ATHENS — Few could’ve predicted that Drew Bobo would have the impact he did on Georgia’s 2025 season.

Bobo began the season as someone stepping in for Jared Wilson, who started in the Super Bowl on Sunday. It was fair to question what Bobo might do at the center of Georgia’s offensive line. Especially facing the nepotism charges that come with being the son of Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.

“Every kid has to make their own way,” Mike Bobo said prior to Georgia’s game against Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. “Sometimes we think a guy doesn’t have to make his own way because he was a five-star and this guy was a three-star. You’ve got to go to work wherever you go.”

Drew Bobo did plenty of work for the Georgia offense, holding together an offensive line that was beset by injury for much of the first half of the season. As Georgia flipped through right tackle and right guard options, Bobo helped quarterback Gunner Stockton keep his head as he led the offense.

“I think Drew is a great leader. He’s a captain of the team,” Former Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels said. “Very consistent in the lineman’s course. Maybe the most consistent lineman we’ve had this year.”

Yet eventually the injuries came for Bobo. He suffered a hand injury in the win over Texas that caused him to miss Georgia’s game against Charlotte. He returned against Georgia Tech, but it proved to be the final game he would play during the season.

Just before halftime, Bobo suffered a foot injury. Georgia would end up scoring a touchdown on Bobo’s final drive of the season, but the cost proved immense.

Bobo would miss games against Alabama and Ole Miss. The Bulldogs averaged 31 points per game in those two contests, with replacement Malachi Toliver earning praise for how he filled in for Bobo.

But Kirby Smart recently admitted what most already knew. The offense just was not the same without Bobo on the field.

“Drew makes all the calls. Drew makes all the decisions,” Smart said in an interview with Jeff Dantzler of Glory Glory. “He knows fronts. He anticipates things. That was a big factor to end the season, losing Drew, not having him out there, the confidence level of the other O-linemen to make those calls.”

While Bobo did not finish the season for Georgia, he is set to return to Georgia for the 2026 season. The Bulldogs will have to replace starting left guard Micah Morris and left tackle Monroe Freeling, but Georgia is set to get another year of Bobo running the Georgia offensive line.

The Bulldogs did make a switch with the offensive line position coach, as Phil Rauscher steps in for Searels. Bobo isn’t unfamiliar with Rauscher’s work, as he was an analyst on Georgia’s offensive line last season.

Bobo proved in 2025 he can be a top-tier player for the Bulldogs. He earned Second Team All-SEC honors from both The Associated Press and Coaches Poll.

This offseason, the most critical mission for Bobo involves getting healthy. Given how late in the season Bobo’s foot injury occurred, it’s no sure bet he’ll be ready to start the season for the Bulldogs. Tate Ratledge suffered a foot injury believed to be similar to that of Bobo on the opening drive of the 2021 season and he was not fully cleared for the following spring practice.

Bobo’s injury could very well linger into the season. Punter Brett Thorson faced something similar this past season, though he was recovering from an ACL injury. He missed Georgia’s first game but returned in the second game of the season.

Georgia opens next season against Tennessee State and Western Kentucky. The third game of the season comes against Arkansas, who went winless in SEC play this past season. From there, things ramp up for Georgia, as the Bulldogs take on Oklahoma on Sept. 26. That would be the game Georgia would seemingly want to have Bobo back healthy by.

Toliver returns for Georgia in 2026, as does redshirt freshman Cortez Smith. The Bulldogs should be able to get by during the early parts of the season without Bobo.

By the end of the 2025 season demonstrated just how important Bobo became for the Bulldogs.

And why it’s necessary to have him out there leading the way in 2026.

“Proud of how he’s come in at the University of Georgia and made his own way.” Mike Bobo said of Drew Bobo. “He came in and he put his head down, he went to work, and he gradually got better season after season and put himself in a position to have success and be part of this football team and be a center. Me and his mother are extremely proud of him.”