Former Georgia football QB and OC Mike Bobo back with the Bulldogs and Kirby Smart

Mike Bobo is returning to the Georgia football program, joining close friend and former teammate and roommate Kirby Smart’s support staff.

Bobo began working with the Bulldogs again on Friday morning and his hire as an offensive analyst was officially announced by the school in the afternoon. Bobo told a Thomasville High banquet on Wednesday that he was joining the Bulldogs’ staff, the Athens Banner-Herald was told. 

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The former Bulldog quarterback and offensive coordinator spent 14 seasons as an assistant under Mark Richt, the last eight running the offense and calling plays. The Bulldogs averaged a school record 41.7 points per game in his final season in 2014.

He left to become head coach at Colorado State but returned to the SEC after his five-season run there ended.

He was offensive coordinator under Will Muschamp at South Carolina in 2020 and then interim coach when Muschamp was fired and spent this past season as offensive coordinator at Auburn.

“He’s one of the best football coaches I know in terms of motivation, passion and energy for the game, recruiting, all of those things,” Smart said before facing Bobo at South Carolina in 2020.

Bobo and Smart worked together in 2005 at Georgia when Smart was running backs coach and their families have vacationed together.

Like Muschamp, Bobo is taking an off-field role at his alma mater at the same time his son is a player.

Drew Bobo will be a freshman offensive lineman this season after signing in this recruiting class. Jackson Muschamp is a walk-on quarterback.

Muschamp moved into an on-field role last season when Scott Cochran took a leave for health reasons. He’s now co-defensive coordinator.

Bobo, 47, also could be in position to also serve as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs down the road.

Bobo attended a Georgia spring practice in 2019 when he was in town for a wedding.

“It looks a lot different,” he said in 2020 of the facility improvements that include an indoor practice facility, "but that’s the way things go. When change happens, the guy that comes in gets a lot of things that maybe you wanted as the previous staff. I’m happy that Kirby got those things and those resources and put himself in position to be one of the top programs in the country.”