ATHENS — It’s not often we get to hear from Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, but that was the case on Wednesday.
Bobo spoke to reporters for just under 20 minutes, answering a myriad of questions regarding the outlook of the Georgia offense ahead of the 2025 season.
Below is a full transcript of Bobo’s remarks.
Everything Mike Bobo said about the Georgia football offense, Gunner Stockton in 2025
On emphasizing faster starts in 2025 and how to do that...
“There’s no doubt. Anytime you start a football game, you want to start fast. We always talk about starting fast at the beginning of each half and the ending the half well. You go through it, and a lot of it was execution issues, and then sometimes, to be quite frank, it was a little bit being conservative in those situations. And then the other side of it, the teams we played were pretty good on defense and stopped us early in games.
“But that’s been a big point of emphasis of ours. There’s several of them, but starting fast is one of them. And you’d like to start fast every day. But sometimes starting fast does not necessarily mean you’re touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, or touchdown, field goal, touchdown. Sometimes starting fast is you get a couple first downs and you change the field position. When you go three-and-out to start games, that’s something we definitely got to improve on.”
On if the offensive line came into the spring with a chip on its shoulder...
“That’s something you’d have to ask them if they have a chip on their shoulder, but I think we need to play better as a whole offense. Offensive line, that starts with them. We have some youth up front, but there are some guys that are coming back that have experience. There were injuries, and offensive line is about cohesion and playing together, and we did not play together well enough last year to be efficient in all areas. That’s the main thing that we’ve been working on. We’ve got to be one unit up front.
“I think all offensive lines have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder because of who they are and how close they are as a group. And I think this group is doing a good job, even though they’re young, of practicing hard and focusing on it day by day.”
On what he learned about Gunner from how he handled the SEC title game and the Sugar Bowl...
“I thought Gunner was ready for the moment in the SEC championship game. It’s a hard spot to be in. It’s something you talk about with your guys all the time. You’re one play away. But quarterback’s a different position than any other position. Those other positions, they might not be the starter, but they might get in in a rotation. They might get to play on special teams so they felt what it’s like to be in a game. And the quarterback’s a little bit different.
“I thought Gunner, last year, took a step during practice of approaching every practice like it was a game and preparing like he was a starter. And those aren’t just words. Gunner would probably prepare as hard as anybody on our football team, and he didn’t know if he was going to play a snap. So he was ready as far as a preparation standpoint. I know there were certain things he knows he wishes he could have done better, and he’s been working on those things in the offseason and through fall camp so he can be a more efficient player at that position.”
On what he wants the identity of this offense to be...
“I think that’s the great thing about fall camp is where you’re trying to form your identity of your football team. Now it’s a lot different than it was five to ten years ago because 90 percent of your class came in in spring practice and went through spring. And summer’s different now that we can meet with them and do certain things with them. So you have a better feel of what you are offensively going into fall camp.
“But fall camp is a little bit different. You’re practicing every day. It’s longer hours. It’s a little more taxing. So it’s what can your guys handle mentally and physically? And we’re trying to figure that out. But you want to put guys in position that can be explosive. I think we’ve got to be more explosive on offense.
“But I think your identity, everything starts with the run game. At any level, you’ve got to be able to run the ball and stop the run. And that’s been an emphasis of ours since we got back from the Sugar Bowl. We started meeting as a staff and meeting with our players. How can we improve in that area? And I’m not just talking about numbers, I’m talking about being efficient. A run game is not going to just help you offensively, it’s going to help your quarterback. It’s going to help your defense, it’s going to help all areas. And hopefully our identity will be, we will be efficient in the run game and everything will run through that.”
On where Nate Frazier has grown the most...
“Well, I want to give Nate and his coach, Coach Crawford, a lot of credit. He was one of the few guys that did not come in mid-year last year. He got here in June, and Nate is a tireless worker. He’s always in Coach Crawford’s office or in the bullpen with some of our quality control guys, trying to catch up. Running back, not as complex as some of the other positions, except for pass protection. But this guy dove in, he worked extremely hard. Early in the year, we were trying to get him on the field and get him some touches that didn’t him in a lot of situations that would involve pass protection. By the end of the year, we weren’t afraid to have him in there on third down. So I think he’s growing as a complete back. I guess the next step is, stop trying to look for the home run all the time. That’s something we’ve got to get better with all the backs, is that we’ve got to learn to get the dirty yards. And every play’s not going to be a home run. A lot of these backs in high school, they’re the best player on the field and they can bounce anything and turn an average play into an explosive play by bouncing it out running. This league’s different, and working on his steps, working on his vision, and keying the right defender up front, and pressing the hole and hitting. That’s something, I think, in the first six practices, you’ve seen an improvement of Nate being willing to stick it in there and get the dirty yards.”
On using Gunner in the run game, but not having him take big hits...
“Yeah, it’s one thing to say not to do that, and on the flip side, it’s hard to practice that, because our quarterbacks aren’t live in practice situations, and plays. There’s loose plays all the time for the quarterback. He’s a guy that can extend plays, and make plays by extending them and throwing the ball downfield, and running with the football. So whether we’re at a walkthrough or practice, even though he’s not getting hit, we’re constantly talking about, what would you do in this situation? I’m going to get the yards, I’m sliding here. It’s third down, I’m going to get the first down, because his makeup and his mentality sometimes is, I’m going to go get everything. And there’s a time and place for that. And it’s one thing to say it, and it’s a hard thing to practice because he’s not getting hit. So we’re constantly talking about those things, looking at the film , and situations where he’s pulled it down, he’s extended it, or maybe he’s running. What are you going to do here? We’re talking about it, and we’re going to have to live through some of that. Because he’s got the mentality of a guy that’s going to go get it, but he’s not 230, 235 pounds. So he’s got to protect himself when he does decide to pull the ball down and run the ball. At the same time, there are going to be some instances where we’ve got quarterback runs designed for him, but there’s got to be a balance because any play that’s called, he could turn it into a quarterback run. So as a play caller, you’ve got to be mindful of that. It’s something we’re working through.”
On how the transfers will help the offense...
“I think any time you’ve got, first of all, right now, I think we’ve got great competition at all the skill spots, at tight end, at running back, at receiver. We brought a lot of guys in. You mentioned the portal guys, but the freshmen at those positions, too, have provided unbelievable competition. That’s what Coach Smart has built this program around is competition and building depth. I like those guys. A lot of them are young, but they’re willing and they’re eager. You’ve got to figure out where we’re going to put these guys to get them in the right spot, and figure out ways that sometimes in the past, we’ve kind of let the offense run through the quarterback and he takes the guy that the defense gives us on maybe a passing concept. We’re going to have to figure out ways to get some of these guys that you mentioned, generate touches for those guys.”
On what he’s seen from Colbie Young and Noah Thomas...
“Well, I’ve been extremely impressed with Colbie. Colbie, one he’s grateful to be here. It’s an opportunity to be at Georgia and when he got to come back for an extra year and was dealing with a little nagging injury in the spring, but wanted to go through spring and fought through all 15 practices. And since he’s been back every day, he doesn’t take a play off. And he’s a guy that we brought in out of the portal. But, you know, he is probably the leader in that room. He sets the standard of how to work. And I’m not just talking about whether it’s route running or catching balls, it’s blocking, it’s his effort. And that’s kind of contagious because we’ve got some talented receivers in that room and some of them are young and they need to know what it means to wear the Georgia uniform. And he represents that every day.And then you bring Noah in and that’s competition for him. And he hasn’t shied away from it or Noah. And Noah, you know, through six practices it is starting to slow down for him. And the spring was probably a struggle if you ask him. New system, new terminology, trying to figure everything out and probably wasn’t playing as fast as he would like. And just, you know, our message to him was he’s going to be okay, just keep your head down, keep working and you’re seeing incremental improvements from him. He’s light years ahead of where he was in the spring. He gives you he gives you another big, big body outside that can catch those balls that are contested.”
On the tight end position...
“Well, one, like I said, there’s competition in that room and Coach Hatrley has done a great job of recruiting guys but when they’re in that room they know they’ve got to compete. And a lot of times we look at the tight end and the catches that they might have or the unbelievable plays that Brock (Bowers) or some of these guys have made in the past but they know that they’ve got to get dirty and they’ve got to block and they’ve got to put their face on people and he’s done a good job of creating toughness in that room and those guys don’t run away from competition. It’s any year, you know, you’ve got tight ends, you’ve got receivers, you’ve got backs, you’re trying to figure out what’s the best personnel group, what’s the best mixture between 12 and 11 or different personnel groups of getting those guys on the field. I tell them, we’re practicing right now we’re practicing against our defense and we’re not just competing against our defense we’re competing against those tight ends or competing against those receivers at practice. They want us to be in 12 or even 13 more so at the end of the day we’re going to put the guys out there that have the most production and are able to create positive play for us.”
On the freshmen being able to play early...
“It definitely gives them a chance and especially at the skilled positions. I always tell these guys when we’re recruiting them that... they want to walk in the door and expect to be running with the first team and everything go perfect. I tell them when you come in the spring you’re going to get to go through these walk-throughs and these spring practices where we have a day off and it slows down. That spring practice and that mid-year you got to think of that as your redshirt year. You’re learning. Learning what it means to practice at Georgia and how we practice and learning this playbook and then you’ve got summer and we’re going to do it all over again and then you’re trying to get yourself in a position where fall camp starts where now I can play to my true ability and I’m not thinking. Now that’s an ongoing process for those guys but it definitely gives them a better chance because they’re here mid-year because the rules have changed in the summer where coaches can be around and meet with those guys. And then the staff that our administration allows us to continue to have. We’re haven’t cut corners in our staff there’s guys that meet with these guys year-round that puts them in a better position to be ready to play early.”
On Gunner’s growth from last year and what gives you confidence about running game improving...
“First Gunner, like I said earlier, he was ready for that moment because his preparation. I don’t think, he has not changed, and he’s in this offense now for his fourth year and some of the same notes, some of the same reminders, some of the same coaching points, and that guy every day is taking notes like he’s a first-year freshman, just the attention to detail and ready to go every day at practice is probably a little higher because he knows now he’s running out there with the ones the majority of the time at practice. He’s worked on things in the offseason, fundamentally, that you see improvement. We were just in a meeting, and we were pointing out the things that we have done during spring practice, post-spring, summer, early in fall camp, fundamentally and showing us doing the drills individually and how it’s correlated in practice. So we can always be more efficient in everything we do fundamentally and technique-wise at the quarterback position, and that’s something that we’ve been working on. Gunner’s, not just because his name is Gunner, but he’s a little bit of a gunslinger and working on sometimes everything doesn’t have to be a howitzer, learning how to layer the ball. He made a throw yesterday that we pointed out to some things that we had done and trying to just improve on little things every day. What can I improve on?”
“Second part is about the running game. As far as the running game, that’s a big emphasis for us. That’s the emphasis No. 1. I don’t think anybody, that’s not a secret. Coach Smart said it. I said it I think last time I talked to you at the Sugar Bowl. We gotta be more efficient in the run game, and again, that doesn’t mean numbers. We gotta run the ball efficiently and find ways to be explosive in the run game, not just the pass game. What I’ve seen is, every day, it’s an emphasis for us when we come together as a unit on offense we’re talking about the run game. A lot of times we think run game means just offensive line, but it’s the offensive line, it’s the tight ends, it’s the running backs, the right reads in the right tracks, it’s receivers blocking downfield, it’s quarterbacks getting us in the right run, it’s quarterbacks on their fakes, and we made an emphasis every day to point out those things when they’re good and they’re not up to our standard. Day-by-day, we’re working on those things and we know that we gotta be able to run the ball, and that’s an important emphasis right now.”
On Bobo’s health issues and retirement rumors...
“You started that rumor [laughing]. Didn’t you ask me that at the Sugar Bowl? No, I feel great. Everybody knows I had some health issues when I was at Colorado State. I deal with some of that with some nerves in my feet, but I feel great. I’m probably as excited as I’ve ever been, not to try to prove something. I’m excited that college football’s changed a little bit. You’re coming. You’ve got a new team. You’ve got a lot of new guys and we’ve got a lot of young guys. We’re a young football team. And there’s a lot of eager guys that are hungry and hungry to learn and hungry to be here and excited to be here. And that gets you fired up as a coach. And when kids don’t, they’re not excited about being at Georgia or wherever I’m at, playing football for the love of the game, then that’s probably when I won’t do it. As far as my health, I feel great. And it’s awesome to be here coaching these guys because every day they come over here, they’re bright-eyed and they’re trying to learn.”
