What new South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Bobo looks for in a QB recruit
New South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Bobo has some big shoes to fill — not as much on the offense-building side of things, but on the recruiting trail.
In two seasons with Dan Werner, the Gamecocks were successful in recruiting QBs to Columbia. He brought in two Elite 11 passers and top-75 national recruits in Ryan Hilinski and Luke Doty.
Chances are Bobo will land his first passer at South Carolina in the next few months, as the staff starts assembling its 2021 class. He’s already talked to Werner target Colten Gauthier, and extended his first offer Tuesday to a prolific passer from Texas.
And Bobo has some things he looks for at the position.
“Number one is I want to go see that guy in person and see him throw the ball in person,” Bobo said. “See how the ball comes off his hand, his release. I want to look at his feet, what kind of balance does he have? What kind of athletic ability he has? And then you got to find out if he’s got it. You’ve heard it a thousand times, but to me what ‘it’ is — when he walks in a huddle, not just the team of guys believe in him, but those 85, 95 guys on the sideline believe this is the guy, too.”
He pointed out that the proliferation of passing offenses in high school and the quarterbacking world in general means there’s at the very least a surplus of good throwers.
The result is plenty of kids who can make it in 7-on-7 play, handle all their drops and shuffle through bags for footwork. But it means having to sift more through to measure abilities.
“It’s harder and harder to find out nowadays ‘cause you’re having to offer out guys earlier and earlier,” Bobo said. “The key is you like to get ‘em into camp. You like to work with ‘em. You got to talk to a lot of people, and then I want guys that are winners. I want guys that are winners that play on championship football teams that their coaches say, ‘This is the guy that we won this championship, because of him.’”
Bobo has not offered any quarterbacks since arriving on campus. He and Will Muschamp did stop at 2022 Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton’s school in January. Stockton had done some training with George Bobo, Mike’s father, and plays for Jaybo Shaw, brother of Gamecocks legend and current director of player development Connor Shaw.
Bobo was himself once a hotshot quarterback recruit, starring for teams coached by his father (his high school won a title the year after he left). Mark Richt tried to recruit him to powerhouse Florida State, but the South Georgia product stayed in-state to play for UGA, starting two years and leading the team to 10 wins in 1997.
He’s worked with a range of passers, recruited some of the top quarterback recruits in the country and even got a player out of South Carolina — Dorman’s Collin Hill — to come out and play for him at Colorado State. (Hill will come to South Carolina as a grad transfer.) He was a part of Georgia pulling Aaron Murray, the No. 19 player in his class, out of Tampa, and Matthew Stafford, the No. 6 player in his class, out of Texas.
Having played the position, Bobo has a level of empathy for the challenges and the perspective of being behind center, something almost no one else gets to experience as they go through games.
“Everybody knows how to call plays (in the SEC) and everybody knows who the quarterback should have hit,” Bobo said. “It’s like I tell ‘em in every meeting, I said, ‘It’s easy when you got this clicker’ and were watching this film to say what you should’ve done. We’re looking at it from the press box, it’s easy, but what did you see? It’s trying to find out how he thinks, his mental approach. And then you got to have a guy that’s going to stand in there. You got to have a guy that’s got toughness.”
