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Many of the players on this list have challenges to overcome if they’re to live up to expectations and the Georgia Bulldogs contend for a national title in 2025. For some it is overcoming injury. Or proving they can step into a new position. Or replace a long-time starter.

But no Bulldog faces a challenge quite as unique as new starting center Drew Bobo. Of course there’s the fact that he’a stepping into the shoes of the departed Jared Wilson, who took over as the starting center in 2024 and was drafted in the 3rd round by the New England Patriots.

Like Wilson before him, Bobo has played a lot of football in Athens before stepping into this role. Wilson saw action in 21 contests in 2022 and 2023 before taking over for Sedrick Van Pran-Granger. Bobo has seen action in 20 games over the past two seasons, making starts in 2024 against Auburn and Mississippi State. Entering his fourth season in the program there’s every reason to believe Bobo has the maturity (physical and mental) to serve as the quarterback of this offensive line.

That’s going to be a critical role, as the 2025 Bulldog offensive line is going to be protecting a new starter at quarterback in Gunner Stockton. Stockton’s performance is certainly important to the Athenians’ success this season, but the line is going to be even more critical this year precisely because he’ll be the least experienced starter in terms of total snaps played since Stetson Bennett stepped onto the scene. Carson Beck benefited from a good bit of mop up duty before taking the captain’s chair. Stockton packed a lot of learning into the second half of the SEC Championship Game and the Sugar Bowl. But he’s still relatively green, and Bobo is going to be counted on to keep him upright not just physically, but mentally.

As if that weren’t enough, Bobo obviously has a challenge that no one else on this team faces. He needs to demonstrate that where he is because he can handle the job, not because of who his dad is. I think we can all agree that Kirby Smart would yell at his own mother if she were letting the team down. he and frankly Mike Bobo is no different. My suspicion is that as an offensive coordinator he expects more out of his son as the starting center than he would out of anyone else.

But that won’t stop some fans from yelling from section 603 if they think Bobo missed a block, or a protection call, or just generally is on the field when the offense isn’t moving. He’s a convenient scapegoat in the same way as (and perhaps as an extension of) his old man, the OG of convenient targets for Bulldog fan ire.

I don’t envy Drew Bobo that challenge. But I think he’a up to it. As a reminder, we’re talking about an offensive lineman who very much helped deliver an SEC Championship by throwing a critical 4th down pass to Arian Smith. That’s a clutch play in a clutch moment. And he’s been around the Bulldog program long enough to know what’s expected.

I’m not saying Drew Bobo has the prototype physical tools to be a first round NFL Draft pick. But there may not be a position on the field where that matters less than at center. Ben Jones, Boss Andrews, and Van Pran-Granger all also were subject to some question marks when they took over this role. They answered those questions on the way to NFL futures. I expect Bobo to do the same.

Go ‘Dawgs!!!

This post was originally published on this site

Things will look a little different around here today.

A few weeks ago we told you something new was coming to Dawg Sports and today it’s here. Things are cleaner, faster and easier to use. There are the same writers, coverage, comments, and community you’ve come to rely on, now with less clutter and clunkiness. 

Let’s dive in. If you scroll down the page on your phone or computer, it’s smoother. You’ll notice that the most talked-about stories have a bigger font displaying the number of comments. You’ll also see a section called Active Conversations to point you to the busiest conversations right now. 

But there’s two changes we’re most excited to tell you about:

Fewer ads for logged-in users

Our loyal readers and commenters are the heartbeat of our communities, and with this new design we’re excited to offer them fewer ads when they’re logged in. Specifically:

• Video players will no longer chase you down the page. Just scroll past one and it will be gone.
• Full page pop-ups that would sometimes interrupt your commenting experience have been disabled.

You can log in or sign up here and check it out. 

A new feature by the community, for the community: The Feed

Today we’re launching a brand new space for you to come together. The Feed is a running stream of posts and updates from you, the community, mixed in with links and updates from the team and our staff. Think of it as our community’s group text where you can easily grab your phone and share a link to a story, post a question or write your own post on the day’s news. 

You can find it in two places:

• On the homepage, adjacent to the top stories. Community participation is core to who we are, so we want it right on the front page to share your stuff.
• A devoted homepage for The Feed where you can see the full stream of posts coming in from the community. You might want to bookmark that.

Log in or sign up here and you can start posting on The Feed and seeing fewer ads immediately. 

Today’s launch is a big deal for our community, and it’s also a kickoff of broader efforts to build around the community we have here. Soon you’ll get alerts when someone replies to your comment or your post on The Feed, with more to come thereafter. We want to put the community in the driver’s seat, so let us know what you want in the comments below or in The Feed.

If you want to dig into more of this updated experience, head over to this post on sbnation.com from SB Nation’s Head of Product Ed Clinton, where he expands on the changes in our ads and design. Ed will be responding to questions in the comments. If you have any questions about how to log in to our new system, check out this article from last week.