Rece Davis 'not down' on Mike Bobo hire
New Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo was a curious hire by Kirby Smart, but ESPN’s Rece Davis said he was “not down” on the hire at all.
Bobo coached at Auburn in 2021 as the offensive coordinator but joined Georgia last year as an offensive analyst. He saw the makings of a national champion squad but now has bigger responsibilities.
Davis approved of the hire, but did not call it a surefire thing with the Bulldogs.
“I’m not down on this hire at all, actually,” Davis said on the ESPN College GameDay Podcast. “Is it a surefire? I don’t know if any hire is that a surefire thing. You know, maybe, maybe Lane Kiffin as in OC is a surefire thing or Steve Sarkisian as an OC is a surefire thing. But I’m not down on the hire.”
Co-host and college football insider Pete Thamel was in the same boat.
“Like it, don’t love it,” Thamel said. “Mike Bobo was a solid coach, he’s familiar there. He’s a legendary player there. You know, their key will be dealing with pocket aces from a roster standpoint, a talent standpoint, and I often find when an elite coordinator leaves Reece, you don’t feel the carryover till the second season. Because there’s enough carryover right now. You have Brock Bowers back, you stacked top two recruiting classes coming in, but when the talent really does shift and change and there obviously is going to be a change at quarterback and you probably aren’t the No. 12 personnel team you are without (Darnell) Washington.
“I mean, he was just a different duck … So there will be some identity evolution I think in the upcoming year, but in two years, you’re gonna have a whole lot of identity evolution, and I think that’s when we’ll really get a sense of what Mike Bobo can do to evolve and spin this Georgia offense.”
Bobo is very familiar with Georgia though. He was a grad assistant back in 1999 and was the quarterback’s coach from 2001-06 before being promoted to offensive coordinator from 2007-14 under Mark Richt.
He had previous success. Bobo coached Aaron Murray, a Georgia quarterback legend. Even Murray was on board with hire this time around.
Going into 2023, Georgia will bid for its third straight national championship, something never done in the modern era of college football.