FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo knows Georgia excelled on third down this season. The Bulldogs rank second in the country in third-down conversion rate at 54 percent.
That fact makes the performance and result against Alabama all the more frustrating in his eyes.
“We didn’t execute in the right moments in that game to be successful,” Bobo said. “It was one of those games that was going to come down to executing in situational football in third down and red zone. We settled for field goals and then we turned the ball over in our own territory, which cost us.”
To make matters worse, Georgia went just 2-for-6 in third and two-or-less against Alabama.
Sure, Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey were limited due to ankle injuries and Georgia was without Amarius Mims as well. But this wasn’t the first time this season Bobo had to coordinate the Georgia offense without those players at full strength. Those three players missed a combined 14 games.
There are no excuses for what happened against Alabama. Bobo owns that.
“Whose available, what you might call. That changes every week availability because sometimes you think players over plays,” Bobo said. “But to me, that’s an excuse. We got our butt whipped to a very good football team. We didn’t make enough plays to win the ball game.”
Because of the performance in that Alabama game, Bobo and the Georgia football team find themselves getting ready for Florida State and the Orange Bowl on Saturday instead of the College Football Playoff.
While the Alabama performance or previously held beliefs might cloud how some feel about Bobo, the numbers this year demonstrate he did a mostly excellent job coordinating the Georgia offense. The Bulldogs ranked in the top 10 in both points per game and yards per game.
Georgia did all that even while dealing with injuries to key skill players and breaking in a first-time starting quarterback in Carson Beck.
Beck announced he would be returning to Georgia for another season, meaning Beck and Bobo will get to cook once again.
“I think he’s gotten better every week to me with more experience and more things he goes through as a quarterback,” Bobo said. “And then having to go through a loss and having to feel that sense of failure. But like I told him after the game, the other side of failure is success. You’ve got to keep getting yourself up and going out there.”
While Georgia stands to lose several key players off the 2023 offense, the Bulldogs have gone out to make sure Beck will be surrounded with a capable group of skill players. The Bulldogs have hit the transfer portal hard, picking up wide receivers London Humphreys and Colbie Young in addition to running back Trevor Etienne.
Bobo will now get a full offseason to work with Beck as his obvious starting quarterback, something that wasn’t the case heading into this past season.
“Our relationship has continued to grow and it’s going to forever grow. I definitely think the trust is there for us. Obviously, this is his first year as an offensive coordinator and my first year as a quarterback. Just trying to learn the things that he likes and then him learning the things that I like, it’s a team effort between the two of us.
“I’m essentially an extension of him on the field so having trust in him and faith in the game plan, it’s something we’ve been able to build through the season.”
Beck and Bobo won’t have to wait long to get another crack at Alabama, as the Bulldogs take on Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Sept. 28, 2024. It’ll be an early prove-it game for Bobo, Beck and the Georgia offense.
Because they know as successful as they were in 2023, the performance against Alabama is going to linger, and motivate, this team moving forward.
“I think the big thing for him is he’s gotten more confident each week going out there and playing well,” Bobo said of Beck. “There’s a lot of things he can still improve at to be where he wants to be, and there’s a lot of things he has goal-oriented, individually and as a team, that he still wants to accomplish in the future.”
