I’m sorry, Alabama and Georgia’s hires underwhelmed us

This cycle, Alabama and Georgia were once again dominant in the recruiting game.

Nick Saban was told that Alabama’s time was done, and Kirby Smart’s swear-fest at the National Championship didn’t turn out to be true, but **** that, it was a blast. And both teams are going to have players in the first round in the NFL.

But this offseason, it’s hard to be thrilled by their coordinator hires.

ALABAMA

WHO LEFT? DC Pete Golding (to Ole Miss as DC) and OC Bill O’Brien (New England Patriots OC)

WHO ARRIVED: Kevin Steele (new DC), and Tommy Rees (OC)

There was no great love for Golding when he was in Tuscaloosa. His detractors were many, and the team’s jacked-up defense struggling against a lot of teams and looking absolutely AWFUL against Tennessee and LSU. The team could have lost 4 games last year, and Golding would have been run out of town. Fortunately for him, he was rescued by Lane Kiffin, who took him to Ole Miss.

As for O’Brien, he was also deeply unpopular, despite having the No.11 offense in 2022 and the No.7 offense in 2021. You could back him by saying that he didn’t have the wide receiving hosses in 2022 that he did in 2021.

Arriving was Kevin Steele from Miami, where he coached the 65th-best defense, including blow-outs against mighty Middle Tennessee and Florida State. But he knows about defense, and he’s been around Nick Saban before – thrice. Still, Steele was nearly hired at Auburn, and we have a feeling he’ll have no feeling of loyalty towards the Tide.

As for Tommy Rees, it’s deeply uninspiring to have a guy who ran the country’s 60th-best offense, which included 21 points against Marshall and 14 against Stanford. Before that, Rees coached the country’s 45th-best offense. Yes, we know that Notre Dame was hamstrung because the Mighty Catholics’ rigorous academic allowances, but still…..it’s not interesting. Also, there was the fact that Washington OC Ryan Grubb turned Saban down.

GEORGIA

WHO LEFT: OC Todd Monken (to Baltimore Ravens, OC)

WHO ARRIVED: Mike Bobo (OC, previously offensive analyst at Georgia)

“Mike Bobo was an offensive analyst at Georgia, so therefore he’ll fit right into the role and take us back to the Promised Land”, said the excited ones that Bobo is going to take the senior headphones at Sanford.

However, a lot of people can’t quite forgive the fact that they’d see Bobo before, and it seemed like a lazy hire.

The reason why we’re underwhelmed is that while Bobo was fine as the OC under Mark Richt (if we’re honest, you can blame Todd Grantham and Richt’s loyalty to him that cost the team a title), he was plain bad as the head coach of Colorado State, the OC of South Carolina, and the OC at Auburn.

There is absolutely no question of Bobo’s recruiting prowess on the offensive level. He was the one who recruited Stafford, Murray, Nick Chubb, Todd Gurley and AJ Green – to name a few. But as an offensive coordinator, I’m not convinced.