Malcolm Mitchell - Murray Raves

This is not breaking news as most UGA fans have probably already read on other sites how much Aaron Murray raved about him as the SEC media days, but with Murray saying that Mitchell was "faster and quicker" than AJ Green and that "he could start for any team in the country right now" it deserves a closer look at the impact he could have on UGA this fall. People tend to think that true freshman that have a major impact on a team are few and far between, not every star recruit can step in the way AJ did and impact a team. Georgia recently though has had a great deal of success with freshmen wide receivers. Terrence Edwards had 53 catches for 772 yards(11 game season), AJ Green had 58 catches for 963 yards and 8 tds, Mohamed Massaquoi had 38 catches for 505 yards in their freshman years.

If Mitchell can match the bottom of those three that would add 3 catches and 40 yards a game to the team. That would just about replace all of Kris Durham's numbers from last year. With Tavarres King Expected to be the number 1 guy that would be huge to have that second guy to take pressure off of King. Throw in the numbers that the tight ends are capable of putting up and at least in the passing game there should be little drop off. If, and this is a huge if, Mitchell turns out to be as good as Murray is saying he can be and were to put up numbers closer to Edwards or Green's freshmen years then look out for what the offense can do.

Production replacement - receptions.

I am going to do a series on each position, what was lost in terms of production, who will be expected to fill that void, and if I expect an increase or decrease in production from the position. Seeing as AJ Green is clearly the biggest single loss of a player from last year I am going to start with the WR's but also lump in all receptions no matter the position. Last year UGA had 218 catches by 19 players. Seven of those players will be gone. Four out of these seven had less than 100 yards for the season. One other had 105 yards on 9 catches (Logan Gray). That leaves us with only two major losses when it comes to production in the passing (receptions) game; AJ Green and Kris Durham. They combined for 89 catches, 1507 yards and 12 td's.

The guy most likely to step up and take up a large portion of those catches is Tavarres King. He had 27 catches last year and I would expect for him to get around 15-20 more catches based simply on the fact that as the #1 instead of the #3 guy at WR. At his average of 18.7 ypc he actually averaged 4 ypc more than Green but 2 ypc less than Durham. Even if his average drops to around 15 ypc that will still more than fill the role of the number one guy in Richt/Bobo's pro-style offense but still leaves about 70 receptions that need replacing.

I expect Wooten and Brown to more than double their production from 18 catches to around 40 combined this season. I expect this as both are now more experienced and again from more playing time as guys ahead of them on the depth chart have moved on. That makes up for another 20 receptions leaving us at around 50 receptions up for grabs. Expect at least one freshman to come in (I am guessing Mitchell) and get at least 15 catches (more if he passes Brown and/or Wooten on the depth chart in which case they would be moved down to this spot). Down to a deficit of 35.

Last year our Rb’s combined for 13 catches. I expect Crowell will get around 20 catches alone as we try to get him into space. Last year’s fb's had 16 catches. That could go up as Figgins, a former tight end, and an athletic Ogletree line up at FB. Minus 15-20 from last year at this point.

Finally the TE's. We lost 1 reception by a TE with the graduation of Derek Rich. We added one of the best TE's in the country in Rome and get Lynch back after he redshirted last year. Charles will (should) be a focal point of the offense and I expect much more than his 26 catches from last year. Difference from last year after adding in TE's = ZERO.

All in all as big a loss as Green and Durham are I don't see there being a huge drop off in production in terms of catches. There will be a drop off in wow factor and teams having to game plan around one guy. There are advantages and disadvantages to that though. Sometimes it is harder to not know who to line up your best guy on and which side to roll coverage to. Let's hope that plays to Georgia's favor this fall.