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Zachariah Branch will need to be more than a special teams star to help Georgia football in 2025
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Zachariah Branch will need to be more than a special teams star to help Georgia football in 2025
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I want see one transfer actually be a star contributor. Time will tell….
AS LONG AS Zach Branch is healthy he should be head and shoulders better than DLovett in the slot. As a KR/PR he may be one of the best in the country. As a freshman for USC he was electric.
Jake Ganus
Lawrence Cager
JT Daniels
Derion Kendrick
Tykee Smith
Trevor Etienne
Xzavier McCloud
Actually UGADad20 this isn't true. What Connor Riley, @MikeGriffith and the rest of the Dawgnation writers omit is that the drops for Lovett and company last season were a symptom rather than a cause. The real issue: they lacked the talent to get separation. So because they put all their effort into getting separation from defenders, they had "nothing left" to actually catch the football. Why they had so much trouble separating from defenders? The root cause: UGA didn't have a #1 WR (or truthfully #2) or dominant running game to draw defenders. Instead, UGA played all last season with #3 and #4 receivers AND the #102 running game in the country. (Of course, the running game itself would have been better if the receivers were better. So the UGA offense in 2024 was all complimentary pieces at WR, RB and TE with no "feature" players, no #1 or #2 WR and no franchise RBs. Just system RBs and slot WRs.) Now all of the Mike Bobo defenders do have a (small) point: spread offenses are designed to work when you have nothing but a bunch of slot WRs and third down backs to work with. But the "hire Buster Faulkner!" crowd ignores that A. UGA's talent situation at WR and RB was the result of bad recruiting and not by design and more important B. the other components i.e. QB Carson Beck and the OL were recruited and coached for a pro style offense and would have been ineffective trying to run the spread. Finally, switching to the spread would have harmed UGA's ability to recruit pro style athletes in the future. UGA has already struggled recruiting RBs thanks to Monken switching to an RB by committee philosophy. Go to the spread and that gets even worse, plus the WR, TE and OL recruiting suffers too.
Dom Lovett was a lot better at Missouri in 2022 - 70 yards per game - playing across from 6th year senior (redshirt plus pandemic year) Barrett Banister and future NFL 2nd round pick Luther Burden. At UGA last year, that dropped to 43 yards per game. So if Zach Branch was a #1 or #2 WR at USC, if he had put up Lovett's 2022 Missouri numbers last year, he would have stayed at USC to get ready for the 2025 draft. His transferring to UGA means that he needs a playmaker at #1 WR or at RB - or ideally both - every bit as much as Lovett, Smith and Bell did last season.
Note that Arian Smith is impressing the Jets in training camp.
https://jetsxfactor.com/2025/07/26/arian-smith-ny-jets-vets-key-role/
https://jetswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/jets/2025/07/26/new-york-jets-training-camp-arian-smith-surprises-route-running-2025-nfl-draft/85352769007/
https://www.rotoballer.com/player-news/arian-smith-catching-the-eye-of-teammates-coaches/1654262
That is because Smith is playing across from Garrett Wilson, who has been a 1000 yard WR each year with the Jets despite their issues at QB. Wilson also had 1000 yards in his last year with Ohio State and would have had it the previous year if it wasn't an 8 game pandemic season. If UGA had a Garrett Wilson at WR last season, then Smith, Lovett, Delp, Frazier, Etienne, Bell and Luckie (and oh yeah Carson Beck) are a lot better and UGA likely wins a national title. So instead of looking for help from Zach Branch next season, hope that it comes from 2 of the Noah Thomas, CJ Wiley and Tayln Taylor. Especially if it is Wiley, as he is the sort of big (6'4") downfield threat that UGA usually has to defend when playing the likes of Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Clemson etc. as opposed to landing themselves.
@mitch_earl I disagree with your assertion that WR's 2,3,4 need a #1 WR to beat their own coverage 1 on 1. Or that players have "nothing left" to catch the ball after running their route. Every WR needs the ability to beat their coverage 1 on 1. That has nothing to do with the running game or WR1 being able to beat his 1 on 1 coverage. Are all the WR's playing against CB1? No. They are all playing against a DB and need to get separation.
Assuming that the play is well designed to open up players, playing wr is pretty basic. The WR knows where the play is going and when the ball is coming. The DB does not. That, in itself, is a huge advantage. No DB can cover a WR endlessly. There is potential for a quick move to gain separation at any instant of a pass route. Vary your steps and speeds add false cuts. It is actually pretty easy to get separation even if only for a split second. That's all you need. There are many ways to do it Speed, quickness, size, catch radius, strength all can work. BUT the ball has to be delivered on time accurately AND you have to catch the ball when it gets there.
Plays have been run thousands of times on a timing schedule to deliver the ball at practice. So players run hundreds of plays/routes during a game and , every time, they have "nothing left" to catch the ball after a 3 sec pass route and a 30 sec huddle? SMH.
Lovett was no better at MO than he was at UGA. The last 3 years he had 56, 54, 59 catches. His TD's were 3, 4 and 6. Very respectable numbers considering UGA plays a lot of WR's. His y/c were down 3-4 yards from MO but that was because of his role in the UGA O.
In retrospect it may be difficult for Branch to surpass Lovett statistically considering his role on O, the depth at WR and the possibility of coaches saving him for KR/PR (cutting his O reps) duty. But as far as Lovett vs Branch from a WR skill (and speed?) comparison I believe Branch is the more talented player and should have a bigger (flashier?) impact. Lovett did not make a lot of flashy WR plays but his numbers say he was consistent.
As far as ASmith is concerned, he always had the talent. Track speed and a tall target. He is going to look good running routes at practice. That is until he starts dropping passes. IF ASmith improves his pass catching consistency, he will be okay. IF he doesn't catch the ball consistently he won't have much of a career in the NFL. Are you saying the Jets CB2 at practice is not as good as the CB's that ASmith played last season while at UGA?
All the UGA WR's have the talent to get separation. Whether it was '24 or '25. They are all D1 WR's in the SEC. UGA probably still doesn't have a dominant WR1. Based on returning production, DBell is the '25 WR1. NThomas is probably WR2. ZBranch is probably WR3 or 4 depending on the coaches. ASmith had a respectable 800+ yards in '24 in a step down year from QB CBeck.
Makes you wonder how well UGA would've done last year with no dropped passes and Beck hitting the same % completions as '23. And that "w/o a WR1".
Your theory might make more sense if you said the '24 WR's were less effective individually because UGA played too many WR's and the QB/WR dynamic lacked cohesion from insufficient practice reps. Due to lack of practice reps the QB wasn't hitting the WR's when they did get separation?
As long as he can just be himself and not feel the weight of the team to make a play, I think this young man will be than needed. We (fans and media) seem to apply too much pressure on these players to perform at levels faster than expected causes a lot of unnecessary distractions.
Wiley looks impressive for a freshman. Does he hit Kirby's "freshman wall"? This is the biggest wait and see season of Kirby's tenure.
Hopefully he’s been given McConkey’s highlight reel.