Adonai Mitchell and fellow UGA wideouts shine on G-Day
After wideouts George Pickens and Jermaine Burton went down with injuries this spring, Georgia needed its young receivers to grow up quickly. Today’s pass-happy G-Day affair was the perfect setting for many of Georgia’s wideouts looking to get their name on the stat sheet.
“I would probably argue every G-Day we’ve come out of, you feel good about the wide-outs. Because you throw the ball so much in the G-Day game,” said head coach Kirby Smart. “There’s not like a G-Day I can remember coming out of saying, ‘Oh, man we don’t have any wideouts.’ I know we have a lot of wideouts. It’s going to be a really good competition come fall, when we’re at 100 percent health at the wide receiver position, because some of these guys who got all these opportunities in spring have really stepped up.”
One name that stood out from the rest was Adonai Mitchell. The freshman receiver out of Missouri City, Texas hauled in seven passes for 105 yards and found himself on the receiving end of a J.T. Daniels touchdown pass from 24 yards out. Daniels was complimentary of Mitchell’s skill set after the game.
“He’s very twitchy,” Daniels said. “He’s got a really good understanding of how to get in and out of breaks, which I think makes a good case for him when he’s one-on-one. Part of it is him being in the X position, which gives him a lot of one-on-one opportunities to win.”
Smart explained what he and his staff saw in Mitchell prior to his enrollment at UGA.
“We thought he was another talented player. He’s another one of those guys—we think we do as good a job as anybody in the country when it comes to evaluating players,” said Smart. “It’s not about what they’re ranked, what the media says about them, what the rankings say. We watch the tape and the tape speaks volumes. We thought he was a really good player. We didn’t care what anybody else thought. He’s a good football player.”
Smart continued:
“He worked out well. He’s gotten himself in decent shape; he needs to get in better shape, but he made plays. He made plays during the spring. And when you’ve got guys like that who step up, it’s almost a bonus. We lost George, which forced him to play more, but he picked it up fast. When Jermaine went down, he got even more reps. But we’re really excited. We think he’s a really good player. Probably the last three practices of spring ball were his best practices.”
Another receiver that stood out to Smart was redshirt freshman Ladd McConkey. The Chatsworth, Ga. native caught four passes for 28 yards Saturday while taking part in the kick return game as well.
“First of all, he’s got great toughness,” said Smart. “He’s got great savvy. He has no fear. He’s taken some shots this spring and gets back up and keeps going. He’s in the competition for return game reps, and my expectation is, he competes. He’s going to go out and compete for special team jobs all over the place and compete at wide receiver to learn the offense, get a little bigger and stronger. He’s got real good quickness, but I’m excited about Ladd. He’s a guy that’s going to be a good football player for us.”
Georgia also got big performances from more established offensive contributors. Demetris Robertson caught four passes for 88 yards, including a 59-yard touchdown from Daniels. Kearis Jackson caught four passes for 50 yards and a touchdown as well.