Tim Tebow explains why Georgia is still one of the country's best
Tim Tebow and the rest of the college football production from ESPN are in Athens this weekend for a top-25 showdown between Georgia and Tennessee. The stakes are high for Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs, who enter the game with 2 losses already on the schedule and the knowledge that, if the College Football Playoffs began tomorrow, they would be on the outside of the 12-team field.
Even still, Tebow told reporters on Friday he believes the Bulldogs are still one of the best teams in college football this season.
“I think, if you’re trying to look at the 12 best teams in college football, Georgia is one of those to me,” Tebow said. When asked why, he started to laugh. “Look at their roster. I know that they haven’t played the way they’re capable of, but when they do, it’s a team that you don’t want to play. Especially when they’re motivated and frustrated.
“They’ve got a lot of things to fix offensively. … It’s still a team that went to Texas when everyone thought they were No. 1 and dominated.”
The Bulldogs are coming off a 28-10 loss to Ole Miss last Saturday in Oxford. It was the worst loss a Georgia team has suffered since Dec. 7, 2019. And it ensured the Dawgs would finish the regular season with multiple SEC losses for the first time in a full year since 2016. (Georgia lost twice in 2020, but it played 9 league games that year.)
For Georgia, the struggles of quarterback Carson Beck have been the most publicized. But Tebow said the Bulldogs’ issues aren’t confined to the quarterback spot. He said the blocking needs to be better, the run game needs to be better, the pass-catchers need to be better, and the gameplan needs to be better.
Beck has been heavily criticized, and Tebow acknowledged he sees a quarterback who “trusts his arm too much” and is trying to force plays, but others deserve criticism.
Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo has been erratic, at best. Beck was sacked a season-high 5 times by Ole Miss. Georgia ranks 41st in rushing success rate. And the receiving corps leads the nation in drops.
“I think he (Beck) probably feels the pressure of trying to fit it in and make a play. You can’t score on every play. You can’t have that mindset,” Tebow said. “I always want to start by backing it up and saying, ‘Well, how is everything unfolding around him?’ There were a lot of the plays last week where if you pause it and say, ‘Where is he supposed to go? What is he supposed to do?’
“It’s easy for us to just look at the quarterback, but he did not have a lot of time, they did not run the ball very well, and he does not have a lot of places to go. On top of that, he also has to play better.”
It is do or die on Saturday against Tennessee. If Georgia is to stay alive in the CFP discussion, it has to win. Otherwise it might not matter how talented the roster is.
“They’ve got a lot of things to fix offensively.”
We’ve been talking about “fixing it” for several weeks now and nothing is getting fixed. Actually, things are getting worse with the injuries at RB and O-line.
This season just feels like 2019 and 2020, we not contending but are building the core for better teams; barring injury and transfers UGA is going to have a helluva defense the next 2 seasons With the freshmen we have playing now and the recruiting class coming in we could see a repeat of that GOAT 2021 defense.
I’ve tried to give Bobo a fair shot but it’s apparent he’s not up to the job. It’d be a major upgrade to replace Bobo with Jim Chaney, what’s that say about Bobo? SERIOUS QUESTION ABOUT BOBO – why would a 5-star QB sign-up to be coached by Bobo? The offensive line is loaded with NFL caliber talent but hasn’t been special; time to thank Searels for his service and wish him well. Coley is starting to show his recruiting prowess but the WR’s on the field can’t run a route to the mailbox or catch a cold.
Hire Buster Faulkner and tell him to build the staff he wants.
I hope Kirby and company prove me wrong, Kirby can definitely coach up a team i.e. Texas, I’ll gladly eat that crow sandwich. But I’m not going to fall into the same trap I was in during the Mark Richt years, pulling for a team based on what you think they can be not what they are.
Georgia will continue to sink until they get rid of Mike Bobo. The Dawgnation cheered for joy when he got the head coach gig at Colorado State several years ago. After he busted that opportunity, he was passed around like a loser to no less than 3 SEC teams as the OC until he was let go at SC. Since he and Kirby Smart were UGA players together, Kirby offered him an analyst position back at UGA. The Dawgnation swooned… He was back. Since then, we have been on the “long decline” offensively. Poor schemes, little to no player development… Bobo doesn’t even coach in games from the field but rather perches himself in the upper level glass booths. Ridiculous. I love Coach Smart, but sooner or later he needs to figure out it is bad business to hire family and personal friends. We are praying that Bobo will either leave on his own or be moved along to another team after this season ends.
For the those who defend and line-up behind Bobo I don’t understand the basis of their support or than homer-ism.
Is it because he was a player, Bobo’s Dad was a long-time Georgia HS coach, the fact Bobo married Vince Dooley’s niece (on Barbara Dooley’s side)?
Bobo’s success as an OC was a mixed bag of buts, average at best. He had the one season where UGA averaged like 41 points a game but we didn’t win anything that season, no SECE div title, no SEC Championship etc. But I remember losing games watching Bobo trying to “run the d@mn” up the middle with 165bs Carlton Thomas in a losing effort against AU or Brendan Douglas in a losing effort against Vandy. Any adversity in a game, losing a key player, getting out adjusted at half-time etc. and Bobo nuts up like his current QB does.
He really doesn’t have a track record for developing QB’s when you want to compare him to the likes of Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer, Lincoln Riley, Saban, Day etc. Stafford came in for 3 seasons; his freshman season was okay for a freshman and his junior was okay for a junior. Stafford was drafted based on his talent and potential which we never really saw at UGA. Murray passed for over 3000 yards all 4 of his seasons but his senior season wasn’t head and shoulders above his freshman season. Then you have all the Bobo busts at QB – Tereshenski, Cox, Ramsey, Mason, Grayson Lambert etc. Greene and Shockey were developed by Mark Richt.
Bobo was a great recruiter on Richt’s staff but is he even average on Smart’s staff? Remember, Bobo is the guy he didn’t want to recruit DeShaun Watson.
Outside of UGA what has Bobo done at his other stops? Bobo has literally been shown the door at every other position outside his UGA gigs. Bobo took over a 9-3 CSU team and drove them off the cliff. Harsin fired the guy from AU; literally the worse SEC coach in recent history canned Bobo.
Bobo at the helm of the offense is like the Bataan Death March – a slow, hopeless, excruciating march to Heell
Smart needs to clean house starting with the offensive coaching staff. QB, OL, and WR play this year are inexcusably bad. Open field tackling, gap discipline, and DB play in general are all also poor. I get that college football teams will always have a game or two that’s closer than it should be, but we have far too much talent to struggle like we have.