Everyone Will Miss Mike Bobo

The SEC taketh away and giveth in the case of Colorado State: former Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is off to Fort Collins to replace new Florida head coach Jim McElwain as the head coach of the Rams. It would seem to be a good fit, as Bobo runs a pro-style offense not too far off from McElwain's. There won't be a rough transitional period.

Georgia will miss Mike Bobo. I mean, everyone in the SEC will miss Mike Bobo on some level.

First, the Bulldogs. He's been UGA's quarterbacks coach since 2001. That means the top two QBs in SEC history in passing yards—Aaron Murray and David Greene—came under his watch. Murray also set the SEC record for career passing touchdowns, and Greene finished his career as the winningest quarterback in I-A history (a record that would later be broken thanks in part to the 12-game schedule). He guided D.J. Shockley when he won an SEC title, and he developed Matthew Stafford into a No. 1 overall draft pick. Bulldog quarterbacks were in good hands with Bobo.

Bobo the offensive coordinator wasn't too shabby either. His offenses since taking over in 2007 failed to average at least 30 points per game just once (2009), and UGA was the highest scoring team in the league this year despite having lost Murray. On the advanced stats side, his offenses finished outside the top 30 nationally in S&P+ just once, in 2010. They finished in the top 15 four times, including each of the past three years.

So yeah: Bobo has been a good thing in his time in Athens. A very good thing. And yet, Bulldog fans have seemingly called for his head more times than they've barked at opposing fans. "Run the dang ball Bobo!" started out as a sincere cry of protest—and remained one until the very end for some folks—but it also ended up the most fun way to mock Bulldog fans (in a loving way, of course). The rest of us are going to have to teach our fingers not to type #FIREBOBO every time UGA runs a draw or screen on third-and-long, and knowing that has brought on kind of a sad feeling.

Everyone in the SEC will miss Mike Bobo. Whenever Mark Richt retires to a life of philanthropy and public service, Georgia could do a lot worse than to bring him back.