SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
Mike Bobo signed his contract early last week and his first order of businesses wasn’t meeting with the team or a fancy press conference to announce the hire.
He hopped in a car and started to hit the recruiting trail.
With national signing day roughly a week away when he became South Carolina’s offensive coordinator, getting out and seeing recruits—both commitments and targets—was imperative.
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“It’s all about trying to build relationships with these guys and it’s hard doing it when you come in the last week,” Bobo said. “I’m just telling them who I am and what I’m about. I’m trying to lay it out for them that I’m going to be the same guy every day. I’m going to be genuine, I’m going toe be real and coach you hard but put my arm around you. I’m trying to lay out what to expect from me when they get here.”
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Bobo made sure to hit prized quarterback commit Luke Doty first, the same day he was approved by the Board of Trustees, before heading down to Georgia to see committed running back Rashad Amos and target Jaheim Bell.
His goal was to make sure those guys feel comfortable with him and know what to expect if and when they get on campus and before they sign their letters of intent Wednesday.
“With the early signing day, that’s part of it,” Will Muschamp said. “You want to get guys on the road and build relationships. I don’t want a guy to sign in December and Coach Bobo is our offensive coordinator and he’s thinking, especially at the skill position and quarterback position, ‘Well I haven’t met the guy.’ I think it was important to see those guys as best we could.”
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Coaches are in a dead period right now leading up to signing day so Bobo can't meet in-person with any prospect or his family, but can talk over the phone with them.
Bobo doesn’t have a specific recruiting area just yet but recruited the state of Georgia while working in Athens and pulled in some talented prospects there.
He was back there the other week visiting both Amos and Bell, and should bring some savvy experience from his time recruiting the state over almost every stop he’s had in his career.
Bobo also made sure to mention he loves to recruit the state of South Carolina as well.
“It was good to be back in the South and we recruited the south heavily at Colorado State. Everybody recruits Georgia heavily,” Bobo said. “There are good players in this state. I was telling Will the other day, Every time we signed a player out of this state, they were players for us at the University of Georgia. I’m excited about the guys we have in this state. We’re always going to recruit the neighboring states.”
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The early signing period begins Wednesday and will go until Friday before the regular signing period in February.
They’ll have a handful of prospects sign in the early period with a few big targets, like Jordan Burch and Bell announcing college decisions this week as well.
Right now, 48 hours out, Muschamp likes where things stand.
“Signing day is a marathon. We’ll finish part of the marathon Wednesday,” he said. “We have to keep running until February but I like where we are.”
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