Mike Bobo has drawn breath on this earth for 41 years, and the vast majority of those breaths have pulled in Georgia air. A native of Augusta, Ga., Bobo has worn Bulldog colors nearly his entire adult life, first as a Georgia quarterback, then as a Georgia graduate assistant, then as Georgia's quarterbacks coach, and finally as Georgia's offensive coordinator. Until this winter, his only dalliance out of the state was a year's stay as Jacksonville State's quarterbacks coach.
He gave some thought to being a Georgia lifer. And then he took a job that was very much not in Georgia - as Colorado State's head coach.
Part of taking the job was about moving himself up a rung on the professional ladder, about positioning himself to possibly do what Colorado State's last head coach, a former SEC offensive coordinator, did and parlay the Colorado State job into an SEC job. And, as he told USA Today's Nicole Auerbach, part of the reason he took the job was that Bobo recognized the value in change for the sake of change.
"It was more that I just kind of wanted to do something different and get out of my comfort zone," Bobo said. "It's not easy being a coach in the SEC or a coordinator, I'm not saying that. But it had become almost 15 years of doing the same thing at the same place. I wanted to experience something new. Did I know it would be out west in Colorado? No.
"I thought that I was becoming somewhat comfortable there at the University of Georgia. You're there so long as a player, as a coach, you almost become part of the woodwork. I didn't know if — we were doing different things offensively, but I didn't know if I was growing like I should as a coach. I didn't know if my family was growing. I think sometimes when you move — I moved around a lot in the state growing up with my dad a high school coach — and I think moving helps with growth for children, having to experience new things."