When former Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken left to go work for the Baltimore Ravens, most were able to safely assume that Mike Bobo was the man for the job in Athens.
A former Georgia quarterback, quarterback coach and offensive coordinator, Bobo was promoted to run the offense in February shortly after Monken’s departure.
Smart said he first began thinking about Monken’s replacement around the time of the national title game.
“Immediately after the game you’re thinking, ‘Well, if I lose this guy, who am I hiring?’ I was very comfortable at that point that if we lost Todd and he decided to go back to the NFL
— because that’s the only thing I felt like he would leave for —
that I would go with Mike because I felt very comfortable with his leadership in the room,” Smart said.
“I asked Monken his opinion [when he was] leaving what he thought,
and I thought it was important to keep that dynamic in the room set. We weren’t losing multiple coaches.”
For Smart, who is a former teammate and colleague of Bobo, the decision looked like a no-brainer.
Bobo was already on the UGA staff. He joined Smart in Athens ahead of the 2022 season as an offensive analyst after spending one year at Auburn.