Bobo and Muschamp Article

[eibua12 81]

Enjoy

Watching film of Auburn's defense this week, Georgia quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo wanted freshman starter Matthew Stafford to take notice of the high-energy guy on the sideline reacting to a big play.

"He laser pointed to their D-coordinator," Stafford said. "He was jumping up and down, and (Bobo) was like, 'Look at my boy.' "

Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and Bobo are former Georgia teammates and good friends who will become adversaries Saturday, when the Bulldogs visit the No. 5 Tigers.

Muschamp is in his first year running Tommy Tuberville's defense. Bobo will be looking down from the coaches' box at Jordan-Hare Stadium, looking for ways to help move the ball on Muschamp's unit.

"You build a common bond with guys you've played with and gone through the grind with," Muschamp said. "Mike's just a good person."

Muschamp recruits North Georgia and Cobb and Gwinnett Counties and spent time with Bobo at schools during the spring evaluation period. Muschamp said they haven't gone head-to-head on any prospects this year.

"We hit them together," Bobo said. "It's more a time to hang out and recruit. If a kid is a good player, you know you're both going to be recruiting them."

Muschamp, 35, helped run the Miami Dolphins' defense last season under Nick Saban, the former LSU coach. Muschamp was Saban's defensive coordinator at LSU from 2002-04, including a BCS national championship season.

Saban hired old friend, Dom Capers, to coach the defense, so Muschamp opted to leave the Dolphins and accept an offer at Auburn, where he was a graduate assistant from 1995-97.

"I've still got my house (in South Florida) on the market," Muschamp said. "If you want to buy it from me, just let me know."

Georgia's coaching staff has studied LSU's defense when Muschamp was coordinator and can see an NFL influence with the use of three linemen and matching up defensive end Quentin Groves against running backs on pass plays.

Senior linebacker Karibi Dede said Muschamp's blitz packages were a lot to handle.

"During two-a-days, it was one of those deals where I thought that this must be what the NFL is like," Dede said. "We put in something new every day, and I thought to myself, 'How are we ever going to figure all of this out?' ... Getting into the eighth game of the year, and every time we get into third-and-7, we're not running the same blitz that we ran since the beginning of the year. It's a blitz they've never seen."

Muschamp's demeanor also caught Auburn players off-guard.

"Earlier in the year, I think guys were a little intimidated by his style, just because he's so aggressive and because he has that fire and energy in him, any time of day or night," Dede said. "That's his nature. He coaches the game with a lot of emotion, and we feed off of it."

Muschamp's LSU defenses were in the top 15 in total defense and scoring defense, just like at Auburn, where the Tigers are fourth in points allowed (11.5) and 13th in yards (276.0).

"We've incorporated some things that we used at Miami," Muschamp said, "but we've gone back to a little bit of a spoon-feeding process to make sure that we can handle what we've got on our plate and that we can execute it well on gameday."

Muschamp walked on at Georgia out of Darlington High in Rome. He was defensive co-captain as a senior and finished his career with 156 tackles and three interceptions.

He's coached at six places since he left Georgia, but said the opportunity to coach at Georgia "never really has come up, but I'm very happy here at Auburn."

He speaks with admiration for the job that Georgia coach Mark Richt has done and contends that the Bulldogs just haven't had the breaks this year, mentioning they're playing a freshman quarterback, have had offensive line injuries, struggled to catch passes and lost tailback Thomas Brown.

"Georgia fans don't want to hear this, but it's one of those years," Muschamp said. "It's unfortunate."

Muschamp can relate. He was on the last Georgia team to lose to Vanderbilt in 1994.

"I appreciate you bringing that up," he joked. "Unfortunately for Auburn players and everybody else in the SEC now, Georgia has a lot better players now then they did then. They got rid of guys like me."