Georgia football coordinators met with the media Wednesday afternoon to discuss fall camp and the upcoming 2026 season.
Meeting with the media were offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, assistant head coach/tight ends coach Todd Hartley, defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach Travaris Robinson, and the Director of strength and conditioning, Scott Sinclair.
Below is a transcript of the fall camp comments from Bobo and Schumann that was provided by UGA:
John and Alice Sands Offensive Coordinator Coach Mike Bobo
On the keys to having an explosive offense…
“It comes down to a lot of things. Identifying playmakers that make plays; we call it competitive excellence. When opportunity presents itself to make a play, you make those plays, and a lot of times you can’t script those in camp. You’re installing, the offense is installing, defense is installing, but opportunities are going to come your way. When that opportunity comes, you make that play for the offense to be explosive, but a lot of things go into that, not just playmakers. We have got to protect; we have got to see things better at the quarterback position. I think all of that has been improving since the spring, with the older we’re becoming at that position and then being more aggressive at times to push the ball down the field. We had a young, first-year starter last year at quarterback, and we want to protect him some with a run game and some easy outlets to Zachariah Branch. I think the more he matures, the more we’ll be able to evolve as an offense.”
On WR Tre Shields…
“Tre is from right up the road. Coach Andrew Thacker has a relationship with those coaches and found out about him and sent us some film. Coach Smart, Coach Coley and I evaluated the film and decided to give him an opportunity. We are glad he’s here. He is a hard-working young man; he is young. He didn’t get to go through spring, so he’s still learning, but I am glad he’s a Bulldog.”
On opportunities to play other quarterbacks to give others rest…
“Those opportunities are happening right now. The way we treat practice for us is like games. We have two big scrimmages in our stadium, and we feel like when we scrimmage, we’re going against one of the best defenses in the country. Our defense, gets a chance on a daily basis to practice against those guys. R=Those guys are being evaluated right now, and all are doing a good job and given multiple opportunities, but those two scrimmages will be big for those young quarterbacks this year.”
On replacing big playmakers and tailoring this year’s offense…
“We lost a lot of production, and a lot of that production was Zachariah Branch. We lost a lot of experience last year with some skilled players, the four receivers and the tight end, so that’s what we’re in the midst of doing right now. We are trying to find out who we are and the best way for us to move the ball offensively to control the game, to be explosive. We’re in a competition for that. It is not just necessarily the receiver position; it is not just a tight end position. It is trying to figure out a balance of what we do best as an offense, what our quarterbacks do best as an offense, who we’re going to tailor, and how we’re going to try to get touches to those people. I think every year offensively, you’re a little bit different. I think everybody in this room knows we want to run the ball here. You have got to be able to run the ball; you have got to be able to stop to run. That method of winning football games is never going to change here at the University of Georgia under Coach Smart, but as an offense, besides running the ball, how are we going to be explosive? Who’s going to get those touches? That’s our job as coaches to figure that out.”
On his thoughts on this year’s wide receiver room…
“We lost a lot of guys in the receiver room. Everybody talks about Zachariah [Branch] with 80-something catches, but you lose Dillon Bell, Noah Thomas, Colbie Young; a lot of experience. We have got talented guys at the University of Georgia, but they’re young. They have got opportunities; those touches have to go somewhere. They’re doing a good job of competing. I really don’t want to single out one guy. We have finished six practices; we have got a day – it was just meetings today – but we have two more before a big scrimmage. Not that the scrimmages are the end-all, be-all. It is a collective work, but we’re working toward that scrimmage for those guys to go out and make them in more game-like situations. Those guys have done a good job of competing, and I like that there is good competition in that room.”
On QB Gunner Stockton’s ability to take chances to push the ball down the field…
“I think it’s experience. I think it’s having confidence in what you see. Throwing on time tells you a lot as a quarterback, but you can’t be so risk-averse that you are afraid to push the ball down the field. Now, number one, a really good thing about Gunner [Stockton] is that he didn’t turn the football over a lot, which is huge. When you push the ball downfield and you’re a little more aggressive, sometimes turnovers happen, so there’s that fine line. Through spring practice and these six practices, we have talked about pushing the ball downfield, being aggressive, and you learn what you can and can’t do. Right before I came in here, we were watching NFL scrambles of guys making plays, scrambling in the pocket, keeping their eyes downfield, and Josh Allen makes this unbelievable throw. My quote in there to those guys was, ‘Don’t overestimate your ability. You’re not Josh Allen. You can’t make that throw, so you have got to know what you can and can’t do.’ There are chances for explosives on broken plays. Gunner had a lot of those last year on broken plays where he scrambled and made plays, but sometimes he didn’t give enough space between him and the defender and took some wicked shots. A lot of that’s on Gunner. I told him, ‘A lot of that’s on you’. That is who he is to some extent. He is going to hold on to that ball to the last minute to try to make a play. We have been working on trying to extend plays and being a little safer in and out of the pocket, and he has done a good job of that. It is something we’re working on hard with him, day in and day out. We are getting examples of that; we’ve tried to create more scrambles in practice, and then I’ve tried to call more plays where we can push the ball downfield. Now sometimes we call that play, and they play a coverage, and the right play is to check it down to the back. We have got to do that, too, as a quarterback.”
On Stockton’s mindset…
“In one experience, the more a guy plays, the more guys get repetition, the more confident he’s going to feel in that position. The thing I love about Gunner, we all know his toughness, we see that toughness, but this guy never thinks he’s arrived. He’s always willing to listen. He’s always willing to take coaching, whether it’s in a field room or sometimes it’s hard coaching on the field. He’s not sensitive. He wants to do what’s best for the team. It might be him improving in some ways, and he’s worked hard on the areas that we, Coach [Brandon] Streeter and myself, have asked him to work on, and he’s continued to work on them. It’s never a, ‘Why do we do this?’. It’s, ‘How can I help the team be better?’. He knows that he needs, we all need to play better and coach better in certain situations, and there’s always room for improvement. He’s always constantly, every day, striving to improve as a player.”
On getting more out of the tight ends this season…
“That kind of goes back to trying to figure out who our identity is this year, and we lost a lot of experience in that receiving room. We have a little bit more experience coming back in the tight end room. You’re constantly in the competition to see if you’re in more 11 personnel, more 12 personnel. You have to ask what benefits us each game going in, and where do we have the most experience. We’ve got guys that have played some football, and Lawson Luckie and [Jaden] Reddell got a little action last year and two young freshmen that played a little bit last year. I feel good about that room because we’ve got some depth, and we have good competition. When you have depth and good competition, those guys usually find their way on the field.”
On what the offseason looks like going into fall camp…
“I think you look at what you’ve got coming back and you self-scout yourself, and then you do studies of other teams and how they’ve used personnel and personnel groupings. That stuff that we did in the offseason, like different ways to use tight ends out of different personnel groupings, different ways to get guys touches. You do all kinds of studies, and then things kind of evolve through fall camp. Who emerges? Is there a young guy that emerges? Are these guys a little bit better than you thought? Are we more explosive in this personnel group? It’s an evolving thing that, as a coach, you’re trying to find the right mixture of who to put on the field and win and try to help your team get first downs and be explosive. I do think, us at Georgia, we have a big volume of offense. We do a lot of things offensively, and we don’t carry all those things in one game. Our volume allows us to be multiple from game to game and how we want to attack somebody. When you have multiple positions, whether it’s tight end, receivers or backs, and you’ve got good depth at all of those, it allows you to do more things.”
On having an offensive player to consistently depend on…
“I think there are a lot of different ways to move the ball and be explosive, but I think anytime you’ve got a guy that guys are constantly worried about on the defensive side, I think it allows you to do more things off of that. Over the years, our offense here, since I’ve been here or previously, runs through the quarterback sometimes. If they’re good at distributing, the defense has to defend everybody. You might have that one guy that they put a little more attention to, but the quarterback does the right thing. If you’ve got players at all these positions that you talked about, you got to trust them to go make plays. I think when you can do things, a lot of different things, You’ve got a chance to be real, real successful. Last year, as I said earlier, we had a first-year quarterback, and a lot of what we did was here to protect him and allow him to get confidence in the run game, which is always going to help a quarterback security blanket. Zachariah Branch and some of these screens and throws helped him gain confidence. When he gained confidence, I thought he [Stockton] started to play better the later we got in the season.”
On the wide receivers in the 2025 class…
“Those are all of the guys that were true freshmen last year, the class of Thomas [Blackshear], Tyler [J. Williams] and [CJ] Wiley. These guys are talented guys, and they’re out there right now competing for a position to get in the rotation and get opportunities. It goes back to what I said earlier. We’re looking for guys that when the opportunity comes, they have that competitive excellence to make that play, and it’s not necessarily down the field. It might be turning a hitch into an explosive play, and then we’ve signed some guys this year. There’s not really one guy that I want to single out. That’s going to happen over time when we play football and scrimmage. Who’s going to emerge? There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for one of those guys to be one of those guys to get the ball thrown to them on multiple occasions.”
On in-helmet communication…
“There were little reminders with Gunner. Before, I might say the play, the situation and what we’re thinking here. Sometimes we operate fast and are able to talk to him while he’s at the line, but we’re a no huddle, so we’re not a fast. Sometimes it gets below 15 seconds, so my talks with him have to be a little bit before I give the play. When we are going faster, he’s at the line, and I’m able to talk to him a little bit. These guys prepare very well. Sometimes you don’t want to confuse them, but you want to give them little reminders. As far technology goes, I think when you look at those, you get immediate feedback after every drive. You can see how the top teams are playing, so you’re able to make adjustments or do a little bit of something different a lot quicker than in years past. A lot of times it might be, ‘Hey, I have to wait to halftime’, and we have to draw it up. We have to talk about it. Now, you’re able to see it, and you’re able to communicate it, either from the sideline to the booth or the booth to the sideline. You’re seeing that from more teams. You have the teams that go fast and talk to the guy. Then you have the teams that huddle more. I think Indiana, they might’ve huddled every play. They’re breaking that huddle in less than 15 seconds, so that the defensive coach can’t talk to their guy on the field about the formation of what we want to run here. You’re seeing kind of two different sides, and we kind of want to be multiple and do it all.”
Fain & Billy Slaughter Defensive Coordinator Inside Linebackers Coach Glenn Schumann
On the goals and message to the defense this season…
“I think when you go through the offseason, the whole offseason, all the way up through fall camp until you get into game planning, it’s still about making sure that the culture and identity is right because that’s what pushes you through. The things that matter to playing great defense, they don’t really change. Obviously, you address things if there’s areas that you want to improve, but it would not matter if you led the country in a category. You would not be better the next year than you were the year prior. There’s not a pointed message in terms of this specific category or that specific category. You have to be better at everything. Ultimately, to have an elite championship level defense, you cannot have any weak spots, especially in the format we’re in now, where you have to win postseason games back-to-back-to-back. You better be well-rounded and complete and not have any weaknesses. The goal, like I said, is to create the culture and identity of what we want to be and then make sure that we do not have any of those weaknesses.”
On the addition of outside linebackers coach Larry Knight to the staff…
“It was very apparent in the interview process. You talk to people on the phone, you Zoom with people, and then you decide to bring people in, and it was very apparent early on in that process, the way that he fit both in terms of viewpoints, values, and also personality-wise for what mattered to us as a teacher, as a team guy. Then, his impact to be able to have with the players, and then his specialty in terms of coaching at his position, adding value from a pass rush standpoint, and in the run game, in the way that he coaches. It was very apparent that the transition was going to go really smoothly. Obviously, you’re in a place, you have new terminology and you want to get on the same page about some of those things that are non-negotiables, but then he’s also helped us in a lot of ways, grow. It’s been great, the players love him, the staff loves him, and it has been an excellent transition.”
On simplifying the defense…
“I think the defense becomes simpler. The older guys get, the simpler it feels. There’s a reality there that people always use this expression about, well, the game’s going to slow down. Well, that’s kind of an unfair statement, because then guys just sit around and wait for it to slow down for them and then they feel like if the game’s not slowing down to them, they’re like, well, there’s something wrong with me. It’s a coach’s job to speed the players up, so that they’re playing faster. The game’s moving the same speed, they’re playing faster, and so in some ways, I think when it feels simpler they have now sped up in terms of their processing. We do evaluate and that’s one of the things we’ve done every year since we’ve been here. When we go and do self-scout. We don’t just evaluate whether this call gave up this many yards per rush, and this many yards per pass, and it created this much havoc, and gave up this many explosives. That’s the hard data, but we look at it from the standpoint of, what about this terminology? It might be the same call, and when we are talking to the staff, there is an inconsistency in how we’re verbalizing what we’re teaching. It’s the same call, but we’ve changed names of calls from year-to-year to make it more digestible for the next time. I think some of that happens, where you try to compartmentalize the vocabulary into families, so that it’s digestible, but it’s not the same, it’s not a different defense. It’s not different rules to that defense, but it’s how it’s being communicated to them, and it’s always our job to teach the players and allow them to play fast while still creating problems for the opponent. I think there’s a little bit of their experience that they’ve gained and then with each year, we try to streamline the terminology more where there’s hiccups.”
On OLB Chase Linton’s development in the offseason…
“I think that Chase is a really disruptive player. For a guy that’s not a ton of bulk, he’s put on good bulk and strength. He has a lot of play strength, which is really important because you can be a big guy that does not play big. Some of the edges are heavier than him, but he throws his body around with a kind of reckless abandon, which you need to do out there, especially pulling guards. His ability to transition rush is a big deal. When you rush on third down, and you’re looking at 90% plus pass scenarios, like where you’re subbing your packages, all that other stuff, that’s great. A lot of people can generate pressure in those scenarios, but the ability to transition rush and go from a playing run and getting in the pass rush, that twitch that he has, and the kind of way he plays the game, really translates in that area. I think that’s what he has, a play style that matches up with how we play, but also some ability to generate more of that pass rush, in addition to what he can do at the end of the day.”
On the edge rushers…
“It’s just natural growth and development. We were all really pleased with how Q [Quintavius Johnson] played last year. It was his first time taking on a full rep load. It was interesting because he went from not playing very much at all to playing every snap. When you look at that, his growth over the course of the season was immense. We take a lot of pride in how we practice here, and we always want to say that we want to make practice harder than the game. Our players buy into that and coaches buy into that, but there’s nothing that replicates game experience. It’s different when you get into the flow of a game, get into a rhythm that way, and gain confidence when you’re under the lights in front of the people in the stands. Gabe [Harris Jr.] was in the same boat. Gabe had played a little bit more than he (Quintavius Johnson] had, but he took on a huge workload. Those guys are going into their second year in featured roles. When you’re coming out of high school, there is a large amount of strength it takes to play that edge position. We’re not talking about knowing passing scenario on third down, but to do the complete job and set edges against the grown men in this league, offensive tackles, and the tight ends in this league, that requires technique, fundamentals, mentality, and a significant amount of play strength. Even if you look at a guy like Travon [Walker], he played only on third down for his first two years. He was the number one overall pick, and then he played 600 snaps the next year. He had become a complete player, right? I just think that there were some guys in that room that have ability. That’s why they’re here. Nobody gets here by accident, and then their maturation from strength and conditioning, being with Coach Scott Sinclair, but also playing the game. You watched all those guys step up to be able to be in more depth in that room, and we always want to be able to play two or three guys in every position. If you’re talking about between defensive end and edge rush, looking at five or six guys that can play at a really high level, so that we’re able to play with the effort that we need and keep guys fresh. I think there’s a lot more available in terms of players that are more, and then guys that did play, but maybe it was their first real game experience. They’ve taken the next step, too, so that’s been really pleasing to them.”
On the importance of the safeties to the defense…
“Production matters, obviously production matters in the game, but production matters in live scrimmage scenarios. It matters in practice. Right now, when you look at work, we completed six days of practice, right? The first six to seven days, that’s where the heavy install comes in. That’s where every day something new is coming in on both sides of the ball. Then you’re getting it in, you’re repping it, you’re correcting it, and you’re fixing it, and then the communication and execution gets better. We’ve got some run fits and pattern matches. The first six, seven days, you’re repping people, in terms of the depth chart, just to make sure everybody gets enough reps. Every day we have a rep chart at every position, and we want to make sure there’s nothing out of whack. Especially when you have a competition. You want to make sure the guys are all competing. You want to make sure you’re not having one guy taking 40 reps in practice of live and one guy in the same competition takes 25. You are being really intentional about them getting enough reps, so you can evaluate them, and they can get better, so that when it’s time for our first scrimmage, and then the week after the second scrimmage, that you’re really able to assess who needs to be playing. Right now, it’s still more about making sure that everybody in that room can play at a really high level, an executed high level. The next two weeks is really where the separation starts. I always view the first scrimmage as a moving day. It’s like some people move up and down, and then after the second scrimmage, you have to have a little bit of a back and forth because now you’re getting into game week prep, but you’re still constantly developing everybody in the room. We’re not to that point yet, but there are a lot of guys vying for those spots. Then, we got to decide, ‘Hey, how many of those guys are we going to play,’ because you want to play everybody that deserves to play. If somebody can help us win, you want to create a role for them. We have to determine how many of those guys cannot do that, but there’s definitely every guy’s unique skill set, and it’s a fun room. It’s a fun competition.”
On the past and present experiences preparing him to become a head coach in the future…
“I think every day of your life is significant, no matter where you are. Not to be cliche or something but think about this. Every day in some form or fashion somebody shapes you into the person that you become. I just think I’ve had the privilege of being around some of the best in the game, not just from a coaching standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint, from how people run a meeting room, how they handle tough situations, how they handle the staff. There’s attention to detail every single day, whether it’s here or whether it was there, it sets the tone for everybody in the organization. There’s a level of urgency to that approach, and your personality has to be your personality. I just think when you’re around people that are really good at what they do, whether that’s head coaches or assistant coaches or players, you learn from everybody you’re around. I think that’s how everybody gets prepared for their next step in life. I think I’m more prepared today than I was yesterday for the job that I’m doing today. I have tomorrow, hopefully I’ll go to the practice field. Then, I’m a better coach tomorrow than today. Now thinking about this question with you. Every day has to matter, right? If every day is significant in your growth and maturation, then you’re not wasting a day.”
On S Khalil Barnes and his recruiting process…
“The recruiting process is always interesting because you evaluate your final list of signees, but there’s a timeline. Sometimes the dominoes just fall as they fall, and he was always a guy that we acknowledged was a good football player. There was never any doubt about that, but we made a decision to pursue some guys more heavily. Those guys decided to come to Georgia, and that was our DB class for that year. Fortunately, he’s here now, and that’s one of the beauties of how college football works now. Sometimes people tend to focus on the negatives, but there’s always good with bad, and there’s always bad with good. It’s awesome that we’re able to get him here at Georgia. We’re very fortunate that he’s here with us. He’s an instinctive playmaker. He’s smart, and you can tell that he’s played a lot of football. He had on-ball production at Clemson and in high school, and he’s a guy that we think can do that for us here. Think about Dominic Sanders. Dominic Sanders picked off a lot of passes in high school. What did Dominic Sanders do in college? Picked off a lot of passes. A guy doesn’t intercept the ball very often, then all of a sudden you expect him to intercept a bunch of passes. Your job is to help them grow. Think about Tykee Smith. Tykee was great at punching the ball out, and he did some of that here. What does he do for the Tampa Bay Bucs? He punches the ball out. Now, you’re going to drill things to hone in on technique and fundamentals to maybe help somebody who is not proficient at doing it yet get better at it. Certain guys have a knack for being around the ball, and he’s shown that, and that’s definitely shown up. He’s really fun to coach. He’s eager to learn, and he’s taken on the challenge of a new system in stride. He’s acclimated to being part of this team and our culture really well.”
On ILB Zayden Walker…
“It’s immense progress in terms of there’s an element for anybody that comes out of high school. There’s a change from being on the field where you’re the best player, to now being in a place where there’s lots of good players and everything matters. Your stance matters, your alignment matters, where your eyes are matters, in terms of how you do things. The details of each piece of your job is really important, and I’ve just been really proud because of how much he was not able to go through spring. He had to be really intentional in how he went through the meeting time and his prep, not being able to do it live. Everybody’s going to grow the most by getting to do it and practice it, so how he approached this summer, in terms of both mentally and technically, and how he’s approached camp. He’s been really diligent in the way that he’s worked, and he’s making progress. Obviously, we saw that he could help in terms of some things last year, down the stretch, third down wise, he was able to go play [edge rusher] some. When he went to [edge rusher] that day, then we moved Chris [Cole] around a little bit, because Chris was playing [edge rusher] on third down, and then to get Zayden in the game, to get our best 11 on the field, which is what you want to do. We started moving Chris around some and then more Zayden, so he can grow as a complete backer. We blitz those guys, we cover with them, they line up all over the place, which he has, and he needs to keep doing. The more he can do, the more he can help us, and so we look forward to seeing where that goes.”
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The back-to-back SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs are scheduled to open the 2026 season on Saturday, September 5 against the Tennessee State Tigers at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. The game will kickoff at 3:00pm ET and will be a streaming-only event on SEC Network+ (Buy Tickets).