Despite winning the SEC and securing yet another College Football Playoff berth, many Georgia fans consider the 2024 campaign a failure, a sign of the standard Kirby Smart has set in Athens.
There were several contributing factors. The offensive line was one of the worst in Smart’s tenure with the Bulldogs. The receiving core never materialized; the running back room was decimated by injuries, and even the defense flashed its fair share of warts at times.
While there are several reasons the Bulldogs are looking ahead to 2025 right now, Paul Finebaum is casting blame on offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, particularly for the call at the end of the first half in the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame.
“They will not be blaming Kirby Smart, they will be blaming Mike Bobo, who is the offensive coordinator,” Finebaum said on Friday’s Get Up. “He came in and took over for (Todd) Monken who went to the NFL. And quite frankly, nobody is very happy with him.”
“He’s Kirby Smart’s best friend, they were roommates. And many believe that Kirby Smart has looked past reality and simply respected and honored a friend who used to work for Mark Richt at Georgia and then moved on and failed as a head coach.”
With under a minute to go, the Dawgs trailed the Irish 6-3, but Smart got aggressive with a backup quarterback. Inside of their own 20-yard line with a shaky offensive line, Gunner Stockton dropped back and was sacked. Notre Dame recovered the fumble at the UGA 13-yard line, setting up a 1-play scoring drive to make it a 13-3 game.
“It was just a terrible call in every respect, and I think Kirby Smart even admitted that at halftime,” Finebaum said. “It’s easy to say after the fact, but when you have a quarterback who is struggling – he’s made some good plays, but you’re not that confident in him – don’t put the game in his hands when you’re only 3 points behind. Everyone in America saw what happened after that mistake.”
It was a terrible decision to be aggressive with the offensive line struggling, but Bobo’s issues go far beyond that singularity. The Georgia offense never found its groove, even before Carson Beck’s injury. Some of that blame lays at the feet of the guys on the field, who did not live up to expectations, but Bobo’s inability to accentuate the strengths of his personnel was a staple of the entire season.
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