University of Georgia offensive coordinator, Mike Bobo, is leaving Georgia for greater heights to become the new head coach for Colorado State University. Monday evening CSU finalized a five year contract with Bobo.
Bobo interviewed with CSU President, Tony Frank, and other school officials for the second time on Sunday. The Rams seem to be following a similar path by dipping into the SEC’s best as they did in 2011 when they hired former Alabama offensive coordinator, Jim McElwain, who led the team to a 10-2 record this past season. McElwain is leaving the Rams to become head coach at the University of Florida.
Although Bobo was not CSU’s first target, they are very excited to have him according to the school officials. They originally aimed for Oregon’s offensive coordinator, Scott Frost, but he declined.
Bobo inherits a fresh team, a strong offensive line and four of their five leading receivers. However, they are losing their record-setting senior quarterback, Garrett Grayson. There is a possibility Bobo plans to recruit his highly touted redshirt freshman quarterback, Brice Ramsey, to come with him. Bobo and Ramsey have a strong, long-held relationship.
Bobo also plans to take some of his assistants with him. He is very good friends with Will Friend, who has been the offensive line coach at Georgia since 2011. As far as the rest of the CSU assistant coaches are concerned, it is still unclear what their future holds. Assistant head coach Tim Skipper is in the mix to be defensive coordinator at UNLV.
Georgia had a three-year contract with Bobo that paid him $575,000, one of the lowest paid offensive coordinators in the SEC. McElwain was to make $1.6 million dollars next year at CSU. The details on Bobo’s contract have not yet been released, but it seemed as if Georgia made no attempt to keep Bobo away from the Rams.
Bobo has played or worked for Georgia every year since he was eighteen, except for one. However, UGA could’ve seen this coming. Last year, in 2013, he interviewed for two head coaching positions. Bobo was also known as a stellar recruiter, and was key in gaining the likes of Matthew Stafford, Aaron Murray, AJ Green, and Nick Chubb to join the Bulldogs during their time.
Although Georgia will miss Bobo, head coach Mark Richt assured everyone that “[we] have a plan for everything, [he] can tell you that” via the Athens Banner-Herald.
The sentiment amongst the Georgia players via social media is sentimental and well wishes abound.
*Section Photo credit to Johnny Crawford, AJC.com; Featured Photo (above) credit to Dale Zanine, USA Today Sports
