Evidently yesterday’s meme of the day was Mike “you never sausage a place” Bobo’s contentment with being in Athens. (Now we know McGarity’s secret weapon in contract negotiations.) But in the midst of the sausage fest, Marc Weiszer caught an interesting quote from Richt about his offensive coordinator:
“Mike and I have worked together for so long now that if I study red zone and he studies red zone and we compare notes and we watch it separately, it’s about 90 percent identical,” Richt said. “It’s not like that I need to have a lot of input. There might be times I slip a little something to him on the side and say, ‘Hey, if you like it, good. If you don’t, that’s fine, too.’ I know what it’s like to be an offensive coordinator and to call plays when your head coach is kind of the guy you’ve replaced as the play-caller. I know it can be tough at times, but Mike’s handed everything really well.”
That’s the sound of a man who’s comfortable. In fact, as Emerson notes, it sounds like Richt’s been more comfortable with Bobo than Bobo’s been comfortable with Bobo.
Bobo joked that his first year at Georgia he felt like a graduate assistant in the game-planning room. Richt was not only the offensive coordinator, but also a former college quarterback. Twelve years later, and five seasons into his tenure as offensive coordinator, Bobo said he has a much better comfort level — but not because Richt ever limited him. For instance, the wrinkles that Georgia has tried the past few years (the spread offense, the pistol, the no-huddle) it was mainly Bobo.
All in all, that’s a relationship that’s not ending any time soon. If you’re the guy I sat in front of last year at the Auburn game, I’m sorry to tell you that.