I'm a proud Bobo defender because he has a record of success that must be taken into account beyond simply this year. He coordinated some of the best offenses in Georgia history, including last year where we had success despite Ladd and Brock missing a number of games each. He's a Damn Good Dawg, who is widely respected in the league, and the hate he gets here is absurd.
That being said, last night's offensive strategy was still extremely disappointing. There are real limitations beyond his direct control that should be acknowledged, the offensive line play has been down (I am not a Searles defender), the receiving strategy going into the season was upended by dumb off-field decisions, and both created a situation where we lacked a dynamic run game and receiving talent we could rely on.
But the playoffs with Gunner, a QB he has such a deep history with, was an opportunity for him to show he could elevate his game in a big-time moment, and last night he didn't do that. We had stretches of good-looking drives - I think Gunner showed reasons for hope with another offseason - but we simply weren't up to the standard Kirby has set for this program.
There are two approaches I would like to see Kirby take in the next few weeks: we either have a full reboot - which I know is what the majority here want - or re-enforcements. To me the latter, that would come in changes to offensive line coaching and possibly our RB coach. At the very least, it would require stripping Campbell of the run game coordinator title and giving it to the offensive line coach. James Cregg is someone I would look at. He has experience in the NFL and college, and was the OL/RC for LSU in 2019. Had a bad year with the Raiders last year, but there was also talent issues. He spent the previous year on the 49ers staff. Alex Atkins would be another easy name to throw out there after being fired from FSU. He was thought highly enough prior to the year to get the OC title, but also got hit with a recruiting violation for tampering with some Georgia guys - so I don't know if Kirby would be keen on him.
If we went with a full reboot, I wanted to highlight what needed to happen to get Monken in 2020, because multiple NFL teams screwed up to give us the opportunity. After some great years in Tampa in an interesting situation being OC underneath another offensive-minded coach (interestingly enough, Boise State's OC Dirk Koetter), the Jets passed on him as a HC candidate in 2019. He then took a job with the Browns with an idiotic HC who undermined his ability to elevate the offense, which diminished his opportunities for the 2020 season. Georgia extends an offer and the rest is sweet sweet history.
I think a big reason for Monken's immediate success was two fold: he was a great offensive mind that could adapt to different philosophies, but he had experience not only calling pro ball but also an extensive history with college football. One of the biggest challenges for transitioning to the pros, particularly for QBs, is the language used for play calling. We've also seen how hiring a respected NFL OC can fail spectacularly, see Schottenheimer, Brian.
So Monken's career at Georgia required major failings within the NFL to identify his talent, and a resume that made him a great fit for the jump back down to college for a few years.
My biggest frustration with the Bobo conversation on the Vent in general is the lack of anyone suggesting alternatives beyond "Not-Bobo." In my view, it is much easier to do worse than Bobo than better than Bobo. Doesn't change the fact that we need better than 2024.
One option who fits similarly to the Monken story is Thomas Brown. Beyond being a DGD with history coaching in Athens, he has an NFL resume that is both intriguing and a career that is in a similarly awkward spot that Monken was in 2020. He has three years under one of the best offensive minds in the NFL with Sean McVay, coaching running backs and tight ends. McVay thought enough of Brown that he actually had him jump back to helping with running backs in 2022
when their running game was struggling. In 2023 he was hired by the Panthers as an OC under a playcalling HC, and the team was a complete disaster on all levels with too many offensive coaches without histories working together. In 2024 he was hired to be the pass game coordinator for Chicago, becoming OC when they canned Shane Waldron and HC after Thanksgiving.
He has now had two opportunities to call plays in Carolina and Chicago in non-optimal situations. In neither case did he enter the offseason as OC and have the ability to install "his" offense. Playcalling improved when he took over, though both teams continued to be a mess. Adding the HC duties in Chicago in particular probably didn't help him this year, I've seen Bears fans comment that the improvements on offense stalled after that move.
Maybe Brown is fully invested in the NFL as his future, but I have a hunch he will not be getting any OC opportunities after this year. The Shanahan-McVay coaching tree continues to be a leading source of NFL offensive coaching and there will be new options arising from that line. Maybe he could get the OC title with a HC from that tree (like following someone like Wes Phillips or Mike LaFleur if they get HC opportunities) but there may be a real chance to sell him on Athens this offseason. Maybe he just doesn't have the "it factor" needed to be a great playcaller. But he would be my top choice in looking for a guy who can merge pro-experience at a college program in 2025.
Outside of that, finding innovative offensive play-callers with meaningful college experience is going to be difficult. Brian Dabol would probably be a top OC candidate in the NFL if he gets fired from the Giants, for example. But the current college landscape is creating a brain drain to the pros more than the other way around.
Looking at college options, I feel like hiring Buster Faulkner would be the precise sort of hiring process that people criticize with Bobo: hiring someone for their experience with Kirby. GT's offense outside of their games with Georgia hasn't blown me away, even factoring in lesser talent there.
At the expense of the perception of being too-UGA alum focus, Drew Cronic's work at Mercer and Navy is really intriguing to me. Someone who has shown great versatility in his scheme to maximize their talent.
Jason Beck is an outside the family talent that I think would be interesting. He was the OC at New Mexico that was highly productive in both run and pass. He's a west coast guy though (BYU alum) and just took the position at Utah, but I would assume Kirby could get just about anyone he really wanted to make a parallel jump.
Long post, I know, but wanted to put down some of my general thoughts on what I see as some opportunities going forward, and wanted to steer the conversation in the direction of what offensive minds the Vent views as desirable candidates. I have a feeling there are some coaching trees Kirby is just not going to have much interest in, as he wants his offenses to complement his broader team philosophy - so a Lincoln Riley or someone from a Briles or Huepel background probably isn't going to fly in Athens.
I am interested to see the churn we have at the Analyst position going forward. The coach reclamation program that Saban was able to build created a great coaching talent pipeline at Alabama. Maybe the perception of Bobo's relationship with Kirby diminished that appeal the last few years, which could be another advantage of a change there.
