Kirby Smart on changes in Georgia's offense with Mike Bobo: 'It's hard to say'

The Georgia offense underwent a couple of big changes this offseason, including promoting Mike Bobo to offensive coordinator. Bobo is set to take over for Todd Monken, who left to join the Baltimore Ravens after helping lead the Bulldogs to back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022.

That has set the bar as Bobo moves into his new role in Athens. Thankfully, every other offensive coach aside from Monken returns for 2023, which should ease the transition. Georgia coach Kirby Smart explained how that allowed the team to keep a lot of things the same from last year while Bobo settles into his new role.

“This spring was kind of a small picture of that and we didn’t make a lot of changes in the spring, intentionally,” Smart said in a Tuesday appearance on the SEC Network. “We have every coach back on the offensive staff that was part of that offense. We allowed the terminology to stay the same. He’s still getting comfortable with that.”

Bobo previously served as an offensive analyst for the Bulldogs in 2022 and was also Georgia’s offensive coordinator from 2007-14 just before Smart arrived in 2016. Additionally, he has experience as the offensive coordinator at both South Carolina and Auburn as well as being the head coach at Colorado State from 2015-19.

However, Bobo’s move to offensive coordinator might not even be the biggest change for the Bulldogs this offseason. Stetson Bennett, who started at quarterback the past two seasons, is on to the NFL as Georgia prepares to turn to Carson Beck under center.

Still, Georgia returns tight end Brock Bowers, who led the team with 942 receiving yards, 109 rushing yards and 10 total touchdowns as a sophomore. Outside of him and Ladd McConkey, however, the Bulldogs have questions about who will step up after returning only 52% of their offensive production from 2022.

“We’re still trying to figure out who we are offensively, where our weapons — who are going to be our best wideouts?” Smart said. “We certainly feel good about the tight end room but our running backs haven’t been completely healthy. So, to answer your question honestly and fairly, it’s hard to say what that’s going to be until we see who we have to work with in fall camp.”

The Bulldogs were active in the transfer portal to bring in some playmakers, including wide receivers Dominic Lovett and Rara Thomas — the Nos. 10 and 11-ranked transfer, respectively, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings.

With those additions, they still stand a chance to be one of the top offenses in the country despite the production they lost a year ago. Bobo will continue to develop his players before Georgia opens up the season against Tennessee-Martin on Sept. 2.