The Curious Case Of Bobo

This week, I stumbled across some old VHS tapes from my speech class at The University of Georgia dating back to 2001. In those archives, I had written a speech about the firing of former coach Jim Donnan. Aside from the "off the field problems", I highlighted Donnan's abismal record agaisnt rivals Florida, Tennessee, GaTech, and Auburn, along with the poor performance of the offense. As I listened to my own speech, I began to think "dang, am I ever satisfied with the offensive of my team?".

The short answer to that question is this: No, I am the type of personality that is always looking for a way to make things I love better (just ask my wife and kids). Some may say it's a major flaw of mine, but others say it is why they love me. On second thought, I'm an Atlanta Falcons fan, and I tend to like the offensive coordinating of Mike Mularkey; so, there I can be satisfied! :)
I write this blog post today mostly as an answer to a question posed by The Senator over at Get The Picture . This is in response to some comments that went on in one of his post game threads after last Saturday's loss to the LSU Tigers. Linked Here is the article I commented on, and a small portion of the comment thread went a little something like this:

Andy Coleman

Senator, you’re right on about that series being the pivotal point in the game. That series was followed by 3 more just like it, even into the 3rd quarter. Bobo stalled, and the crap hit the fan.

Senator Blutarsky
If you think I’m pinning the loss on Bobo, you’re overstating my point.

Andy Coleman

I know you’re not on the new OC train like I have been for the past four years, I’m just amazed that you admit how crucial it was when we nutted up on that series. Do you recognize that there may be a direct correlation between play calling changing all of the sudden during a game, and Murray going all bankers mid game?

Senator Blutarsky
Both Bobo and Murray were dealing with an offensive line physically challenged all night, running backs who had trouble hitting the holes faster than LSU’s linebackers closed them and receivers who couldn’t hold on to passes to save their lives. I really doubt Murray was thinking to himself on that third down play, “I gotta do something here… Bobo’s playcalling is killing us.” He was just a kid in a pressure situation trying to make a play to help his team. It blew up. Hopefully he’ll learn from his mistake. That’s all I recognize.

Andy Coleman
I bet Murray wondered why he was handing it off up the gut on 1st and 2nd down for the 4th possession in a row, only to have Crowell/Thomas run into a wall. There are ways to neutralize D-lines, and off tackle dives and draws on 1st and 2nd down are not them.

Senator Blutarsky
“There are ways to neutralize D-lines”? How closely were you watching the game? It wasn’t just LSU’s d-line that was an issue. Those linebackers were obscenely fast closing down the gaps. It was clear that Georgia’s running backs weren’t prepared for that. Although to be fair, until you play against them, I’m not sure how you could be prepared.

Andy Coleman
Ok, let me change my post to “neutralize fronts”. Either way, same point. Please understand that I think LSU was a better team than the Dawgs. But, I don’t want that to be the case in a few years. I want what is best for this team, and in my (I’m a virtual nobody, but a loyal alum/fan none-the-less) opinion, Bobo ain’t it! Bobo makes top dollar, and we have proven (Grantham) that top dollar can get you a whole lot more if you pick wisely.

From that point on, there were literally almost 100's of other comments from me, people that think I'm a moron who know's nothing about football, people that agree with me (this fellow "Adam" had some GREAT insight), and even a few more comments here and there from The Senator. If your interested, the comment thread is up to 194 at this time, and there is some fairly great conversation if you pick through the trolls.

It's not posted above, but soon thereafter in the conversation, The Senator called me out and asked "Who’s a “balls out” OC in your mind?", and then several of his blog readers back him up in that notion and dared me to name a possible replacement for Mike Bobo if I am such a genius.

Before I tell you my answer to that challenge, let me take a second to give my true stance on Mike Bobo as the offensive coordinator at The University of Georgia. I sit here today and proclaim that Mike Bobo is not the worst possible choice of OC that we could be graced with at this time, and admittedly so, the man can seemingly call plays with exceptional success from time to time, even for the course of entire games! Take the 2011 Auburn game for example; need I say more? That was a thing of beauty from where I was sitting in the end zone of Sanford Stadium. It's documented in probably 5-10 forums on various blogs that I was stunned at how on fire our offense was coming out of the gate against LSU last Saturday, minus the dropped touchdown passes.

To sum up my thoughts from the SECCG, I'll just post a comment from my ever so popular post after the game:

I did a poor job of fully explaining my qualms with Bobo's play calling on this particular blog because I forget that all readers haven't read all of my posts on UGABlog, where, many times I've given specific analysis of why I think this team deserves a better coordinator. I know that people who get on here and anonymously call me names have not (nor are they going to) read everything I have ever written about Bobo. Those who know me have heard my criticism of Bobo's Gameday coaching for 4 years. Those people also know that Mike Bobo is my 3rd favorite UGA quarterback of all time.

As far as "fault" is concerned, where have I ever said that it was Bobo's fault that we lost. I know why we lost to LSU. They were a much more well-rounded football team that didn't make mistakes or drop touchdown passes.


What I do believe about the SECCG is this: the offensive game plan took a drastic turn late in the first half. At one point, there were 4 straight possessions where we ran it between the tackles on 1st & 2nd down, only to get stuffed and then put Murray's head on a platter on 3rd and long against a pissed off defense full of future NFLers. We had them on the ropes the whole first half, then the script ran out, Bobo got nervous and saw that our defense was playing lights out....then, The Shit Hit The Fan. The only chance in hell the Dawgs had at winning that game was to play balls out on offense until our defense had the game in hand. After our offense and special teams wet the bed, the defense said WTF!

After writing that post, the boys over at DawgSports.com put up an article that explained things better than I could ever dream of, and here is that link in case you're interested; "Improving the Georgia Offense for 2012: a Tough Call".


WHO WOULD BE A POSSIBLE REPLACEMENT FOR OUR NEW OC?

I can honestly say that I have toiled over this question more in the past 3 days than I am proud to admit. It's been to the point that my wife politely requested I stop researching and spend some quality time with the family. It was at that point that I realized I would be wasting my time trying to spit out actual names of who I think would be viable candidates for the OC job at UGA.

The actual conclusion I came to is simple. If I were Mark Richt & Greg McGarity, I would conduct a search for my new OC in the following way. First, I would put the word out on the street that I was looking for a young (sub 50), energetic candidate that has a coaching philosophy similar to that of Steve Spurrier and/or Sean Payton. I'm not saying that my new OC has to run the same offensive scheme as those guys because I tend to love the pro-set (with spread undertones) that we currently run at Georgia. What I'm saying is that I want a guy who is cut in that mold. The kind of guy that lives and breathes offensive adaptation. Adapting to your personell; adapting to your opponent; adapting to the flow of the game; mostly, not set on doing something one way just because that's the way I do it by God.

Now I know for a fact, that after some of my deerest fans read this post, they are going to call me out on some sort of contradiction they feel that is embedded within this post. To that I say, bring it on! Let's just hope that we can get some honest debate instead of all the "douchebag, moron, a$$hole, idiot, etc...". It's not that I can't handle those comments (I am actually genuinely amused by most of them), it's just that I love a good debate better than anything in the world. Especially when it is something I am so passionate about, The Georgia Bulldawgs! So, to all of you that have it in your heads that I am not a "real UGA fan", I wish you could peer in my heart brother because there ain't much I love more in the land than the Dawgs, Bobo or no Bobo!

GATA