When Mike Bobo took over for Todd Monken as Georgia’s offensive coordinator, many Bulldog fans fretted over what that change might entail.
Would Bobo change the offense? Would he do this? Would he do that?
Considering Monken’s success in molding an offense good enough to help Georgia win back-to-back national championships, it’s understandable that fans might fret.
But according to head coach Kirby Smart, that should be the least of anyone’s fears. With spring practice now over and the focus switching to the fall, Smart said the transition from Monken to Bobo has been just as smooth as he thought it would be.
"Yeah, it was an easy transition. I mean, he was here last year. Everybody else was in place. He was part of it. He learned the language last year. He's had 15 practices,” Smart said. “Somebody told me the other day we've had 52 practices because of our walk-throughs we have. We've had a lot of practices to get the language barrier connected, and that's been smooth.”
Tight end Brock Bowers is able to vouch for that.
Considering Bowers is the best offensive weapon on the entire Georgia team, many wondered how the change in offensive coordinators might affect him.
“It's a lot of the same stuff,” Bowers said. “It’s a lot of the same terminology with just a little twist here and there. It was an easy transition, and everyone loves playing for him out here. So, it's been fun.”
Brock Vandagriff said Bobo has done a great job tailoring the offense, whichever quarterback is in the game.
"You’re going to have that in whatever system you’re in," Vandagriff said. "Coach Bobo, he’s done a great job of just explaining when that’s going to happen and stuff like that. I think Gunner (Stockton) had a rushing touchdown (in G-Day). They might have pulled the read key off that and just told that guy to block if me or Carson (Beck) was in."
Granted, offensive newcomers, have had a bit of a more difficult time.
"The biggest transition has been the number of wideouts that didn't know the language, because you add the two portal guys and the 3-4 mid-years with some freshmen who didn't play, so the biggest thing has been communication from that standpoint, but not like getting calls in or offensive plays has been difficult.”
Otherwise, not a lot has changed.
Aside from some of the verbiage, which is only privy to players and coaches anyway, Georgia’s offense is expected to look quite similar when the Bulldogs open the season against Tennessee-Martin.
“I don’t know that he’s changed a lot. He has adopted some words and verbiage and terminology that wasn’t his. You’ve got to remember, he’s worked with Bryan McClendon, he’s worked with Stacy Searels, he’s worked with Todd Hartley. He’s worked with people in that room,” Smart said. “They can co-exist and say, well, you want to call it this or do you want to call it this? It’s either apples or oranges. Nobody’s going to argue over what we call something. They’re good football coaches and they have good football players at their disposal. We should be good. We should be productive. We’ve got good football players, and we have good coaches. That combination has allowed us to be a good football team.”