Kirby Smart has been radio silent since walking off the podium after Georgia’s 23-10 Sugar Bowl loss to Notre Dame. No pressers and no response to the storm swirling around OC Mike Bobo. Safe to say, while fans and media fired off hot takes, Smart kept his lips sealed. Then came January. Former Georgia QB Buck Belue stirred the pot on 680 The Fan radio station, claiming Bobo would resign the following week due to health reasons. But days turned into weeks, and nothing happened. No exit. No statement. Just silence from Athens.

And now, with spring football kicking off Tuesday, Mike Bobo is still calling the shots as Georgia’s offensive coordinator, entering year 3 of his 2nd stint in Athens. So, despite the noise, Bobo’s not going anywhere. In fact, he’s locked in. The Bulldogs quietly extended his contract last season after he was named a finalist for the Broyles Award, which honors the nation’s top assistant. And per records, Bobo is under a contract through the 2026 season. However, his salary? Climbing – from $1.4 million to $1.5 million in 2025, then to $1.6 million in 2026.

But not everyone in Bulldog Nation is celebrating. In fact, many are fuming. Georgia fans were hoping to see Mike Bobo shown the door—not handed a contract extension. To them, he’s the reason for the Sugar Bowl collapse. The offense sputtered, the play-calling fell flat, and with last season’s brutal schedule, they felt Bobo came up short. Again. And just when the calls for his firing grew louder, The Late Kick’s Josh Pate stepped in. He delivered a bold message straight to the heart of the Georgia fanbase—standing firm in defense of Bobo and daring the doubters to reconsider.

“There is a large contingent of the Georgia fan base that does not think their offensive coordinator is qualified to be their offensive coordinator—despite the fact that he’s been an OC for longer than most of them have been alive,” said Pate. Adding, “It’s just—the game’s passed him by. Or maybe he was never qualified, and he’s just best buddies with Kirby Smart, and so Kirby Smart, in some grand scheme to implode his own program and career, keeps gifting a coordinator position to someone who’s unqualified.” That’s the raw emotion. The boiling tension. Basically, the fanbase isn’t just frustrated—they feel stuck in a loop. And Pate? He’s simply voicing what many have shouted from the stands all season.

Then, Josh Pate continued his defense of Bobo, flipping the script on Georgia fans. He pointed out how easy it is to build a case when your mind’s already made up. Pate said, “And they have all the evidence in the world. They had the conclusion already, and then they find the evidence to support the conclusion. And the evidence is everywhere. Because if you think a coordinator is an idiot, then anything that doesn’t go right in a game is evidence that he’s an idiot.” Simply put, it’s confirmation bias at its peak.

Josh Pate didn’t just toss out a question to stir the pot—he came with answers. He leaned into the noise, then peeled back the curtain on how things really work in Athens. Honestly, he raised the real question—one that gets fans leaning in. “And so what our boy there is saying is: What if the fans are right? What if the haters/doubters of Mike Bobo are right?” asked Josh Pate. But he didn’t stop there.

He gave the inside scoop on who’s really pulling the strings on Saturdays. “Well, I’ll tell you where I fall on this. I don’t know that people realize what Mike Bobo is running. You may think Mike Bobo is running his offense—which in a way is true. But Mike Bobo’s running whatever offense Kirby Smart wants him to run. That’s really what’s happening. So in a way, it’s Kirby Smart’s offense,” said Pate. Translation: If you’re pointing fingers, you better know who you’re really blaming.

However, Josh Pate didn’t sugarcoat it—he took the conversation to the next level. He made it clear: if you’re bashing Bobo, you’re really pointing the finger at someone else. “Now that doesn’t absolve it. If you think it’s terrible, you think it’s terrible. All I’m trying to say is: If you think for a second Mike Bobo’s making any call on Saturday or philosophically doing anything with that offense that is not approved of by the head coach, you’re kidding yourself,” stated Pate. So, in other words—this is Kirby’s show.

And if you’re nodding along, thinking, “Exactly!”—then Pate says let’s just call it what it is. “So if you hate what Bobo’s doing, you hate what Kirby’s doing. And a lot of you are nodding your head like, ‘Yeah, that’s our point.’ Okay, so let’s establish that. So—a lot of you who hate what Bobo’s doing, you indirectly tie that to Kirby Smart. So you don’t approve of what Kirby Smart’s doing,” said Pate.

That’s the mic-drop. Don’t blame the messenger if the message hits hard. Here, Josh Pate brought the heat—backed with facts, not feelings. “All right, so my opinion on Mike Bobo: he’s a pretty good to really good offensive coordinator. We actually have him graded as a four-star offensive coordinator in our system. So we think he’s one of the better guys in the world at what he does,” stated the CFB analyst.

Sure, Pate admits Georgia fans might not agree. Many don’t. But here’s the challenge: “When you back it up, what do you back it up with?” This isn’t just hot air. Pate’s not asking to stir the pot—he knows the backlash is coming. “I will get a mountain of feedback on this, and a lot of it is: he can’t win big games, or like in clutch moments this or that or whatever—third down especially.” Still, here’s the kicker.”This is from the program that produced Third and Grantham, by the way,” according to Pate.

And just in case fans forgot, the data speaks loudest. “Do you know last year Georgia had a better offensive scoring efficiency than the year a couple years ago where they won the national championship?” said Pate. Simply, Bobo delivered. Whether the fans like it or not.

And when Josh Pate tried defending OC Bobo, analyst Paul Finebaum issued a strong verdict.

Paul Finebaum on Mike Bobo

Mike Bobo’s seat has been sizzling for months. Georgia fans lit the fire after the playoff loss to Notre Dame, calling for his job. But the heat didn’t stop there. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum has been one of Bobo’s loudest critics, echoing the fans’ frustrations. Still, despite the noise, Bobo’s job remains intact.

Paul Finebaum isn’t pulling punches. He recently called Mike Bobo an “inferior offensive coordinator.” That jab hit hard, especially with Georgia falling short of a national title in 2024. But let’s not ignore the full picture. Bobo didn’t have a perfect season—but it wasn’t a disaster either. The Dawgs were battered by injuries, especially on the O-line and in the backfield. Still, Bobo steered the ship to an SEC title and a CFP spot. Not elite? Maybe. But far from a failure.

So even if the crowd wants Bobo out, only one voice truly counts—Kirby Smart’s. And judging by the contract extension Bobo signed last year, he’s not packing his bags anytime soon. Let’s be real; love it or hate it – that’s the reality. At the end of the day, let Georgia fans do the griping. They don’t need outsiders telling Kirby how to run his show.