This was floating around the social over the weekend, regarding the commitment of Jared Curtis at Georgia. It’s a bit of a tip of the cap to Mike Bobo’s prowess in recruiting, so may be a trigger warning for some of us out there.
Sounds like money still isn’t the only thing that talks, and that’s a very, very good thing for Kirby Smart. Well before the Portal/NIL era became the norm in college football, Kirby was preaching in lectures and pressers the mantra of “adapt or die”. Then I also see things like this out there:
And I realize that there’s a lot of Kirby’s recruiting DNA on that visual, from Alabama days forward, that can be attributed to Smart’s ability to adapt, recruit, and maintain standards of excellence in roster management through shifts in legislation, staffing (recall that Alabama’s assistant coaching staff was a turnstile endeavor of former head coaches, except for the defensive side of things).
I liked the part of the clip that says usually a high bid is the result of a staff that’s behind in their efforts. While Georgia notably lost Justus Terry to Texas in the 11th hour, it does suggest that, if a NIL cap is established for the NCAA, that the smoothing out of this time in college football will see Kirby continuing to rise to the top when it comes to talent acquisition. It also suggests, as Kirby had previously noted, that the types of players he seeks to wear the G and get developed in Athens aren’t solely in pursuit of the all-mighty dollar.
Both of those, the resilience to do what you need to as the hurricane winds of change smack you in the face and the ability to maintain a culture within the storm, are both great indicators that the future of Georgia football is in good hands.
Whoever is under center for Game 1 in 2026, we can continue to trust in Kirby that they’ll be surrounded by a strong supporting cast.
Go ‘Dawgs.
The only time anyone has questioned Mike Bobo the recruiter was the delay in offering Deshaun Watson. He is a great QB recruiter and is tough to beat in his territory. He is a darn good QB coach … even Monken recognized what a contribution Bobo made as an analyst on that 2022 staff.
OC is the most difficult job on the field … yeah, I said it. It’s a tougher job than being the head coach, which is also hard as hell. 90,000 people blame you when something doesn’t go right.
Frankly, I would love to have heard the conversation on the headset between Kirby and Mike before the offense took the field down 6-3 in New Orleans.
The late offer on Rapeshaun, scouting Cam Newton as a TE and going all in on Bryce Ramsey in hindsight look bad. I just wonder how much influence above Bobo’s pay grade factored into those decisions…
Not that we’d ever get the truth, I wonder what metrics Bobo has to live up to this season for Kirby to keep him around. Day-dreamingly(is that even a word?) a change at Receiver Coach and a return of the PittBoss would put me on cloud nine and I’d never even think about the OC.
The hindsight on Newton and Ramsey is the reason this would be here. Saban tried to get Brice Ramsey as well. On Cam, sometimes, you make a mistake in evaluation or you see something you don’t like.
Watson is the one where everyone except Richt and Bobo were thinking, “Why?”
My only retort to that is that Clemson was in really really early. They gambled and it paid off. It easily could have gone the other way.
One thing CMR wouldn’t do was offer and later rescind. Our competitors weren’t as ethical. That led to some patience by the staff followed by fan confusion and disappointment.
I always thought whiffing on Trevor was a bigger deal. We get him and then we get to miss out on the justin fields drama.
I’m sure kirby was as on the mutha as much as possible but he didn’t close the deal.
IIRC, Schottenheimer was the problem with Lawrence.
Scam carried some baggage from his delinquent time at FU!!….#AUBURN SUCKS!!
Bobo is a good recruiter and QB coach. Bobo can draw up plays that take advantage of defensive weaknesses. Bobo is not good at calling plays in a tight game. He overthinks and gets cute way too much. The 2024 sec championship was Bobo’s first championship of any kind as a play caller.
That too cute thing or puckering at the wrong time has bitten us a few times with Mike, but it has with Kirby as well. Kirby got better over time. Maybe the 2024 SECCG shows that Mike can change for the better as well.
If he can generate points in the Fall he will be earning my respect. We have no real proven quantities on this offense. We have some pieces with potential, but I can’t recall a year where we’ve had less clarity about offensive identity and who specifically we will be relying on to score points than 2025.
Even when we’ve had not so great answers, there have been answers. I don’t know wtf we’ll be on offense this year.
I know what I’d like to see is some version of what OSU was in 2024. Use the rbs and qb in the run game and throw it downfield enough to keep the chains moving and the safeties from crowding the los.
But we may end up chuck and duck because we still can’t move anyone around and the qb can’t (or won’t) run it effectively.
Was listening to a recruiting “guru” yesterday, don’t remember the name, discussing the Justus Terry decision. Said he believes that Terry visited GA some 25 times between 8th grade & decision day and visited TX once. He felt that decision was 100% financial.
As for Bobo, never questioned his recruiting or his abilities as a QB coach. It’s the uninspired, and uninspiring, playcalling. Lack of creativity. Seems to often go straight into the strength of the D especially in the run game. Not enough intermediate pass routes, feels like it’s either screens or bombs. That being said, with Searles coaching the OL I just don’t know if we’ll find out whether Bobo has picked up his game. Without a running game or adequate QB protection you’re left to scramble to try to make something happen, like last season. Hope the line play last year was an anomaly and caused mostly by injuries but history tells me that’s what Searles is.
Also, don’t know if Bobo can effectively use an athletic QB effectively.
From the Dept of Redundancy Dept apparently
Take what the opposition d is given you
Aaron Murray was pretty darn good. We didn’t want him running unnecessarily because we didn’t want him to get hurt.
The criticisms of Bobo here are actually fair and not the same old stupid, “Bobo sucks!”
He is definitely stubborn. To me the worst thing about him is his rigidity and his philosophy of “This is what we do and we are going to do it come hell or high water and if it isn’t working we are just going to keep doing it because this is what we do. It’s on the players to execute it.” He was always like that even when things were going well under Murray and Mason.
That was what was so great about Monken. He didn’t care how his offense scored points. He looked at what the defense was doing, saw where they were vulnerable and called his plays accordingly. That ain’t Bobo. And he ain’t gonna change. Now he has scored a ton of points and I don’t think he’s a bad OC. But if something isn’t working or if a game plan doesn’t work, all the opposition has to do is just hang on because Bobo isn’t going to be flexible and try something else.
Last season the playmaker cupboards were near empty. No one to make opposing any DC worry. Why we stopped getting elite RB’s is a question I don’t understand. Stacy Searles is a bigger concern for me than Bobo. Mike has had some strange calls at times. Kirby had a few in his early years. You’re a hero when you call a fake punt and Bobo connects on his pass. Imagine if that call failed. Execution makes or brakes your luck.