Last season, Drew Bobo replaced Jared Wilson as the starting center, with his last name stitched across his back like both a blessing and a burden. The campaign went well for both the son and the father. The latter made it to the finalists for the Broyles Award. When interviewed during the award ceremony, Mike Bobo’s talked about his center and also included a surprising update about another son.

“First of all, gotta thank his mother, Laney Bobo,” Mike Bobo told ESPN’s Holly Rowe when asked about Drew Bobo. “She raised five children, really six. She raised me. True coach of the household.”

Then came the big reveal. Georgia’s offensive coordinator said that his son Jake is on the team now, too. He joins the Bulldogs as a preferred walk-on, bringing a solid high school resume with him.

In his final season at Prince Avenue Christian High School, Jake went 74-of-114 for 1,266 yards and 13 touchdowns, with just one interception, while sharing quarterback duties with sophomore Ben Musser on a Class 3A-A private runner-up team. Last year, he joined Samford as a walk-on.

After the big reveal, Mike Bobo returned to discussing Drew, who had an impressive season with Georgia.

“We’re so proud of Drew; he was not a four- or five-star. He was a developmental guy,” Mike Bobo said. “I wanted him to go to a program. I wasn’t at the University of Georgia at the time. I wanted him to go to a program where there was going to be a standard and accountability, and that’s what Kirby Smart is about.”

Drew’s journey was nomadic, taking him to three high schools in three years, from Colorado to South Carolina to Alabama. He was a 6-foot-5, 290-pound three-star who flipped to Georgia and came here without the five-star label. Then came 2025. The offensive line was hit with injuries, and Drew was the one holding it together, making the calls, and helping Gunner Stockton while players rotated around him.

“Drew makes all the calls. Drew makes all the decisions,” Smart said. “He knows fronts. He anticipates things.” For a while, he led the offensive line. Georgia finished third in the SEC in sacks allowed and fifth in rushing.

And then he suffered a hand injury against Texas and a foot injury before halftime against Georgia Tech. The Bulldogs kept going without him. Now Drew is all set to return in 2026, after another offseason spent rehabbing. And long before the injuries, Drew had already been built for this.

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Built in the spotlight

There’s something about being the coach’s kid at the Georgia Bulldogs that toughens you early. You hear the criticism about your dad at dinner.

Drew grew up watching his dad, Mike Bobo, live in that spotlight. He was Georgia’s quarterback in the mid-90s, then joined as an offensive coordinator, then became a head coach at Colorado State, then bounced through the SEC again before coming home to Athens.

“The stars never really mattered to Drew,” Laney Bobo said last year. “He’s just always put his head down and worked.” And maybe that’s why he was so reliable, as he didn’t allow a single sack or pressure breakthrough.

He wasn’t supposed to be polished. He comes from a Colorado program that didn’t churn out Power Five linemen.

“We knew he was really raw,” Laney Bobo admitted. “We knew he had potential, and it was his choice whether to develop it.”

That choice shows up now in the middle of what Kirby Smart called a “mash unit” offensive line. Guys dropping around him; Earnest Greene out, Monroe Freeling limping off, Micah Morris in and out. And there’s Drew—333 snaps in, second-most on the team.

“It’s when you’re sitting in the middle, and you’ve got to communicate to your left and right,” Smart said. “He has to be the guy to send the message down the line.” Drew shrugs at it, saying, “I’m confident with everybody… a lot of people need to step up and just play winning football.”

Laney laughs when she looks back at how proud they are every time Drew takes the field. And now, in the middle of Georgia’s offensive line, that steadiness is exactly what holds everything together.