defensive boss from the reigning national champions, Jeremy Pruitt.
The next UGA offensive coordinator has some big shoes to fill, but has the horses with which to do it. Whoever it is may very well end up doing a better job than Bobo, but that only means that things were and are headed in the right direction. While some may want to look at any improvement that happens on offense as proof that Bobo was failing (which is ludicrous), it only means that Georgia’s program is growing.
The next step in the maturation of any top football program is the graduation of the coaching staff to bigger and better things without being fired, but rather by being recruited and sought after for jobs. As that happens, the snowball begins to speed up and grow, and the positions on your staff become more and more coveted.
Just watch for some of the names who want to join Mark Richt in taking Georgia football to the next level.