By now you have probably heard the buzz surrounding freshman wide receiver Jermaine Burton.

During Tuesday’s Zoom press conference with reporters, head coach Kirby Smart offered his official take.

“Jermaine is explosive. He loves the game of football. He's got really good hands. He's a very consistent ball catcher. He can go up; he can explode up,” Smart said. “I remember watching him in high school, (and) he could jump boxes that are extremely high. He’s a talented guy.”

A former four-star competitor, Burton is actually an Atlanta native, but played his high school football at Calabasas High in California, including a junior season that saw him catch 40 passes for 863 yards and 14 touchdowns.

He, along with fellow freshman Marcus Rosemy, is supposed to figure prominently into the rotation at wide receiver this fall.

“He’s learning our system, so he’s not there yet, but he’s a good player. So many years we have played here, we have had these games where we can kind of build to a crescendo and bring the freshmen along,” Smart said. “Unfortunately, this year, with the schedule we have, it’s not going to fall that way. You look at the first four games, and it's just a weird year for having depth at some positions with freshmen. They have to be ready to play really fast. They have less time to do it, because they didn’t have a spring ball and summer. So we’re having to make decisions really quick when it comes to getting our depth set and our roster set for the games we have.”

…Speaking of wide receivers, Smart was asked about the progress of George Pickens, who earned All-SEC Freshman honors after catching 49 passes for 727 yards and eight touchdowns.

“George is a talented player. In terms of leadership, it starts from within and it starts with him. He’s got to do a great job of making sure he’s handling all the things he’s got to do on and off the field,” Smart said. “George is growing up, as all players do, and we need him to grow up faster; we need him to lead more. He's certainly a talented player, but sometimes that can be a disease at Georgia that affects you, and you have to be careful of that. What makes George great is his love for the game, and you just cannot let that be a weakness. You have to make sure it’s a strength.”

Freshman Jared Zirkel and redshirt sophomore Jack Podlesny appear to be the favorites to replace Rodrigo Blankenship as the Bulldogs’ kickers.

According to Smart, not only are both competing for the kickoff job, but both are in a heated competition to see who gets the nod kicking field goals and extra points.

“Pod has consistently had better hang, but Zirkel has had good hits. Hang time is a big part of that, and Pod has won the hang time and depth battle when it comes to that,” Smart said. “As far as field goal kicking, they were pretty similar Saturday. Zirkel might have been one percentage point or two percentage points better than Pod. Pod’s had a little better percentage over the body of work.”

Junior Jake Camarda has the punter’s job on lockdown.

“Jake Camarda is pretty solid as our punter. He's done a good job,” Smart said. ‘’(Bill) Rubright has really had a good camp as well. They're competing and doing a good job. (Noah) Chumley is a kid that has come in and kicked well, as far as a punter.”

Sophomore Tyrique Stevenson continues to battle Mark Webb for the starting job at Star, but that isn't even close to being the only position in the secondary he can play.

“Tyrique is a player who came on as the year went on last year,” Smart said. “He’s done a really good job. He came on in the money roll as the year went on, was a good match-up for tight ends, a good blitzer, and a physical guy.”

According to Smart, Stevenson's versatility could be necessary this season.

“He’s played corner, he’s played star. He’s played money, and we have even sprinkled in some safety in there as a back-up role,” Smart said “With the concerns for COVID knocking somebody out, we’ve just got to be deeper than we’ve ever been. Right now, he's working at Star, along with Mark [Webb], and he is doing a good job of doing that. He's got a lot of versatility. He plays a lot of positions.”

It is typical during camp for freshmen to hit the proverbial wall. So far, that has not happened.

According to Smart, the reason is easy to see, although it's also a cause for concern.

“I wouldn’t say they’ve hit a wall yet, because we’ve had so much spaced out practice,” Smart said. “I would say our conditioning level across the board is a concern for me for a lot of freshmen, but also a lot of players in general. I wonder, without the same summer training that we've had [in years past], if that doesn't hinder sometimes our ability to sustain effort in practice.

“That’s probably the thing that concerns me the most when it comes to freshmen.”

Take Jalen Carter, for example.

Although Carter, who is expected to play a major role on the defensive line, is in tremendous shape, there are questions.

“When you look at Jalen—here’s a guy who’s big, he’s athletic and a talented player, but how many plays can he play in a row, and what can he sustain?” Smart said. “Having a body of work from spring in a typical Georgia summer—not a Zoom summer—allows those guys to get more conditioned, and that’s a concern I’ve got for not only Jalen, but really all the freshmen as we move forward.”

“I’ve got all kinds of concerns, but I’m not going to put them on a platter for Coach Pittman to worry about. I've got concerns we've got to deal with. Every coach has concerns. If you watched the games last weekend, there’s punt return touchdowns, kickoff return touchdowns, field goals blocked all over the place. Those are learning lessons, and if you use them the right way, you can try to prevent them from happening to your team. Concerns: I'm constantly worried about our ability to perform. We’re going to have a lot of young men who didn’t get that spring game under their belt with 50, 60, 70, 93,000 [fans] in the spring game—that’s like an extra game for our guys to get used to it. We basically just finished spring practice Saturday, in my mind, and that’s—we are a week from the game and just finishing spring practice. We're behind, but we're even with everybody else. We have to do a good job with what we have.” – Smart when asked about his “concerns.”

Smart revealed that the Dawgs for Pups program to provide WiFi service for Clarke County students has raised $63,000.

“A lot of that credit goes to the staff here—Josh Brooks has done a tremendous job, Cortez Hankton, a lot of our players have spearheaded that,” Smart said. “Certainly, when you talk about making a difference in young people’s lives—we’ve been able to do that with the $63,000 raised.”