Hey folks - as a member of the DawgNation community, please remember to abide by simple rules of civil engagement with other members:
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Options
Whoever Georgia hires as new wide receivers coach will need to be comfortable with transfer portal
System
Posts: 10,461 admin
Whoever Georgia hires as new wide receivers coach will need to be comfortable with transfer portal
ATHENS — Per the official NFL combine list of invites, Georgia will have two wide receivers in Indianapolis. Ladd McConkey and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint will represent Georgia after having finished their careers in the Orange Bowl over Florida State.
Comments
Great to see the Wuerffel Trophy go to Ladd McConkey, a 3* recruit, a 5* player, and a 5*+ person.
Not so fast Connor...."And that Jermaine Burton and AD Mitchell were able to finish their careers elsewhere helps explain why the wide receiver position in general has become such a tricky one for Kirby Smart and the Georgia program."........I see it totally opposite.....the "right" hire, combined with the #1 QB, Carson Beck and the 50/50 offense Bobo strives for will be an attraction to skilled TP players.....Burton was an excellent lose as he was a self centered malcontent and Mitchell left for family reasons.
Connor Riley, you are going to need to be honest with UGA fans here. Look: Kirby Smart has been at UGA since 2016. Go to the UGA NFL draft Wikipedia page. You will see the following. Few WRs have been drafted from UGA under Kirby Smart. Fewer have been high draft picks (2nd round or better). Many have been busts, failing to even make it through their rookie contracts. NONE have become NFL starters that have had long careers and gotten big contract extensions. If George Pickens follows up his great first 2 seasons with a big 2024 and gets one, he will be the first. So when @MikeGriffith talks up journeymen making the minimum salary like Mecole Hardman (who was only able to get a 1 year $4 million deal from the Jets in free agency this offseason and the Jets cut him) and Chris Conley (who didn't even play for Smart as he left UGA in 2014) that may fool Georgia fans, who are convinced that everyone who isn't 100% sold on Smart and UGA is a selfish prima donna who will fail in football and in life, because - let's face it - such people want to be fooled. But it won't fool recruits. So when other programs point this out it is no more "negative recruiting" than is mentioning how Miami, USC, Texas, Penn State, Nebraska and Oklahoma haven't been factors in the national title hunt for 20 years - and Florida for 15 - to kids who want a ring. Meaning it isn't "negative recruiting" if it is true.
Yes Ladd McConkey may be a 2nd round pick. (People who are talking about him going in the 1st round based on his being the best WR at the Senior Bowl should recall that this year's elite WRs like Marvin Harrison Jr., the LSU tandem Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas, Washington's Rome Odunze, FSU's Keon Coleman etc. didn't attend.) But so long as the ceiling for WRs at UGA is the 760 yards and 7 TDs that McConkey put up in a 15 game season in 2022 then that is the sort of recruits that UGA should target: 3 star or maybe borderline 4 star diamonds in the rough that are great matches for the system that Kirby Smart wants to run. Guys who can LITERALLY put up twice those numbers like both Nabers (1570 yards) and Thomas (17 TDs) did for LSU this season are going to go elsewhere.
And we have real evidence that it is the system, not the players. See Dominic Lovett and Rara Thomas! Both guys transferred into UGA from winning SEC programs and saw their stats drop significantly, and this was a year where Carson Beck was #2 in UGA history in passing yards (had UGA made the playoff he would have easily been #1) and when McConkey and Bowers were injured and limited. Had Lovett remained at Missouri - who had two WRs with better numbers than any UGA WR - he likely would have put up numbers good enough to enter the draft this year (and Missouri likely finishes better than 11-2 with losses only to UGA and LSU, and both were very winnable in the 4th quarter). And while it is fun to mock Jermaine Burton, his 800 yards and 8 TDs is more than any WR in the Kirby Smart tenure and that was with the often hapless Jalen Milroe throwing the ball. So the people who claim that Burton would have put up better numbers this year at UGA, I would LOVE to know what they are basing that on. It is far more likely that he would have had 3 rings but 500 yards and 3 TDs. And if you think that NFL GMs care more about rings than productivity, you should look at last year's NFL draft where Kenny McIntosh and Kearis Jackson landed (7th and undrafted respectively).
As mentioned earlier, it isn't negative recruiting if it is true. 8 years in and we don't see a lick of evidence that Kirby Smart cares about the numbers that his WRs put up, and he doesn't care that UGA's RBs aren't putting up the numbers that Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, D'Andre Swift and Elijah Holyfield put up either. Sorry but NFL scouts do care, recruits know it and good luck convincing yourselves otherwise. Or just look at the NFL performance: the only Kirby Smart products to become regular starters without putting up big numbers at UGA were Pickens and James Cook. And Cook is going to have to do a lot better in 2024 than 4 career rushing TDs (to go with 5 career fumbles!) to remain a starter, let alone get a big contract.
LSU evidently will have the 2nd QB in the draft, and 1 or 2 1st round receivers. Where did that get them? UGA has 2 recent NC's. Even with moderate WR production. It's not needed. Ask Ohio St who pumps out more NFL WR talent every year than anyone else. WHat have they won? NADA! THey couldn't get past Michigan.
Would I like to get some 1st round receivers in here every year? Of course. But team wins. THere's more than one way to skin a cat and KCS isn't worried about his WR room. Neither should we. If recruits want to play for NC's they will come to Athens. IF they just want NIL or a certain number of stats let them go elsewhere.
For all but just a couple of schools the WR talent is cyclical. TIme will tell about if UGA can lure the best WR's or not, I think they will, but it's a luxury and not a necessity.