How Gamecocks coordinator Mike Bobo’s offenses have evolved since his Georgia days
Mike Bobo understands he used to have a luxury.
When he was offensive coordinator at Georgia, he had the kinds of players most offensive coaches rarely get. And he knows how to build around them — or build without them.
“When I went to Colorado State, we didn’t have Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel,” Bobo said. “We had some good players and we evolved there at the University of Georgia as the game evolves. When Coach Richt turned (the offense) over to me ... changing some things of what we did offensively and spread guys out a little bit more. But when going to Colorado State, you had to do different things to move the football.”
What did that require of South Carolina’s new offensive coordinator?
“A lot of your best players were receiver-type guys and trying to find ways to get them the ball whether it’s handing it to ‘em, more screen game. Just being a little bit more innovative in the run game and it was good for me,” Bobo said.
Prolific bruising backs gave way to productive pass catchers such as Warren Jackson (rising senior), Rashard Higgins (now with the Cleveland Browns), Michael Gallup (Dallas Cowboys) and Tennessee transfer Preston Williams (Miami Dolphins). When he had running backs he liked as runners, he handed the ball off — Dalyn Dawkins (Tennessee Titans) and Izzy Matthews rushed for 1,399 yards and 618 yards, respectively, in 2017.
Last season with 5-foot-9 freshman running back Dante Wright, Bobo let him run sweeps (12.6 yards a carry) and get plenty of work on screens and the short passing game (57 catches, 805 yards).
And he explained a few of his base principles.
“We want to be a physical football team,” Bobo said. “We want to be able to run the football. I believe you have to run the football in this league to be successful and contend for the championship. But, at the same time, we want to have balance. We want to be able to spread people out.”
He returns a pocket passer in Ryan Hilinski, a speedy receiver in Shi Smith, a potentially dynamic tight end in Nick Muse and several other interesting play-makers, such as Kevin Harris, Deshaun Fenwick, Josh Vann, Xavier Legette, OrTre Smith and Dakereon Joyner.
But a season ago, a unit with some of those players in prominent positions bottomed out down the stretch, finishing in the bottom 10 nationally in terms of yards per play and points per game. They could break good plays on occasion and generally protected the ball, but there wasn’t enough snap-to-snap consistency to move the offense.
The evolution of Bobo’s schemes have trended away from the more traditional power sets of his Georgia days, but he explained that comes from an offensive socratic method of sorts.
Before assembling his first offense for the Gamecocks and Will Muschamp, he promised a plan to ask questions. Who can make plays in space? What run concepts fits? Is zone a good base, or the pin-and-pull that became a staple last year?
In the end, he’d like to be able to run the ball, something USC hasn’t been able to lead with at any point in the Muschamp era. He likes a tight end for the flexibility, especially in the ground game. Play-action needs to be a factor, as does feeding the best players.
“If you’ve watched or looked at offenses that I’ve coordinated over the years ... some years it’s been out of 11 personnel, three receivers, one tight end, one back. It’s been two backs, it’s been 12, two tight ends, two receivers,” Bobo said. “You know one year, our last year there, we were ahead a lot 22 personnel because we weren’t very successful throwing the ball so we adapted midway and started going 22 just to be successful. I’m not going to beat my head against the wall because I think this is a great scheme if we don’t have the players.”
