Week Five: Mike Bobo

Can you argue with Mike Bobo? The MVP of the 1998 Peach Bowl, a four-year letterman for the Dawgs, a former quarterbacks coach and the current Offensive Coordinator, Mike is a Bulldog through and through.

While at Georgia as a player, Mike led the team in passing in both 1996 and 1997. He currently holds some very impressive marks, including the Georgia record for completion percentage for a season (65% in 1997), and season passing efficiency rating (155.80, 1997). He's also second in UGA history in career touchdown passes and in passing yardage for both a junior and a senior.

As a quarterbacks coach...well, there's just not too much to argue with. When the winningest quarterback in FBS history (David Greene) and the #1 pick in the NFL draft (Matthew Stafford) are among your pupils, you're not doing too poorly. And if you can coach a backup to take over in his senior year and win the SEC title (DJ Shockley), I think that speaks even more to your character as a coach. That's not to mention the fact that he filled in as running backs coach in 2002. That's the year Musa Smith won consensus all-SEC honors and the 2003 Sugar Bowl MVP.

Mike Bobo's first two games as offensive coordinator were both stunning come-from-behind victories, displays of clutch offensive strategy wherein Coach Bobo was able to get his offense to provide just what he needed them to provide in order to get the victory. Whether it was one long time-consuming drive to win the game (15-12 over Tech) or a mind-boggling flurry of trick plays, long runs and points put up (31-24 over Virginia Tech), Coach Bobo displayed the early signs of a great offensive mind. The 31 points Georgia scored in the 2006 Chik-Fil-A Bowl were put up against the nation's #1 defense.

The next two years were a flurry of points. In 2007 and 2008, Georgia failed to score 20 points just five times (12 against South Carolina and 14 against Tennessee in 2007, 14 against South Carolina, 10 against Florida and 17 against Auburn in 2008). Two of those games were wins. In the other 21 games, Georgia averaged over 35 points.

Here is the place to share your Mike Bobo memories, specifically those of his playing days. I have just one to share: Mike Bobo beat Florida. Oh yes...yes he did.

Mine was in the bowl against Wisconsin. Bobo picked them apart like it was a sandlot game against 10 year olds. He went something like 87 for 90 with 75 straight completions.....ok, exaggerated a little. dapolla will know the stats but didn't he set a record by completing something like 17 in a row and was something like 22-25 for the day (GEEZ what happened, did they DROP 3?) Anyway, my stats are from memory which isn't good but I DO remember him making a joke out of the big bad Badgers. The WHOLE team made a joke out of them....really don't know how they scored 6.

Oops...looks like I wrote the 1998 Peach Bowl (which georgiadogs.com erroniously lists) instead of the '98 Outback Bowl MVP for Bobo.

Those stats, wlayton?

Mike Bobo went 26-of-28 for 267 yards passing and a touchdown to Corey Allen with no interceptions. He completed his final 19 consecutive attempts and set an Outback Bowl record which still stands, a 93% completion rate. His major target was Hines Ward, who caught 12 balls for 154 yards. Unbelievable.

Thanks dapolla (too lazy to look it up ). I was close. Sure it wasn't the 87 for 90 with 75 straight completions???? Sure seemed like it!!