Week 1: Marshall Mountain Mamas

by Chito Chibuye

Dawgs OTL Writer/ UGA Alumnus

My homework this week was simple: rewatch We Are Marshall and get myself hyped for week 1 of college football. I forgot how good that movie is — and how stacked the cast was. Most remember Matthew McConaughey as head coach Jack Lengyel, who takes over after the 1970 plane crash that tragically wiped out nearly the entire program. Few remember Anthony Mackie (Falcon/Captain America), Kate Mara (Entourage and House of Cards), Ian McShane (Deadwood and John Wick), and January Jones (Mad Men).

The film captures a program forced to rebuild from the ashes. And while 2025’s circumstances are nowhere near that tragedy, Marshall once again finds itself in the middle of massive turnover.

From Champs to Change

Marshall ended 2024 flying high — Sun Belt champions after a dominant 31–3 win over Louisiana (yep, Billy Napier’s old crew). They finished 10–3, led by Sun Belt Player of the Year Mike Green, who topped the FBS with 17 sacks and went in Round 2: No. 59 overall to the Baltimore Ravens — right after UGA’s own Malaki Starks.

Normally, that kind of season guarantees a coach a big bag. Not this time. After contract talks with Charles Huff went south, so did he, for the Head coaching job @ Southern Miss — taking players, assistants, and just about everything else that wasn’t nailed down with him. He said: “I’m leaving here with sum’n!” (Like Denzel)

Enter Tony Gibson

So in steps Tony Gibson, the former NC State defensive coordinator (2024), returning home to West Virginia with Power Five experience in tow. His challenge will be eerily similar to what McConaughey had to deal with in the movie. A brand new roster that has been gutted and rebuilt via a 62 (yes, really) 62-player class from February’s recruiting haul, most of whom are transfers plus three new coordinators.

A scouting report on this team feels impossible to construct, but here are a few names you’ll need to know:

• QBs: Carlos Del Rio (Florida transfer) and Zion Turner (dual-threat)

• RBs: Tony Mathis Jr. (Houston) and Michael Allen (UNLV)

• Pass-catchers: TE Toby Payne and Akron transfer WR Adrian Norton

• Defensive anchors: DT Jalil Rivera-Harvey (Sr. transfer) and SS Jadrarius Green-McKnight (FSU transfer) will look to contain Gunner Stockton and this loaded offense.

That’s about as much identity as we can grab before the season kicks off.

What It Means for Week 1

If you’re the gambling type, stay far, far away from this game . Week 1 games are notoriously messy and the referees will be plenty busy on Saturday. We have no idea what the Herd wants to do this week, or what they're capable of doing (Kirby Smart said as much in his presser this week). This is a “work on us” type of game. A chance for UGA to fine tune their timing on offense, and their tackling on defense. A chance for the 2’s and 3’s to show the coaching staff who is ready to play winning football with every rep. A chance for the rest of Dawgnation to learn the new names of the players that will contribute to this season and beyond. As far as West Virginia goes..

We’ve got country roads too — and ours lead straight to Sanford, Go Dawgs.

Prediction: Georgia 48, Marshall 13

Make or Break: Mike Bobo

by Chito Chibuye

Dawgs OTL Writer/ UGA Alumnus

The conversation around Mike Bobo as UGA’s Offensive Coordinator can feel more polarizing than the last three Presidential elections and has been going on since 2007 (when George Bush was in office). On one side of the fence you have the “everything-is-Bobo’s-fault” crowd, and on the other, every excuse imaginable why it’s not. Inmost cases, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. In this case the answer is somewhere between a draw on 3rd-and-long and UGA’s highest PPG in school history. Let’s look at history to just “Call a spade, a spade.”

At this point it’s well documented how the 2024 season for Georgia went. The Dawgs led the nation with a whopping 36 dropped passes and lost QB Carson Beck to injury for the rest of the season on a hail mary play right before halftime of the SEC championship game vs.Texas to boot. Gunner Stockon would go on to help UGA beat the Longhorns (for the 2nd time that year) in OT, but would lose to national championship runner-up Notre Dame a few weeks later.

Bobo is not the reason UGA didn’t reach its goals last year. Injuries happen, and that’s just a part of the game. When your wide receiver room has “hands like a snake” and your offensive line whiffs on blocks in critical moments during the season, good teams are going to beat you. What we are NOT ‘gonna do’ is act like we don’t have IMMENSE experience when it comes to Bobo-led offenses. Instead, simply ask yourself: Can UGA win a National Championship with Bobo as the OC?

I’ll never forget 2007 when UGA beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa on their first possession of OT behind an aggressive and unexpected playcall by Bobo and an absolute dime from Matthew Stafford to Mikey Henderson. I was in the stadium the following year when Saban and Kirby came to Athens and burned off our eyebrows by halftime, dropping 31 points while we managed an even more impressive zero points at intermission. My freshman year at UGA in 2010 the Dawgs went 6-7 on the year….. 6 and 7/!! AJ Green was suspended before players were getting paid! My classmates would probably agree that the only“standard” at Georgia that year was being the #1 party school in the nation (a legit stat, look it up). The only memorable things were the multiple snow days that shut down everything in Athens except for downtown.

A much better year, 2012, was when Aaron Murray and Todd Gurley led the Dawgs to the SEC championship game, only to lose because of poor clock management, and not throwing the ball to the endzone in time, and a Todd Grantham defense. Bobo does, however, get credit for having the school record for PPG in a season during 2014 where he orchestrated an offense that put up a blistering 41.7 points per contest. When I say it’s a mixed bag, I mean it.                                           All in all, as an OC or HC in almost two decades, Mike Bobo has won one SEC Championship (2024) for Georgia and didn’t win anything at Colorado State, period. Kirby Smart changed the expectations for this football program, plain and simple. If you want to say Bobo is trending in the right direction, fine. I’ll give you that, but how many excuses and how many missed opportunities is this fanbase and more importantly, Kirby Smart,willing to endure? Go back and watch the two-year clinic Todd Monken put on during our back-to-back title runs. Yes, before you say it, UGA had an unprecedented number of freak athletes on those rosters which are currently demoralizing competition NFL offenses and defenses. I’m referring to Bobo’s play-calling specifically. I also think it’s disingenuous not to give Bobo credit for his aptitude to recruit and develop QB’s which is a must in college FB in any era, but play-calling is about feel, matchup hunting, and breaking tendencies against defenses that study every concept you run. The X’s and O’s are far more complicated than the summation I’m about to give and I understand that.

To me the biggest difference between Monken and Bobo is how Monken would attack defenses vertically with the characteristics mentioned above while using horizontal movement to distract defenses. Youtube highlights of George Pickens, AD Mitchell, Ladd McConkey, and Brock Bowers catching deep passes while James Cook and Kenny Mcintosh embarrass linebackers on seam, angle, and wheel routes makes me happier than it should, honestly. Meanwhile, Bobo is out here running jet sweeps and throwing bubble routes (among other concepts behind or near the LOS) that are often predictable during a run, run- pass, 3-and-out, and rarely even pressure the first-down marker on critical drives.

During this year’s SEC media day when Georgia was in town, I actually heard one of the better arguments explaining Bobo’s success or lack thereof during his time at UGA. It came from former Georgia TE Ben Watson. He explained how different it can be for an OC to coach under an offensive mind (Mark Richt) vs. a defensive mind in Kirby. We know CKS wants his OC’s to win possession, play field position, and keep the defense fresh. Maybe this limits how aggressive Bobo can be, and Lord knows if Bobo had some of these defenses back in the day he would have more hardware in the trophy case. Somehow Monken got it done, but let’s not go backwards here. At the end of the day Bobo has yet to deliver, but an SEC crown is a great start in year two of his 2nd stint as OC. 

This year, 2025 will be another opportunity for Bobo to silence the critics (like me), he has a deep and talented offense that should outperform projections. In the coaching business any deficiencies of the offense/defense fall on the coordinators whether it is concepts, position coaches, player execution, or results. When the OC or the DC struggles, that falls on the head coach who hired them. Just ask Mark Richt. Bobo may have been the best man at Kirby Smart’s wedding, but that doesn’t mean Dawgnation should accept him as a pallbearer should there be a funeral.              

   Go Dawgs

Georgia Football 2025: Recipe for a Natty

by Chito Chibuye

Dawgs OTL Writer/ UGA Alumnus

2024 wasn’t everything Georgia fans had hoped for, but an SEC Championship and a CFP berth isn’t exactly a bad “down year.” Still, the Dawgs are hunting for a bounce-back in 2025. In this season’s Make or Break series, we’ll identify the key factors that will determine UGA’s success.

The recipe for 2025: the run game, the aggressiveness of the OC, and the interior defensive line.

Run Game

Health is a factor for every football team at every level, every year. This RB room should benefit not only from starting the season healthy, but from being extremely deep. Nate Frazier will be the 1A, and I fully expect Rod Robinson (6'1, 235+), McCray (6'0, 240), and Chauncey Bowens (5'11, 225) to contribute. That’s a ton of size for a team that wants to emphasize run efficiency—and don’t forget about 3rd-down specialist Ca$h Jones.

Despite having three offensive linemen selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, Georgia’s OL unit did not have a great season. Health was a factor again, but a lack of cohesive play was more alarming. This year, both tackles return in Freeling and Greene III. Micah Morris could be your best lineman at LG, and while Drew Bobo may never be as athletic as Jared Wilson, he’s the OC’s son and has what you want between the ears. Then there’s the giant: Juan Gaston Jr. If reports are true, he’s taken over at RG and would join a very short list of true freshmen OL to start at Georgia in the Kirby era (Cade Mays, Andrew Thomas—end of list). If Gaston can be a wild card or at least add reliable depth, the run game should take a major step forward.

And let’s not forget the QB factor. By nature, a dual-threat QB supercharges a rushing offense. Gunner Stockton will pick up yards when plays break down, convert first downs against man coverage, and force defenders to stay honest in RPO situations. Nothing against Carson, but keeping linebackers and edge defenders from fully committing to the RB will do wonders for this offense.

Aggressive OC

This offense is absolutely loaded. We’ve already mentioned the RB and OL rooms, but the TE and WR groups might take this team to a different stratosphere. I don’t throw out hot takes often, but by season’s end, Georgia could have the best WR room in the SEC. With that kind of firepower, there is zero reason why this offense shouldn’t average 40+ PPG.

But it’s on Kirby and Mike Bobo to make it happen. Kirby has to let Bobo cut it loose, and Bobo has to make it his personal mission to:

• Start games fast

• Attack defenses vertically on early downs

• Take shots in run-heavy situations

• Find and exploit mismatches relentlessly

• Break tendencies in big moments

In short, he needs to channel his inner Todd Monken. Because if I see another bubble screen or RB draw on 3rd and long… I just can’t.

Interior D-Line

This is the most crucial unit for the 2025 defense. We don’t need to be as dominant as we were in ’21 and ’22, but we dohave to be competent. I’m optimistic about Christen Miller, Jordan Hall, McLeod, and freshman phenom Elijah Griffin. All of them are disruptive and capable of wreaking havoc inside.

The big question: do we have the Jordan Davis-type body who can produce consistently? That remains to be seen. But if Nnamdi Ogboko (6’4, 340) and Nasir Johnson (6’5, 340) can contribute at NT—eating blocks and freeing up linebackers—this defense could once again be championship-caliber.

Bottom Line

Make no mistake: these three areas will make or break Georgia in 2025. If the run game clicks, if Bobo unleashes the offense, and if the D-line holds its ground, the Dawgs won’t just be competing for SEC titles… they’ll be chasing another national championship.

Go Dawgs!