South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer made the decision to retain four coaches from the previous team, including the offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. The decision was easy for Beamer, it seems.
Bobo came to the South Carolina program to work for a longtime friend Will Muschamp and was here for just one season before a change was made at the top. Beamer has some previous connections with Bobo, however, since they were almost co-workers at Virginia Tech.
Here’s everything Beamer said on Monday about the decision to retain Bobo instead of hiring an offensive coordinator from outside.
“Mike Bobo, very grateful that we were able to keep Mike, ”said Beamer in his opening comments.
“It is no secret that when he came to South Carolina, he had options other than South Carolina. This year is no different. It is difficult to find proven SEC coordinators with a history of success. When you have a guy like Mike Bobo on your team, you want to keep it close.
“I’ve known Mike for a long time. When I was training Virginia Tech with my dad, we tried to hire Mike as our offensive coordinator, which would have been in 2013, I believe. It was to the point that we sent a plane to Athens, Georgia, to pick him up, that he never boarded. He had a hard time leaving Athens, which I certainly understand. He’s a guy that I think of as a person, a recruiter, a human being. I love his family. I’m very grateful that he’s here with us.
“If Mike wasn’t on the team when I started this coaching job, he would have been my first call as an offensive coordinator, I think a lot of him. You look at what he did at the University of Georgia and his track record of success for a long, long time speaks for itself. What he did at Colorado State speaks for itself.
“I don’t want to make excuses for him, but he got into a difficult situation in Columbia. New system, no spring practice, Covid, an unusual summer, an unusual season – he certainly won’t use that against him. You look at what South Carolina did in managing football, I’m excited about what we can do going forward adding to that.
“I hear people say, ‘Your offense is completely different from what you did in Oklahoma’, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Anyone who says that probably hasn’t watched a lot of football or played a lot this year. People listen to ‘Air Raid’ and Oklahoma and think that we play about 70 times a game and we’re getting more agitated and everything, it’s not us at all.
“The Oklahoma attack occurs year after year and we have done this by running more with the ball than we launched in the past five years. I don’t know what the statistics for this year are, but I know, going into this year, we run more than we play.
“People say, ‘Mike Bobo uses a quarterback, ‘well, Oklahoma too. We call it H-back to sound more sophisticated, but it’s the same thing and we do a lot with them.
“So offensive, it is very similar. There are certainly some aspects of Mike’s attack that I want to maintain, and Mike and I talked about it and he is excited about it, being able to implement many of the things we did in Oklahoma in the racing game and the passing game. I think some of the things we were doing in those two races and passes were at the forefront of things offensively, and I am very excited about the opportunity to combine these two systems and get the best attack on South Carolina going forward.
“At the end of the day, you have to be tough, you have to be physical, play with a lot of discipline and have the ability to run and throw the ball. You have to be a great situational football team. Combining the elements is something that excites me. “
What made you want to keep Bobo instead of cleaning the house and start from scratch in one of the highest positions on your coaching staff?
“This is always a thought. I had coaches telling me … I talked to a new head coach in college football yesterday, ‘I’m going to be a new coach and I’m not going to keep anyone.’ I think each situation is different. There are certain times when you have to come in, clean the house, start over and everything. But I also think you look at this, I have a hell of an offensive coordinator in the building who has been here for less than a year who has proven that he can coordinate successful offenses at the SEC, can recruit at high, high level and is loyal as everyone leaves and is a great person. If you are talking about coordinators, there are not many proven coordinators across the country, especially with experience at the SEC.
“There are different guys out there – flashy names, and I understand – but a guy who believes in what I believe, who wants to be in Carolina and has done it for a long, long time. If he hadn’t been on the Carolina team, I would have tried to hire him.
“Two SEC football coaches called me and said, when it was announced that Mike was staying, that it was an important signing. They weren’t guys telling me who I wanted to hear, they were two guys who knew football. They said Mike Bobo it’s as good as they come.
“Bud Foster is a great friend of mine, the former Virginia Tech defensive coordinator. We were talking about Mike because Virginia Tech played in Georgia when I was in Mississippi. Bud still talks about the great job he found Mike Bobo did and how that preparation was challenging for him and all that.
“Mike Bobo has the respect of coaches from all over the country, so he had other opportunities when he came to South Carolina. That’s why he had other opportunities this year if he chose not to stay in South Carolina. He will have a big impact on us .
“I would be crazy if I didn’t implement many aspects of what we did offensively in Oklahoma. I went to Oklahoma and left Georgia for the only reason I connected with Lincoln Riley and your offense. I would be crazy if I didn’t implement aspects of what we did in Oklahoma here in South Carolina, and Mike knows that. I will be involved in the crime and I want to be involved in the crime. We certainly believe in the same things.
“At the end of the day, you have to take the ball to your creators. We have to develop more and more game creators in this program and we have to recruit more and more creators for this program. I don’t care if you are Sean McVay or Lincoln Riley, you have to have great players. We have a very good group of guys in our program that we can already build and we have the opportunity until the beginning of the season to add these guys as well and increase the ability to play this attack. “