You know, it dawns on me after reading the stories about Chris Wilson’s new contract and Mike Bobo’s soon-to-be contract that Greg McGarity gets a lot of mileage out of the kind of person Mark Richt is.
Wilson is getting a one-year contract for less money than he was making at Mississippi State. Granted, he has less responsibility now than he did, but the reality is that he’s taken a pay cut to move to Athens and he’s working on a year-to-year basis. Nevertheless, he seems pretty happy with the change of venue (and it sure didn’t take him long to decide).
Meanwhile, Bobo has a resume that outstrips his compensation.
Bobo coordinated and called plays this past season for an offense that set school records for touchdowns, scoring average and total offense. He also serves as quarterbacks coach for Aaron Murray, who is the first player in SEC history to throw for more than 3,000 yards in three consecutive seasons and will obliterate every SEC passing record if he can avoid injury as a senior.
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Bobo has been a steal for Georgia, too. Not including performance bonuses — and he has gotten a lot of those lately — Bobo makes $335,000 a year. That ranked 10th among SEC offensive coordinators coming into this past season. He also has operated with a one-year contract, while the majority of SEC offensive coordinators have two- to -three year deals.
Now, that’s getting reworked, but it’s noteworthy how casually outside suitors have been dismissed, both by the school and Bobo.
Georgia was already in the process of sweetening its deal with its sixth-year offensive coordinator when Virginia Tech sent a plane to Athens last week offering Bobo its coordinator’s position, according to a report out of Newport News, Va.
Bobo didn’t get on that plane. He was sitting with recruits at the Bulldogs’ basketball game against Mississippi State on Saturday and, by all accounts, plans to remain at UGA, his alma mater, for a while longer.
Jimmy Sexton considers that bad form.
In Bobo’s case, some of that could be attributed to loyalty to mama, but I think it’s fair to say for both coaches that you have to chalk a lot of this up to the man they work for. The irony here is that kind of loyalty saves McGarity money over the long haul. That in turn probably helps Richt’s job security. Funny how that works sometimes.
Get The Picture 
The way fans have treated CMB over the years, I wouldn’t blame him if he made a lateral move for more money. On the other hand, I think CMB is probably considering what his offense will be able to accomplish next year. If they have another record year, then I look for CMB to get a HC opportunity at a major university.
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He doesn’t have to have another record year to some of us who followed him for several years. Pointing out that record last year didn’t sway many of his detractors who had him as the next hate object after they saw that Richt wasn’t going anywhere. His detractors only demonstrated how little they knew the game while convincing some that their brand of MM QBing didn’t smell like the poo it looked like.
In the middle of that undeserved crap, Bobo continued to show the way even though a new D Coach was given an undeserved raise while Bobo and other coaches were insulted. He should be given a raise in excess of the D Coach’s salary, but the penny-pinching pusillanimous pea-brained sand packer in the AD’s office will tout the percentage increase instead of the appreciative increase. This is not a year to add insult to injury.
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The market value for OCs is lower than for DCs. Check the salaries of OCs and DCs across the SEC for evidence. Bobo will probably get a raise to the $500 – $600K range which will put him up with the highest paid OCs in the SEC.
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I don’t know about paying Bobo more than Grantham. Grantham’s got a good looking resume.
I think Bobo has matured into a top-tier OC. However, it wasn’t that long ago (around the time we were hiring Grantham), that he was pretty darned inconsistent as a play caller.
I hope he sticks around for a long while and his offenses continue putting up video-game numbers.
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Bobo won’t make a lateral move. He is married to Vince’s niece and her family is wealthy and has strong ties to UGA. Which is to say his wife aint moving to just anywhere for sh*ts and giggles or a lateral move.
It will be a HC job that he jumps ship for and rightfully so
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Not to crap on your parade but Vince’s son had some pretty strong ties to UGA and still wandered off into orange pant land.
With that said I don’t think Bobo is going anywhere. I just think it has more to do with him thinking he has a higher career trajectory staying here than moving laterally somewhere else.
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SOD was a graduate assistant at UGA in 1996. In what world did he have a job waiting for him here?
Even if you’re arguing that he shouldn’t have coached in the SEC out of family loyalty, he got the HC job at UT earning the 20th highest salary in the country. I would take a job at UT and never cheer for UGA again for a fraction of what he made.
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Some day, we will all look back on “the good old days, when CMR ran the classiest program in the land”. To his detractors, I say…”repent”. Be thankful for what we have at UGA. With the whole college football world in seeming turmoil, Georgia enjoys loyalty and stability in a very good coaching staff, and most of it stems from the example lived by CMR.
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Well put.
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+1
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Agreed. No snark intended, but I hope we can win a NC as the classy program. Honestly. I think it would mean so much more to win a title while running a clean program. Ohio State, Penn State, Alabama, Auburn (not yet), GT, Miami, UNC, USCw (I’m sure I’m missing a few) have all been hit with sanctions over the past decade and most of their major wins means nothing now.
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Amen, brother.
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I have never been a “specific play call” critic so it has been easy to be supportive of CMB’s results. I have some minor frustrations with strategy but all in all, I feel UGA has much to be thankful for with the job CMR and CMB has done in developing the UGA offense, especially QB development. But even as a supporter I don’t think Bobo will get a HC job at a major school without proving himself as a HC at a smaller school first.
The HC position requires a much larger skill set than I have seen demonstrated by him at this point, at least publicly. He may be the most dynamic personality in all of football, be able to articulate a complex offensive and defensive plan to take a programl to new heights, and impress boosters and fans off their wallets away from the field but I haven’t seen it in interviews with him, nor with comments by those who know him. Not saying it isn’t there, or that I am in a position to know much about him personally, but he has a very low profile for a coordinator at a very successful program with impressive results in his area of expertise for several years. He seems to have a better shot at getting the HCing job at UGA after Richt leaves than he does at getting an UAB or ECU type HC job. Certainly could be way off but as an old marketing guy, he needs a new campaign….if he wants to maximum the opportunities.
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If you think that we are a spotless program. You are nuts. We are not Auburn but we aren’t Army/Navy either.
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If I interpret your comment as saying we have several instances of players behaving badly and embarrassing the program, I agree with you. All programs have that, ours get more ink because we have to suspend what others can keep quiet about (drug and alcohol issues specifically). But if you mean our ethics are compromised at the top I think you are wrong, UGA is among the elite in handling issues and not sweeping them under the carpet. We will never know the actual comparisons of programs because of the unlevel playing field that is CFB’s wide variety of policies.
I will say I wish CMR would clamp down on the behavior of some of our players on the field. He seems to equate PF penalities with being necessary for aggressive athletes. I don’t, play all out to the whistle and then walk away. The trash talking, showboating, and shoving/pushing after plays is unacceptable to me.
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+1
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Bobo grew up in coaching. He knows fans are idiots and would never make a decision based on fans hurting his feelings.
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Yup. If he wanted to stick it to the ignorant parts of the fan base, he would surely be aware that the first game at Virginia Tech or whatever school when his offense got stuffed, the yahoos there would give it to him just as bad. After all, a new school wouldn’t have any connection to him as a player, native son, and longtime coach. The lunatic fringe is crazy everywhere.
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Coach Bobo should be paid the equivalent of whatever the top pay is for O coordinators in the SEC. Our offense is one of the top ones and will be for awhile, I think.
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Jeez, you mean being a half-way decent person is a way to be a good leader? Who would have thought?
Man, Richt can’t get that crystal ball soon enough.
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