If Kirby Smart doesn't move on from Mike Bobo, he'll regret it

Fourteen months ago, I apologized to Mike Bobo.

I apologized because initially, I criticized Kirby Smart for deciding that the best way to replace Todd Monken was to hire Bobo, AKA his former college roommate. My point was that as great as it was that Smart would never question Bobo’s loyalty to Georgia — a place where he played and coached for 2 decades — this was as good of an assistant vacancy as there was in the sport and it was worthy of a true national search. Getting to work with elite talent with total autonomy on offense should have allowed Smart to cast a wide net beyond Bobo, who hadn’t led a top-30 unit in yards/play since 2017 at Colorado State.

So as Bobo was in the midst of leading UGA to the No. 4 yards/play offense and No. 5 scoring offense, I apologized. I admitted that he adopted those Monken concepts better than I thought he would and even when the Dawgs lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship, I didn’t treat that as an opportunity to tee off on Bobo and do a victory lap because he checked plenty of key regular-season boxes with developing Carson Beck.

Here we are again, though. Another Georgia season started with a preseason No. 1 ranking and ended without a trip to the College Football Playoff semifinals. This time, however, it wasn’t on the heels of an offense that finished in the top 5 in 2 key metrics. It was on the heels of an offense that barely finished inside the top 50 in those 2 key metrics.

If Smart is acting in the best interest of his team, he’ll move on from Bobo.

Don’t get it twisted. The Notre Dame loss wasn’t just on Bobo. There’s only so much he could do with receivers who led the nation in drops, and when you’ve got a left tackle getting bullied into allowing backside pressure on a quarterback making his first career start, that’s an awfully difficult hurdle to overcome for an OC.

That’s also part of the problem, though. Georgia had 39 seconds left in the first half with 2 timeouts in a 6-3 game. Bobo’s first-time starting quarterback completed 1 of his previous 7 attempts, and he was facing arguably the best secondary in college football. Oh, and again, Georgia was getting bullied at left tackle. Why Bobo got greedy in that spot was baffling in the moment and after the fact. Even though Smart stood by the decision. Instead of going into the half down 6-3, Stockton was stripped on backside pressure, which Notre Dame turned into a gift of a touchdown 12 seconds later.

It was a catastrophic error in judgment. That’s been the theme with Bobo in the first half in 2024.

Think about this — the preseason AP No. 1 team only led at halftime in 6 of 12 games vs. Power Conference competition. UGA’s last halftime lead vs. Power Conference competition in the 2024 season came against Texas on Oct. 19. Ten first-half touchdowns in 12 games vs. Power Conference competition was a startling number. Just for comparison’s sake, Mississippi State was 2-10 overall and 0-8 in SEC play, yet even that group with mostly a true freshman quarterback had 10 first-half touchdowns in 9 games vs. Power Conference foes.

I know what you’re thinking — why does it matter that Bobo’s opening script struggled so mightily if UGA still adjusted well enough to win the SEC? Well, as a result of UGA playing with its food week after week, guess who didn’t get to attempt a single pass against Power Conference competition until Beck went down against Texas? Stockton.

Part of that could also be attributed to Beck’s lack of development. The drops didn’t help, but there’s no denying that this wasn’t the year he hoped for. Call it similar to what Jake Fromm experienced in his pre-Draft season in 2019.

Seeing UGA’s offensive shortcomings in the 2019 SEC Championship was what prompted Smart to look inward and make a schematic change on offense. That led to the off-the-radar hiring of Monken, who then became one of the most valuable coordinators of the Playoff era.

Will seeing UGA’s offensive shortcomings in the Sugar Bowl prompt Smart to make another change at OC? I don’t know. But at this point, Smart has to ask this all-important question.

What about Georgia’s offense got better in 2024?

It wasn’t Beck, or the pass-catchers and it definitely wasn’t a ground game that never matched the 169 rushing yards it had against Clemson in the opener. Well, excluding the UMass game. Georgia dropped to No. 50 in FBS in yards/play and it regressed by 9 points per SEC game. Failing to score a first-half touchdown in those final 3 games was telling.

That’s not acceptable. Not at Georgia. If the standard really is about winning national championships, those are the tough decisions that must be made.

Say what you want about someone like Ryan Day, who doesn’t have Smart’s championship pedigree. Day at least made the controversial decision to fire DC Kerry Coombs (a respected figure under 2 coaching staffs in Columbus) and poach Jim Knowles from Oklahoma State. The Buckeyes most recently had the No. 2 scoring defense in 2023, and they currently have the No. 1 scoring defense as the new favorites to win a national title.

Not long ago, we wondered what could derail UGA as the overwhelming preseason favorite to win it all. The Dawgs ranked No. 28 in percentage of returning production, which was a totally different foundation from the 2022 squad after losing 15 NFL Draft picks from the 2021 title team. Bobo was supposed to be part of that foundation. Instead, his inability to push the right buttons with UGA’s offense made it feel like a team with cracks in its foundation for far too much of the season.

Smart gave Bobo 2 years to return to his alma mater and take advantage of a golden opportunity. It’s not a knee-jerk reaction to fire a coordinator after a disappointing season. Shoot, Seth Littrell tried to follow the Bobo path at Oklahoma — he made the analyst-to-OC move at his alma mater — and he got fired after 8 games. Granted, Oklahoma didn’t even sniff UGA’s level of offensive success. Still, though. Brent Venables held a nationwide search for that coveted vacancy.

Smart owes it to his program to do the same thing. And if he doesn’t?

He’ll end up owing Georgia fans an apology.

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