VIDEO: Mike Bobo Introductory News Conference

Head coach Will Muschamp introduced new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo at a news conference Monday afternoon.

FULL NEWS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

– [Will Muschamp] How are you all doing? Doing good. Just to update some roster information. Obviously, Jake Bentley’s going to grad transfer to Utah. And, we had a great conversation. You know, his contributions here were immense and two time captain and how he represented the University of South Carolina. I really appreciate everything. He wanted a new opportunity. We wish him the best and I know he’ll be extremely successful in whatever he does. Kyle Markway, you know Kyle’s graduated. He is now in grad school and really as we looked and got the information from the NFL people, there was not going to be a lot of difference between where his draft status is now as opposed to how it would be after he came back for another fall. He’s been a very productive player for us the last two years, he has been a model citizen in our program and I wish he had come back but certainly want what he wants and he wanted to look at this opportunity and we wish him the best. He did first class in everything he did here at the University of South Carolina and we appreciate him. Today was a great day. We honored 14 December grads at our ring ceremony: Kobe Smith, Bryan Edwards, Kiel Pollard, T.J. Brunson, Javon Kinlaw, A.J. Turner, Jake Bentley, Michael Almond, D.J. Wonnum, Rico Dowdle, Danny Fennel who finished his master’s degree, and Will Tommie and two other guys that have another year of eligibility. All right, another year of eligibility: Sadarius Hutcherson and Keir Thomas. So, that’s impressive. With those 14 along with the 11 before the season, 25 guys have had their diploma either before they started their senior year or as their finishing their eligibility which is a great statement of what we’re doing academically. Maria Hickman who started this process at the Dodie Anderson facility. She does a fantastic job and now Katie Christensen now is kind of taking over that role as Maria’s moved into a different position in the Athletic Department. I want to welcome Mike Bobo as our offensive coordinator/quarterback coach and his family, his wife Laney, his two sons Drew and Drake, his daughters Olivia, Kate, and Ava. That’s five children.

– [Mike Bobo] Five.

– Five children, triplets Jake, Olivia, and Kate. I also want to welcome his dad, coach George Bobo, who will be an advisor to me in an unpaid role. But will certainly give me a lot of advice from what we need to be doing all the time. But, a lot of respect for Mike. Number one as a person. Number two as a play caller. On his 14 years as calling plays, averaged over 30 points right at 425 yards a game, which is, in the most difficult defenses as far as some of them face and some of the defenses that you’re going to face and the adjustments that he made when he went to Colorado State. But a coordinator and a quarterback coach and excited to have him on board.

– [Mike Bobo] Thank you coach. Definitely excited to be here at South Carolina. Excited to be back in the South. Excited about this opportunity to be with Coach Muschamp and this staff here at South Carolina. You know, got in last week, a little less than a week ago and just really, first of all, just blown away with the things that they’ve done here at South Carolina. The facilities and, just a first class facility and really hit the ground running. Got to go see a few recruits with Coach and now we’re settling in a little bit, starting to look at personnel. But, had the opportunity to come here and work with Coach. I think the world of him and his family. Him as a person and going against him all those years in this conference, sometimes the field seemed 200 yards than 100 yards. So, I’m excited about it. I’m excited about the roster that we have here. I’ve taken a few days and looked at that roster. There’s a lot of work to do like there’s a lot of work to do at every place, every year this time of year. And I’m excited about the challenge that we have here at South Carolina and look forward to this upcoming off-season. Questions?

– [Reporter] Hey Mike, you mentioned that you already had a chance to look over your personnel and your roster, just what do you see out of them that can fit your general philosophy of running an offense?

– [Mike Bobo] Well, that’s a good question. General philosophy for me, and I think it, not think I know it aligns with Coach’s philosophy is, we want to be a physical football team. 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 and looking at this roster, I think that’s what we’re in the process right now of trying to figure out what the best personnel groups are to attack the teams that we’re going to play this year. What gives us the best chance to be successful as an offense? And that’s something that you obviously work through during spring practice. You obviously work through during fall camp when you get an influx of freshman and sometimes that can change from spring to fall. It just depends on the guys that you’ve got coming in, the guys, knock on wood, that stay healthy, but you got to be willing to adapt as a coach and that’s what we’re talking through right now and it’s going to allow what gives us the best chance to be successful as a team. Not really as an offense, as a team.

– [Reporter] Mike, what kind of college stories can you tell us about Will Muschamp? No, I’m just kidding.

– [Mike Bobo] Well I don’t want to say any ’cause he can tell some about me.

– [Reporter] After being a head coach, did you have any reservations about jumping right back in there? Did you know that hey, if the right opportunity comes up, I want to be back in the game?

– [Mike Bobo] Yeah, I didn’t have any reservations. I want to coach. You know, I’m excited to get back on the grass. I’m excited about being in a room and having a position to myself and really building a relationship with some individuals at the quarterback room. We we’re a couple days here, I had got the quick tour and everybody had left and I was going around kind of Facetiming my kids and showing them this facility and I got on the phone with my wife and she goes, “You hadn’t sounded this excited in three years.” I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to not have to walk out of that meeting room and grab that phone. The head coach call you get all the time. You got to go out and answer a bunch of stuff. I’m excited about coaching football and recruiting and building relationship with these players. Never, if I didn’t have the right opportunity I was going to go somewhere and work. I wasn’t going to sit out for a year. Well, one, I would be divorced if I stayed at home. My wife wouldn’t like that too much.

– [Reporter] Since your name was linked to the job, people start talking about the relationship you’ve had with Will obviously dating back to college and then B-Mac. What can you say about that rapport you guys have?

– [Mike Bobo] Well, I think the room is important. Obviously, you want to work, you know, it’s all about who you work for in really any profession. You know, you want to go to work with people that you trust that are going to do things the right way and that’s the respect I have for Will, of how he’s done things over his career and where he’s been. I hadn’t had a chance to work with Will but I’ve had guys that have worked with him talk about what a great job he does as a head coach, of being demanding but also let you grow as a coach. And we all need that. We all need somebody to hold us accountable and push us and to be our very best but also at the same time give you the freedom to grow and try different things. So, I’m excited about doing that. Obviously, in that room I’ve coached two of those guys, I coached McClendon and Coach Brown. I’ve worked with Coach McClendon side-by-side for, I believe, eight years at the University of Georgia. I think the world of both of those guys. Those are two guys that worked extremely hard as players. Did everything you asked, they were team guys and now they do a great job coaching. I got to be around them this weekend while they were recruiting and be around them with their families and how they interacted with families. And it’s the type of atmosphere that you want to be with. I’ve had a chance with, to meet with Coach Wolfe before and talk some football about three or four years ago. I was impressed with him and I’ve known Coach Bentley for a long time. So, I’m excited about that room, that’s always got a lot to do with it when you’re deciding to go somewhere, is what type of room are you going to walk in and we’re already in there meeting right now and I feel great about it.

– [Reporter] Yeah Mike, two questions for you. Number one, how much control of the offense is yours and number two, from your early evaluation of the quarterback room, what do you see in there?

– [Mike Bobo] I mean there’s one head coach and that’s Coach Muschamp. We’re going to put together a plan for us to be successful but, I’m an offensive coordinator and he’s trusted me into getting our staff ready, on the same page, and our staff ready to teach our concepts to our players and go out and execute ’em on game day. On accountability is going to be on me, but there’s going to be certain things that, you know, there’s a head coach that you’re going to demand of your program and I think that’s us being physical and tough, but, as far as me worried about Coach gettin’ on the headphones and saying run this or run that, I’m not worried about that at all. That’s football. You know, it’s game day and we’re going to be out there coaching and you know, he expected me, he hired me to do a job and that’s what I’m going to do. As far as our quarterback situation, I watched about seven games right now, starting from the back moving forward and not just quarterbacks, trying to watch all the personnel of all the guys. I’ve got a chance to meet Ryan and talk to Ryan since he stayed here and had his little knee surgery and cleaned up his meniscus. I’m excited about him. I see a guy that’s got some talent. I see a guy that went through some growing pains, being a freshman. And we got to do things to help him and some of that is the run game and some of that is protection but had a chance to sit down with him on three occasions already and he’s going to be here. His family lives here now so we’re starting that process right now of building a relationship with him. I got a chance to meet DK. I’m really impressed with him. He’s a guy that wants to do whatever he can to help this football team. That was the first words out of his mouth. It wasn’t I need to play quarterback. I need to do this. It was Coach, I want to help this football team. I want to do whatever it takes to help this team be successful and just love the look in that kid’s eye. I’m excited about seeing him this off-season. You know, in off-season conditioning and then when we get into spring ball. And then had a chance to meet Jake, briefly. So, those are the three guys I’ve met. I probably spent more time with Ryan just because he’s still here in town.

– [Reporter] You talked a little about getting on the road, recruiting a little bit. Just how did that go last week and how nice is it to kind of be back in Georgia and able to recruit in that area?

– [Mike Bobo] It was good, it was good to be back in the south but we recruited the South heavy at Colorado State. Everybody recruits Georgia heavily. You know, and there are good players in this state. I was telling Will the other day, every time we ever signed a player out of this state they were players for us at the University of Georgia and I’m excited about the guys that we have in this state and we’re always going to recruit the neighboring states. But just to go out and talk to these guys. Some of these guys, I already knew who they were and formed relationships with briefly, early on in the recruiting process and they accumulated some more offers and didn’t have interest where I was before. But, it’s all about trying to build relationships with these guys. That it’s hard when you come in the last week, so really I’m just telling them who I am and what I’m about and trying to lay it out for them that I’m going to be the same guy everyday. I’m going to be genuine, I’m going to be real, I’m going to coach you hard and I’m going to put my arm around ya, but, just trying to lay out what to expect of me when they get here.

– [Reporter] Hey Mike, how have you changed as an offensive caller and how important is change in college football now, or can you win kind of being traditional?

– [Mike Bobo] I think that’s a great question. When I went to Colorado State, we didn’t have Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, there’s a lot backs that we had. We had some good players and we evolved there at the University of Georgia as the game evolves. When Coach Rick turned it over to me at 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. 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. It was really, really good for me of having to change and work with, maybe when you’re undersized up front or maybe you didn’t have that back that could consistently break tackles and find ways to get guys in space and really work more on match-ups of trying to get guys the ball. So, I’m excited about it. That’s what we’re trying to do right now is figure out who are some guys that we feel like can make some plays in space. What’s our best chance moving forward with our offensive line to give us success? What’s the best running game? Whether that’s a wins home team or we a pin and pull team like they were last year on the field that I’ve seen. I want to be able to do a lot of things but I want to be able to do what we do good so, a lot of it’s going to depend on what our kids can handle. There’s a fine line of too much scheme and not enough scheme. They got to walk on that field and they got to believe in what we’re doing offensively so they can execute and play fast but at the same time you can’t be so simple that defenses can attack you. We want to attack defenses. And it’s hard playing defense nowadays with everything that offenses are allowed to do and you know, tempo and the RPO game and you know, just what you’re allowed to do offensively and we got to take advantage of some of those rules. But again, it’s got to fit our personnel, what we can play fast.

– [Reporter] Mike, I’m sure you had other opportunities, what made South Carolina the right fit for you and Coach Muschamp, if you want to comment, what made Mike the right guy to hire and how quickly did that come together for you guys?

– [Mike Bobo] Well, I’m excited about coming to a place that is, I really believe, is on the verge. I know last years wasn’t what Coach and his staff expects out this program and are striving for but the pieces are here. From a great staff to a great foundation of players. I really like that you’ve got eight starters returning, eight guys that have started up front on offensive line. You’ve got a young quarterback that’s got talent and I believe, a place that is hungry. I’ve always been impressed when you come over here and play, the passion that this fan base has and the energy in this stadium. And that, that carries over to your players. I think, Will, you told the last championship was 1969? Is that right? ACC Championship in 1969. You know, I want to be part of a place that gets it turned around and a place you can be a long time. It’s a great place for me to move my family and it’s a great place where I think we can be successful. And I had to have both of those. I wouldn’t have gone to a place if I didn’t think we could be successful and compete and a great place for my family to live.

– [Will Muschamp] You know John, I just think, I pinpointed Mike from the beginning. I talked to several people in the process but Mike was obviously, his situation, didn’t’ really know where that was going to go with Colorado State and for whatever reason, fell the right way for us at South Carolina. Just personally have had tremendous respect for him as a play caller and what he presents to you defensively. And then to watch what he’s done at Colorado State, which he’s changed a lot as far as what he did at the University of Georgia and that’s what I think really good coaches do is they adapt to where they are and what their players can do. And I think that’s what I’ve seen and I’m really excited about what they’re going to put together here offensively.

– [Reporter] This is going back to the relationship between you two as you’ve gone your separate ways during your coaching careers, how many times a year maybe did you talk to each other, bounce some ideas off one another, or maybe just seeking some advice?

– [Will Muschamp] We were always competing so we didn’t bounce any ideas, I can tell you that.

– [Mike Bobo] One year he was at Miami, we were able to check in a couple times. He, I remember, he had a hurricane coming through and Coach Sorrells, our offensive line coach at the time, we were there late and let’s call Will. I can’t remember who we were playing but it was somebody similar scheme. And he said he was sweating down in whatever room he was in and we talked to him about 30 minutes about some things we had planned for third down but when you’re competing against each other you don’t talk much. You’ll text each other say good job, proud of ya, or keep your head up. You know, we all played together. We’ve known each other for a long time. We all are in to coaching and you’ve got a lot of, coaching is, you know, you’re competing like hell against those guys but we all know what we go through at the same time and how hard it is to win each and every Saturday. You just try to be there for ’em and I’m excited about being here with him moving forward.

– [Reporter] Mike, what kind of goes on the to do list for you between now and the start of spring practice?

– [Mike Bobo] I got to fill out this background check for him. It’s due today, but. They’re on me about that. I got to fill that out. To do list for me, is number one, is getting on the road and seeing the guys that Coach Muschamp wanted me to see. Number two is having the chance to get around some of the players that were in town for the banquet and meet some of those guys and try to put a face with a number. Right now I’ve just watched some games and I’ve seen numbers and meet some of those guys and tell ’em how I excited I am. Not really getting in any scheme stuff with those guys yet. Now, it’s gettin’ around the staff. We’re going to be in this week and working on recruiting, 2021 guys and 2022 guys, identifying those guys. You know, a lot of guys that were on the board were, they were a little higher up than guys I was recruiting at Colorado State so I got to, you know, a lot of names are familiar but I’ve got to go familiarize myself with these recruits. So, I’m back in a league where things happen a lot faster than where they happened at Colorado State recruiting wise, so I’ve got to get caught up and start to build relationships with these 2021 guys. And then, we’re working as a staff, kind of recruiting in the morning, football in the afternoon. They start to talk about what we’re going to do offensively and throw ideas back and forth. ‘Cause we start spring practice February 26, so it’s two months away. Coach asked if we needed to move it back any but I that’s plenty enough time to get ready as a staff and present this to the players and get working? There’s something everyday. We’ll have a week or two off here for Christmas but I’ll be watching a lot of recruits and trying to get what we’re going to do offensively nailed down on paper after this week, meet with the staff.

– [Reporter] Mike, you mentioned being able to play to the strengths of the guys that you have, being able to use what they’re capable of doing. When you come here and fans obviously know the style of play that you had over at Colorado State, how much of it’s going to be trying to be able to get ready for the spring and being able to show them, okay, we’re going to be able to figure out that’s the way we’re going to play or is it going to be more so to show the style that you’re going to play ’cause I think fans anticipate seeing how you did at Colorado State?

– [Mike Bobo] I think we’ll show the fans when we get ready to play next year, the first game against Coastal. I think a lot can happen between spring ball and the influx of freshman. Right now, we’re going to try to get better fundamentally in the spring. And I’ve talked to Ryan about this and I don’t feel bad about saying it. He’s got to get better fundamentally as a quarterback. And, part of playing that position is being fundamentally sound. It doesn’t matter what style that you play. If you’re not fundamentally good at that position you’re not going to have a chance to be successful at that position. So, we’re going to work hard on fundamentals and doing the little things right and I think our style will come out as our identity of our offensive football team develops through spring and through summer and through fall camp. Whatever it takes for us to move the ball and not turn it over and put points on the board, that’s going to be our style and I think if you’ve watched or looked at offenses that I’ve coordinated over the years, it’s been, 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. You know one year, our last year there, we were ahead a lot 22 personnel ’cause 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 or they don’t to be successful at it or we don’t understand it yet. You know, the base philosophy is we want to be balanced, we want to run the ball, we want to play with a tight end and have a tight end side running game and a play action game but at the same time we got to get the guys that we identify as play makers. We got to get them the ball in their hands and that’s one possession, quite frankly, you lose two running backs, you lose two receivers, number 89, Edwards right? Edwards was a heck of a player. So, we’re going to have some young guys playing at those positions but I do believe you can have young guys come in and play at the running back position and the receiver position and be successful early on. You know, let’s see what happens after signing day, who comes in mid-year, who we sign in the, you know, I can’t get into all that right now of who we sign, but, that’s going to play a big part in our offense too because we’ve got to replace some skill on this offense to be productive.

– [Reporter] Coach obviously, you transitioned from OC to head coach last time around but what is the biggest adjustment for you going back to OC from a head coach where you have a lot of responsibilities, obviously you still have a lot, but it’s kind of a different role?

– [Mike Bobo] Yeah, I was still the play caller at Colorado State. I had an offensive coordinator by title that ran the meetings when I wasn’t in there, but every day I was in that offensive meeting and ran it like an offensive coordinator. I just had to walk in that meeting and say, “Look guys, I’m not the head coach right now. I’m the offensive coordinator,” because sometimes they won’t say things if it’s in front of the head coach like they would in front of the other coaches so I said, “I’m leaving it at the door, we can talk like we normally do in a room.” So, I don’t think that’ll be much of change for me. I think I’ll get to spend more time with the offense. I think I’ll get more time with the quarterback, developing a relationship, working on those little things, I’m mean there’s a ton of things we can do before we even start spring ball where we have the time where we can work on things without a ball, like footwork. Those are some things that I didn’t have as much time as a head coach, I had a quarterback coach doing that, that I’ll be able to invest in as just the OC.

– [Reporter] A couple for ya, how are you physically after the health scare a couple years ago?

– [Mike Bobo] Yeah, I’m doing great. I had, as you probably all read, had an autoimmune disease and my respiratory and I’m on some medications but I feel really, really good with that. When that disease hit me it caused some nerve damage which we diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy, but I have some nerve damage in both legs and my right arm. Fully functional and everything right now just have some numbness in the bottom of my feet but I’m able to get on my toes now, I’m able to jog a little bit now so, it’s just, they say, it’s a millimeter a day and it’s the truth. If I look at day to day I feel like maybe I’m not getting any better but I look at where I was at the beginning of the season from the middle, from the middle to the start, it’s a lot of improvement and I feel really good about it.

– [Reporter] And what would you say is the biggest thing you learned as a head coach that you’re taking into this position?

– [Mike Bobo] I gained probably a little bit more patience as a head coach. Not to say that I’m still not going to be who I am and fiery and coach guys a little bit hard but I learned that you had to build a lot more relationships. I was probably a little more relationship driven as a head coach whereas when you’re a play caller or coordinator you’re kind of zeroed in and coach the Xs and Os a little bit too much instead of building that relationship and I really believe relationships matter to get the best out of that young man, to help him reach all his goals and that’s letting him know who you are as well as well as finding out who he is. And that takes time, not just time in a field room but time over meals, time over to your house. That was probably the one thing that I learned the most from that experience. And then after I went through I went through two years ago I appreciate those relationships a lot more and being able to do what I get to do.

– [Reporter] Mike, can you describe historically, your process for game planning for Will Muschamp defenses and then Will, the opposite?

– [Mike Bobo] My process? It’s pretty much the same for everybody. You know, you turn on the tape of Coach’s defenses, they played hard, they were very aggressive, they wanted to put pressure on the quarterback and make him uncomfortable. They didn’t give up big plays so you knew you had to be sound and if you have a chance to make an explosive play, you wanted to capitalize on it. You were trying to find ways to maybe get some explosives which they were very good at not giving up explosives. But, anytime I game plan I’m looking at what we do, what’s our things that we do every game and different ways to run those, different sets, what are certain personnel groups or certain formations where we don’t get a lot of looks and we can teach our guys that we’re going to get these two looks or we’re going to get these two coverage. I try to break it down for the quarterback where he goes in the game and feels confident about it. And then, we’re going to put a lot of stuff up there early on the week and it’s going to dwindle down as the week goes on. What I feel comfortable that are kids can run and go out there and execute that they believe in then what I feel comfortable the quarterback has confidence in. Early in my career there were a lot of things I felt good about and I carried a game and we really couldn’t execute that well in practice but I knew it was a good scheme or the quarterback didn’t really like it, but I’d call it anyway ’cause I was stubborn, but now I’m more what can our kids do and believe in and that’s what we’re going to take in a game. Bottom line is, your guys got to believe in what you’re doing. There’s a ton of different ways to move the ball. A ton of different ways to be effective offensively, how do you get your guys to buy in and believe in that. And, to me, that’s through repetition. Doing it over and over where we feel confident and we go out there and we see this front, we see this coverage, we know how we’re going to react to it and execute our plays versus what the defense is doing.

– [Reporter] Mike, from a recruiting standpoint at the quarterback position, what are some of the chief things that you look for when deciding whether or not you want to offer a kid?

– [Mike Bobo] Well, there’s a lot of guys out there now that can throw the football. More and more guys are throwing the football in high school. They’re a lot more advanced of what they do. There are a lot of coaches in high school do an outstanding job of developing quarterbacks and schematically doing a ton of things. So, when you turn on a tape, there’s a lot guys that can throw that football. Number one is I want to go see that guy in person and see him throw the ball in person, 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. There’s a lot guys that can go out and throw seven on seven and go to these quarterback gurus and do all these drops and look good, shuffle through bags, but does he have it when he walks out there that the guys believe that this guy can get it done. It’s harder and harder to find out nowadays ’cause you’re having to offer out guys earlier and earlier and 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. He’s a leader. He’s the guy. He don’t mind gettin’ in somebody’s ass. He doesn’t mind puttin’ his arm around and pulling a guy to the side and talking to him. There’s a lot of pressure at playing quarterback at any level, and there’s a ton of pressure on playing quarterback in this league. Everybody knows how to call plays and everybody knows who the quarterback should have hit. 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. So, 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. You know a lot of people think toughness is that offensive line, or that back, but your quarterback better have some toughness about him.

– [Reporter] Will, I’m guessing a couple of weeks ago was a difficult decision, a difficult time for you and for Bryan. How is Bryan holding up these couple of weeks and I’m guessing you still believe he’s going to be an asset going forward for this program?

– [Will Muschamp] Well he’s handling it like he handles everything in life, first class. Brian’s an outstanding football coach. He’s an outstanding receiver’s coach. He’s an outstanding offensive coordinator, you know. And there were some things that were out of Bryan’s control this year that occurred on our offensive football team that he had nothing to do with, and that made it very difficult to be as productive as we needed to be productive. But he understands the profession and that’s part of it but he’s going to be an outstanding offensive coordinator again. He’s going to be a head coach again. He’s going to be really successful in everything he does.

– [Reporter] Will, how important was it to get Mike on the road, obviously, right after he started, to see guys and then how confident and good do you feel about this class with National Signing Day kind of coming up?

– [Will Muschamp] Well, I think calling with the early sign-in date that’s part of it. You want to be able to get guys on the road to build relationships. I don’t want a young man to sign in December and Coach Bobo’s our offensive coordinator and he’s thinking well didn’t really, especially at the skill position, at the quarterback position and I haven’t met the guy. So, I think that was really important to get him to make sure we saw those guys as best we could. Some of ’em came in this weekend, which was good for him to be able to see those guys. Sign and date’s a marathon and we’re going to finish part of the marathon on Wednesday and then we got to continue to keep running until February but I like where we are.

– [Reporter] A few housekeeping questions, what’s Coach McClendon’s current title? How tough was it to move on from Coach Warner and what kind of led to the change at the strength and conditioning head spot and what is kind of your process there right now?

– [Will Muschamp] Well, we’re still working through that process and I think those are all difficult decisions. At the end of the day I’ve got to make decisions what I think is best for the organization and winning. And we talk to our players about all the time. It’s the same with out staff. Those are the decisions and none ’em are easy. They’re very difficult. Those are two professionals and outstanding men and I hate that sometimes those things have to happen but we’re going to work through titles with people as we continue to move forward. Right now this was about Mike today and introducing him to you all.

– [Reporter] Mike, at least right now, do you plan to be in the box or on the sideline calling plays?

– [Mike Bobo] I plan to be in the box. It’s hard to see that game. When you’re on the sideline you got to have a guy upstairs that can really give you a picture in your terminology of how you do things. And right now I feel like the best position for me is in the press box. And I’ve called the majority of the games until I became the head coach, upstairs in the press box. Sometimes you got a young quarterback or if he’s struggling, you might want to come down but I prefer to be in the press box.

– [Reporter] And Will, do you anticipate any more changes on your staff going forward?

– [Will Muschamp] No, none.

– [Reporter] Do you expect any players to enter the transfer portal or do you think everything is set there?

– [Will Muschamp] I think we’re fine.

– [Reporter] Coach Bobo, just along the way you mentioned how your coaching style has evolved with the personnel, who are some of the coaches that you’ve coached with or maybe you had as a player who have coached, who have shaped you as a coach?

– [Mike Bobo] I’ve had a ton of ton of guys. I’d say number one is my father that coached, I referenced early on. This high school coach in the state of Georgia and the reason I got into coaching was because of him. He used to probably be my biggest critic and he diagnosed what we were doing pre-game and after game but he still watches, he gets on the little app and watches every practice and he’ll call say much, but not as much anymore. He’s got five grandchildren. He consumes himself more with the grandchildren. Jim Donnan was a big influence for me. Ray Goff, were two head coaches I had in high school. I think Ray Goff, he’s the guy that recruited myself, he recruited Will, recruited Coach Smart, so a lot of guys who coach in that Ray Goff recruited to the University of Georgia and were in coaching. I owe a lot to him. Coach Donnan was a guy that believed in me and gave me my first job there as a graduate assistant and then I spent 14 years with Mark Richt as a quarterback coach, as a young guy that basically was his GA there for the first couple of years and gradually turned it over to me and then offensive coordinator and went through some growing pains. And here’s a guy that was offensive guy but let me go through those growing pains and kind of become my own man. He said, “Don’t try to be me. You need to be who you are.” He had suggestions all the time and what we thought we ought to do. But he let me, sometimes go out there and fail. And I think that’s the key to success sometimes ’cause on the other side of failure is success and he allowed me to put myself out there. He wanted me to put myself out there to grow. And it’s the same thing when you’re coaching kids is getting ’em to put themselves out there. A lot times kids nowadays they’re afraid to put themselves out there because, you know, the scrutiny is very tough and they play a sport that is visible and you got 90,000 people there every week that are going to critique ’em. You’ve got all you guys that are going to critique ’em and they got to be willing to put themselves out there week after week after week. But that’s the way they grow. So, I learned a lot from that. And then, I’ve been around a lot of good coaches that, high school to guys I’ve worked with that have helped shape.. It’s not just me in that room, and that’s one of the reasons I was excited about coming here, excited about Coach McClendun and him staying. I’ve worked with him. I know what kind of coach he is. I know what he’s going to, how he’s going to help develop those young receivers and we got to get ready to play. I know what kind of guy Thomas Brown is. You know, that fires me up, to be in a room with those guys. And like I told ’em, I said, “We all got egos as men and want to be good and want to be considered the best, one of the best at what we do,” but at the same time you don’t want to let your ego get in the way of trying to be successful in that room. I think we’re going to have a great room. It’s not going to be a lot of egos. At the end of the day we’re going to figure out what gives us the best chance to be successful and move the ball.

– [Reporter] Coach Bobo, from the film you’ve watched, have you at all spotted an Adam Prentice type on this roster?

– [Mike Bobo] Well, Adam Prentice, for you guys that don’t know, that didn’t do your research, he’s a fullback for us at Colorado State and if you’ve seen a lot offenses I’ve ran, we played with a fullback and had a two back running game and, quite frankly, a lot of teams don’t defend two back running game anymore because they’re defending spread and it’s something teams don’t practice all the time. The fence that you got to fit as a defense versus two back. But there’s things that you could do. I don’t know if we have that guy on our team. You know, a lot of times, at Georgia it was a walk-on linebacker. It was a guy, quite wasn’t fast enough to play linebacker, a tight end that wasn’t quite long enough. So, I think you can find those guys. They got to be unselfish guys. A guy like Prentice was a little bit more more than a sixth linemen. He could do a lot of stuff. He could play a wing for us. He could insert, he could catch the ball but I feel really good about some tight ends that we have on this team. The last two years before this we were a lot of 12 and a lot of 11. And this past year, because of injuries we played a lot of 21 with Adam Prentice and he did a good job. So I think you got to adapt to what you do and there’s things you could do with a tight end and insert him, not as a true fullback but insert him and try to run some zones where you divide the defense. But that’s what we’re trying to figure out right now. That’s part of what spring practice is. I wouldn’t introduce all those schemes to our offense, our offensive line, our quarterback. Now we might not have the Prentice to do it and we might not run that scheme but we’ll introduce it in case we do find one.

– [Reporter] Mike, you’ve played and coached a lot of games here at Williams-Brice Stadium. When you think about playing here what are some of the things that jump to your mind?

– [Mike Bobo] Well, the last game I was here we didn’t win the game. It was like 38-35 and I catch hell for not giving it to Todd Gurley on the three yard line there. Throwing it three times in a row but we got an intentional grounding, I’m not going to talk about the rest ’cause we don’t do that around here, right Coach?

– [Will Muschamp] No absolutely not.

– [Mike Bobo] We got the intentional grounding but the previous try we had ran it in three straight times so I was trying to be creative. It got a penalty. Then we missed the field goal, lose 38-35. It’s extremely hot here. Extremely hot. I always thought we should bring two jerseys or pants so they could change after warm-ups ’cause our kids would be drenched, it’s so hot. But, how loud and how energetic the fans are and we usually played South Carolina early. The night we played in 12 where ended up really, played the SEC Championship game that year, and we got throttled here. We got throttled, 35-7. We got a ball tipped by Holloman. Picked it off, then I think Ace Sanders returned a punt and then they had a drive with Connor Shaw, it’s like 21 to nothing. We got a field goal right before half but, we went for it on fourth down. It was 21 nothing at half. But I remember upstairs, it’s kind of thick, there’s thick glass in these press boxes and I remember saying, “Is it loud down there? It looks loud”. And my line coach at the time said, “You just keep drinking those diet Cokes up there. We’re down here in this damn jungle and it’s crazy down here and we can’t get a first down.” It’s energetic. It’s exciting. I hope we can get ’em to stand up and cheer for the offense and score a few points. But, I remember that 12 game. We had this great plan to chip Clowney and do all this stuff and none it worked. So, the next year we kind of just, we didn’t even have a plan, we just ran away from him. We weren’t going to chip him and we spent so much time worrying about him I think we scared our players, to be honest. And he scared ’em too.

– [Reporter] Will, if you could, can you give us an update on Jaylin Dickerson and Devontae Davis, where they are in their rehab? If Nick Muse and Spencer Eason-Riddle had their surgeries, how those went?

– [Will Muschamp] Spencer’s going to wait and have his surgery, he’s apart of the Good Works Team that’s going to be presented at the Sugar Bowl. So he’s going to have that surgery, I believe John, it’s on January 4, January 6 maybe. And then Devontae, should be cleared for spring, we’re thinking. I’m don’t know how much he’ll be partaking in the off season program at this time. And then Jaylin Dickerson will be cleared when we get back in January.

– [Reporter] Did Muse have his surgery yet?

– [Will Muschamp] Yes he did, I’m sorry. Nick and Ryan both had their surgery and both went extremely well.

– [Reporter] Mike, is there a timeframe from when you’d like to have your full offense installed and I guess, how much input will you have from the other guys on staff as terms of just what you can add?

– [Mike Bobo] I’ll have a ton of input. We started today going through some base runs right now and getting input on certain things that they did and how they did it, how I want things done. We’ll install.. I’d say probably 80% in the spring. Then install the other later and then we got to figure out what we’re going to be there a week and a half, two weeks in the fall camp. I think you got to install everything that you might be. There’s a ton of offense over there. I’ve run a lot of offense over the years but the base stuff we’ll install, how we run it, out of what formations, and what personnel groups can change. But, the base stuff will be installed, the base runs, the base concepts, throwing the football. Now, to me, you got your base running game and what kind of play action, run action are you going to have off that running game and then you got your drop back game. You got your tempo, so those are a lot of things that we got to consider and how much can we handle? Now, we’re going to handle it all in the spring because we meet, then we go practice, and we come back and meet and then we have another day, so it’s spread out over spring so I really like spring because you get to work a lot fundamentally. You get to install a lot. There’s not a game, there’s not a scoreboard so it’s just constant teaching and then you can, you know, you’re pulling all those clips back in fall and showing those guys of what they did and how they did it and how they did it right, how they might not have executed it right. So, we’re going to throw a lot at ’em and then we’re going to figure out what we are.

– [Reporter] Will, one more that’s a little off topic. Mike kind of mentioned him earlier, but Dakereon Joyner, how did that post-season meeting go with him and what do you kind of envision his role in Mike Bobo’s offense?

– [Will Muschamp] Well, I think we’ll continue to evolve, John, as we move forward and exactly what Dakereon said to Mike and the conversations that I have, “What do I need to do to help the team? I want to get on the field and help the football team win.” And right now our offensive staff’s going through those things and evaluating our talent, evaluating our personnel as we continue to fit the pieces moving forward offensively and what we’re going to look like and he’s certainly going to be a huge part of it, I can assure you of that. And I’m excited to get him back on the field.