The Georgia Bulldogs fell 39-34 to the Ole Miss Rebels in the 2026 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. This is Georgia’s second loss in the 12-team College Football Playoff after earning a top-four seed and a bye. The Bulldogs are now 0-2 in the 12-team playoff.
That said, a familiar scapegoat is getting all of the attention. That scapegoat would be Mike Bobo, the offensive coordinator for Georgia. Any time the Dawgs lose a postseason game with Bobo on staff, he will be the reason some Georgia fans point to. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not; he’s the reason. The defense can give up 50+ points, and Bobo would still be the reason, even if his unit put up 49 (he should have put up more).
Former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray is a longtime advocate of Bobo’s. Murray played at UGA from 2009-13. He was the program’s starting passer from 2010-13. During that time, while playing under a Bobo-coached offense, he became the SEC’s all-time leading passer with 13,166 yards.
Murray now calls games for ESPN and serves as President of The Players’ Lounge. He reflected on Georgia’s 2025 season, in which the Bulldogs won their second consecutive SEC Championship Game with Bobo running the offense.
“Name me three other offenses that were better than Georgia this year in the SEC,” Murray told UGA Football Live. “They’re top five in the conference, they held the team together for the first part of the season. And it just seemed like no matter what—like that Tennessee game, people were frustrated with the offense. It’s like, you scored 47 points! It’s just Bobo, man. It’s just unfortunate that there’s this disdain for him from not everyone, but from a large portion. No matter how many points or yards the offense puts up…
I get it, Georgia’s a championship-level team right now, but he’s helped lead them to two SEC championships. And none of that will be good enough until it is, unfortunately, for my guy.”
Georgia metrics in the Sugar Bowl
What do the metrics say about what went down in the Sugar Bowl? Was it the offense’s fault the Bulldogs got bounced in their first playoff game the second year in a row?
On the surface, Georgia totaled 343 yards, 219 yards passing, and 124 yards rushing. It averaged 4.9 yards per play, 11.5 per completion, and 3.9 per rush. The Dawgs converted only 3 of 13 3rd downs. The Bulldog offense scored on all 5 red zone trips. They tied in the turnover battle with one apiece. Georgia possessed the ball for a total of 32 minutes and 32 seconds.
Let’s take a closer look at what the offense did in New Orleans. Georgia had 11 total possessions; they only punted on four of those. They missed a field goal on one and fumbled the ball away on another. That’s a scoring rate of 45%. They scored touchdowns on three of those drives, a TD rate of 27%. Georgia crossed Ole Miss’ 40-yard line six times; they scored on five of those, so they were 5 of 6 on scoring opportunities.
“The success is there, the numbers are,” Murray said before discussing the Sugar Bowl. “I even went back and watched the game. And I’m just, ‘man, they did so many good things. throughout the game. There were some missed opportunities. I thought Gunner was a little bit gun-shy at times and missed a couple explosive plays down the field. But they still scored in the, what, mid-30s or whatever it was. You’d hope, especially with a Kirby-led defense—I’m not here to point fingers at the defense at all, it’s a team game and everyone has to be better—but you’d hope scoring in the 30s would be good enough to win a game.”
According to BCFtoys, Georgia had a 0.12 offensive game rating, scoring 2.25 points per drive, gaining 44.1% of its available yardage, averaging 5.44 yards per drive, and achieving a drive success rate of 50%.
Aaron Murray reveals why players want to play for Mike Bobo
For the better part of this century, Bobo’s been one of the best recruiters in all of college football. He’s credited for landing names like Matthew Stafford, Nick Chubb, Trenton Thompson, Malcolm Mitchell, Murray and 5-star 2027 Georgia QB commit Jayden Wade.
Murray said that’s because players want to play for him, and simply put, he’s a people person.
“Bobo’s such a good people person, too, in the locker room,” said Murray. “Guys want to play for him, especially quarterbacks. You talk to all of them—even talking about Carson (Beck) a year ago, we always talked about Gunner and the rest of the quarterbacks in that room—like, they all love Bobo, they respect Bobo. They respect the fact that he’s such a player’s coach and he’s so collaborative with the quarterbacks when it comes to the game plan, making sure everyone’s ready to go each and every week.”
Is Mike Bobo really Georgia’s problem?
The 2025 Dawgs were one of the youngest teams Kirby has had in his 10 seasons as head coach. Compare that to the 2021 natty team when Georgia had 15 players taken in the ensuing draft. That means all those guys were upperclassmen. Experience matters, especially in the SEC.
“It’s a young team, I think, on both sides,” Murray said. “You return some young running backs, you return Gunner, you return a lot of guys on defense. Look, they won an SEC Championship Game, they were the No. 3 seed. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough.
I think—and I hate saying this—but I feel like next year, this team was always building towards next year with the youth. You’ve got to find some receivers, and you’re going to lose a lot at that position. Like I said, I think he did a tremendous job with the offense, a tremendous job all year. They were one of the best offenses in the SEC. I don’t know what more you want.”
I took a look at what Georgia’s offensive game ratings have been in the past with Bobo at OC. One thing really stood out in those games: only two had an offensive game rating above 0.50 (excluding the 2024 Orange Bowl vs a shell of the FSU team).
What makes Mike Bobo elite is really simple, Murray said
“We were always well prepared. We always put up crazy numbers. We were always one of the best offenses in the country,” said Murray of playing under Bobo. “I just think he’s really good at his job. The numbers show that. And I think some point here in the near future he’ll get that national championship as the offensive coordinator.”
Is it playcalling or execution that needs to get better for Georgia?
Brent Rollins of PFF and UGASports.com broke down six plays that Georgia would want back, and not a single one was because of the call, but because of execution. This is another thing that the typical Bobo critic ignores.
At the end of the day, Bobo isn’t perfect; no coach ever will be. However, he’s a lot better than he gets credit for. There’s a reason he was a Broyles Award finalist this season. Put some respect on Bobo’s name. There are few people out there as good as he is at his job who also have an elite love for the same school you and I do.
