National expert weighs in on what kind of recruiter Gamecocks are getting in Mike Bobo
Way back when Will Muschamp was hired, he explained he needed an offensive play-caller, a defensive coordinator and a lot of guys who can recruit.
In his latest offensive coordinator hire, he got a play-caller who can really chip in on that last part.
USC on Tuesday officially added Mike Bobo as the third offensive coordinator in Muschamp’s tenure. His main task will be to pull that unit up from the dismal showing it posted in 2019, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be an asset in building the roster moving forward.
“He’s a guy that communicates well with recruits,” Rivals recruiting analyst Chad Simmons said. “I think he’s a very genuine south Georgia guy that just kind of comes across as a people’s person. A guy that wants to get to know recruits, and really, I think, takes time to develop those relationships. And I think he just makes it pretty simple. A simple approach, gets to know the kid for who he is on the field, off the field. At least when he was at Georgia as a quarterback coach, assistant coach and head coach to a Colorado State, just the way he connected and got to know the players and their family, I think led to his success.”
At Georgia, he helped sign highly rated players such as Matthew Stafford and Aaron Murray. But his reputation as a recruiter goes beyond just pulling in signal-callers.
When he moved on to Colorado State, he maintained his ties to the Peach State, regularly working his old connections and reeling in Southern talent.
That included the likes of Michael Gallup, an Atlanta area product who went from junior college to CSU to the NFL as a third-round draft pick. That staff overall did a good job developing lower-rated receiver recruits into NFL prospects.
Of Bobo’s four full classes in Fort Collins, three ranked second in the Mountain West and one ranked fourth in the 247Sports Composite rankings.
His former boss, Mark Richt, explained the breadth of Bobo’s recruiting role.
“When you’re the coordinator, you’re recruiting every offensive position on the field,” Richt said. “And you’re also making decisions on who to recruit. Normally the position coach might like a guy and then the coordinator has got to approve it and the head coach approves it after that. So any offensive player that was ever recruited, once he became the coordinator, it ran through Mike.”
Simmons pointed out Bobo still loves Georgia, still returns to those roots often.
He also pointed this out: There was a certain measure of fearlessness in the way Bobo recruited, even at a Group of Five school.
“He’s not afraid to go up and recruit against any other school,” Simmons said. “I think he showed that at Colorado State, maybe beating some schools based out of the South for kids, convincing them to go to Colorado State and play in that conference and maybe not in the ACC or not in the Big 10 or schools like that.
“I think the biggest thing is that he’s not scared to go head to head with whoever it may be.”
USC moved on from Dan Werner, who was a strong quarterback recruiter and demoted Bryan McClendon, a well-regarded recruiter on several fronts. McClendon remains on a staff with accomplished recruiters such as Bobby Bentley, Travaris Robinson and Eric Wolford, but there could always be more changes coming.
Simmons also said he thought Bobo’s style complemented Muschamp’s in a certain way. Both men have fierce competitive spirit, but Muschamp’s comes across in a more fiery way.
“Bobo has that in him too,” Simmons said. “But I do think he’s more of a laid-back guy. He doesn’t wear maybe quite the emotions on the sleeve.
“There’s definitely that fiery competitiveness in there. Maybe he just doesn’t show the same way. He wants to win. He wants to compete. He wants to get the top recruits to play for the program he’s coaching. I think they’ll blend in well.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 8:45 AM.
