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Comments
Already has two rings, even if Texas goes 6-6. He's seen how fast injury can de-rail a season, let alone a career. If it really is about the $$, can't say I blame him.
@KhunKhaoDawg
Dan Mullen tried to build a program using the portal and it went horribly for him, so bad that it dragged down his predecessor.
Also, don't play the "woe is us due to the NIL" stuff. Notice how you don't see any guys on the 2 deep at OL, RB, TE, DB, LB or DL leave. WR is the only position where starters and - and guys in line to start - are leaving Athens. It is past time to acknowledge this and why.
Here is the reality: guys who have the ability to do so want to put up big numbers and attract attention from NFL scouts. There is no evidence that you can do so as a WR at UGA. That is why guys keep leaving. I tried to tell people this last season with the nonsense controversy over Jermaine Burton jumping ship, which people insisted was a blatant act by a selfish prima donna even though Burton was only 1 of 3 WRs who left last year.
Even this year, in a 15 game season where UGA set records on offense, the leading WR at UGA Ladd McConkey was #70 in NCAA receiving yards. Forget about being a 1st round pick with those numbers, and you would either need to run a 40 like Mecole Hardman or have rare ability like George Pickes to be a 2nd round pick. And McConkey had the best year by a WR ever in the Smart era. Even worse than that, after McConkey - who will be the #1 WR next season - the #2 and #3 WRs had 340 and 320 yards. How are you going to get drafted at all, let alone in the first 3 rounds, with numbers like that?
So Mitchell is going to play for Texas, because when Steve Sarkisian was at Alabama, he sent 4 WRs to the NFL as #1 picks - Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, Jaylen Waddle, Devonta Smith - in 2 years. And only a knee injury in the championship game to John Metchie III kept it from being 5, and Metchie still went in the 2nd round. This isn't unique to Alabama. LSU, Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, Florida, Miami and Clemson have all sent lots of WRs to the NFL when they have good coaching. I will tell you how absurd this is. Former UGA WR Matt Landers had more receiving yards for Arkansas last season than any UGA WR has had under Smart. And this for a team that doesn't run a pro-style offense and had injuries at QB. If KJ Jefferson doesn't miss 2 games, Landers gets 1000 yards easily. Landers wasn't the only guy who put up numbers either. Jadon Haselwood, the #2 WR, had 700 yards also. And this is with Arkansas playing 13 games instead of 15 like McConkey and the UGA WRs.
Yes, UGA signed 3 solid WR recruits in this class. But please know that if UGA's starting WRs continue to put up 50 yards a game like McConkey did last year or even less, those guys are going to leave also. Yes, Mitchell was hurt last year. But Jackson and Blaylock weren't. Everyone knows that Jackson and Blaylock had the ability to have more than 300 and 200 receiving yards like they did last season. Especially Jackson, who had 500 yards in 10 games just 2 years ago. So there is no evidence that even if he stayed healthy for 15 games he was going to put up more than 450 yards, and plenty of evidence that he wasn't.
If UGA wants to recruit more promising WRs and keep more of the WRs that they do land from transferring, this issue has to be addressed. It might rub Kirby Smart, a former defensive back, the wrong way to see WRs rack up numbers in his program. I recall how former QBs Bobby Bowden and Steve Spurrier grated at the idea of RBs having a starring role in their offenses (Spurrier to his credit got over this but Bowden never did, and it cost him at least a couple of national titles). But then again Nick Saban was a college defensive back too.
Did it occur to anybody, that Mitchell was advised to transfer, to make room for next year's upgrade at the WR position? He's leaving with 2 rings and a few great memories and I'm a fan. But, it's not about him or any one player at UGA.
I hope he stays healthy...I'd like to see him playing on Sundays, soon. Go get em kid.
Terrible approach to life my friend!
These receivers had so much potential but the injury bug... I hate to see them go.
This is a head scratcher for sure. He needs to see what happened to Burton when he left. Maybe he thinks, or knows, we aren’t going to throw it as much next year. Still SMH. Go Dawgs!!
The end result of Texas Oil money and Texas meddling... The NIL has effectively made College Football a REAL minor league for the NFL...
Lol...exactly how much "NIL Money" do you think Mitchell is worth? More than UGA's Collective was willing to give him? I highly doubt NIL money had anything at all, to do with his decision. He's only a year away from possibly, a huge payday in the NFL. All he has to do, is stay healthy and keep doing what he's doing.
If he played on any other team, with any other QB...nobody would know who Mitchell was. He's barely been on the field for the last two regular seasons. He made a name for himself, in the CFP.
Mr October (Reggie Jackson)...meet Mr December (AD Mitchell). He's a clutch player that Bennett and the Dawgs were fortunate to have, in the '21 & '22 CFP.
Oh...and watch out for McConkey, Rosemy-JackSaint and Arian Smith next year...not to mention Rara Thomas and Lovett. Dang...what a group! Those guys are going to stretch the field for Beck...or, whomever winds up being UGA's QB, in 2023.
Throw in all the other targets at the TE/RB position...and, the Dawgs are gonna be flat out, UNSTOPPABLE next year.
Did I miss where the article explains that Mitchell is just chasing a check and that's that?
This isn't unprecedented. Tyrique Stevenson was a starter - and in fact made a huge play for Georgia in the final seconds of his last game here, sort of like Mitchell's catch against Ohio State - and up and left to be closer to home, just like Mitchell appears to be. These comments judging him and questioning his character are embarrassing to read through. Even those that are neutral or positive, but still framed around the assumption that it's nothing more than NIL seem misguided in the absence of any real confirmation.
If I'm wrong about this, I'm sure y'all will let me know. Just be sure to bring more evidence than the mere fact that he's probably leaving.
@KhunKhaoDawg So after 2 nattys in a row, Kirby should change his offense to get better receivers, so those same receivers can get drafted higher? Kirby's job is to win games and championships, and he seems to be very good at it. But he needs to change so some receivers won't transfer in the portal and some may get drafted higher? Comments like yours make me even more thankful for CKS than I was before.
@KhunKhaoDawg
My apologies I was trying to respond to @thadec, who was responding to you. I am new at this I am also old. So that's 2 pretty good excuses right there. Go Dawgs.😀
i think AD had the best pure hands of all the receivers; saw him make some amazing catches in the two years. NIL may be a factor in his decision, but if it is, so what? That's part of the college sports' scene now. i like to think he's likely heading to Texas to be close to home as well as getting more focus time. We can only spread the ball around so much, and as long as we carry as talented and as large a receiver corps as we have, we won't likely have another receiver with AJ Green type numbers. One super star receiver (or RB or TE) is great to showboat one individual, but having five on the field at any one time, and the QB able to target any of them makes us extremely difficult to defend. Look at what TCU did to Texas; completely shut down Robinson, as he was their primary threat. i'm a little surprised to see AD leave, but i wish him look wherever he winds up.
Are. You. Flipping. Kidding. Me???!!!
Arch Manning, possibly? That doesn't even make sense, though...
@E_Roc
Yeah, man. I like the way you're thinking. This is always the catch with stuff like this. All we can do is speculate, and that's worth about half as much as a cowboy's fart. I commented just below before reading anyone else's comments, which isn't usually how I roll, but I was pretty taken aback by that news and... didn't follow personal protocol (HA!). Anyhow, YES! There's (almost) always more than money and fame involved (I can't imagine fame-chasing by going to Texas, even IF they've got a Manning on campus now; not for Mitchell, who has consistently made a name for himself in clutch situations for UGA over these past two (NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP-WINNING!!) years), and we cannot know what's going through kids' heads. More than that - as I've said here many times - it's not our business. Do we love the U of GA, and them boys that represent it on the gridiron? Heck, yes!! Do those same boys owe us any explanation for their decisions, even when those decisions cause us anxiety about what the future of that program is going to look lie? Heck, no! Do we have to be big boys and girls about it and not cast aspersions on young men who are being guided in all sorts of directions and still trying to figure the world out, because we know that it's not always so simple? Heccckkkkk no. Are we STILL allowed to wonder, even if our questions will almost definitely never be answered. Dang right!
All that to say, GO DAWGS! AD will be missed, but I've got a feeling we're going to be ok.