Noah Thomas, Colbie Young give Georgia important size at wide receiver

ATHENS — Mike Bobo believes in Gunner Stockton. The Georgia offensive coordinator praised the internal improvements made by the Georgia quarterback.

But Stockton can’t single-handedly elevate the Georgia offense in 2025 to a successful level. Georgia asked Carson Beck, a more experienced option, to do so a season ago, and that didn’t end well.

Bobo wants the run game to be the identity of this season’s Georgia offense. He wants more explosive runs. Having wide receivers block on the outside can help greatly in that department.

So the presence of big-bodied wide receivers Noah Thomas and Colbie Young should greatly help with this team’s identity.

One thing that Georgia’s offense lacked last season was a physical outside receiver. Thomas was at Texas A&M, while Young was suspended for the final nine games of the season because of an arrest that has been settled.

Add in that Rara Thomas was dismissed from the team before the season started, and Georgia was forced to use Dillon Bell as its outside wide receiver. Bell, who returns this season, is listed at 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds.

Young is 6-foot-4, while Thomas checks in at 6-foot-5.

Of all the players who Bobo spoke about with the media last week, no player earned more effusive praise than Young.

“He doesn’t take a play off,” Bobo said. “And he’s a guy that we brought in out of the (transfer) portal. But, you know, he is probably the leader in that (group). He sets the standard of how to work. And I’m not just talking about whether it’s route running or catching balls. It’s blocking, it’s his effort. And that’s kind of contagious because we’ve got some talented receivers in that (group) and some of them are young and they need to know what it means to wear the Georgia uniform. And he represents that every day.”

Young is back at Georgia largely because of the court victory by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia that granted additional eligibility to players who had spent time in junior college. Young played at Lackawanna College, a junior college, in 2021.

Young seems to be making the most of his second season, and opportunity, in Athens. He caught a touchdown pass in the spring game, snatching a Ryan Puglisi pass that only the massive wide receiver could’ve pulled down. Young carried that momentum into the offseason and now preseason camp.

As for Thomas, Bobo noted that the Texas A&M transfer’s head was spinning a little when he got to Athens. That makes the fact that he’s been able to establish himself so quickly in James Coley’s wide receiver room all the more noticeable to this point.

Thomas won’t just be able to box out small defenders for jump balls. He has some deceptive speed for someone of his size.

He also should be able to punish defenders when Georgia runs the football, using his long frame to shield defenders from Georgia’s ball carriers.

“New system, new terminology, trying to figure everything out and probably wasn’t playing as fast as he would like,” Bobo said. “And just, you know, our message to him was he’s going to be OK; Just keep your head down, keep working and you’re seeing incremental improvements from him. He’s light-years ahead of where he was in the spring. He gives you another big, big body outside that can catch those balls that are contested.”

Between adding Thomas, bringing back Young and then grabbing Illinois running back Josh McCray via the transfer portal, Georgia made it a point to get bigger and more physical at the skill positions this offseason.

Not all transitions have been seamless to the Georgia offense, with McCray missing time early in camp because of an illness. Combined with the fact that McCray was not present for spring practice, he faces an uphill climb to make an immediate impact at Georgia.

But having those physical options not only boosts Georgia’s depth, it gives Bobo and Stockton more tools to work with.

For an offense that led to many questions last season, Young and Thomas continue to emerge as possible answers for the 2025 season.

“You’ve got to figure out where we’re going to put these guys to get them in the right spot, and figure out ways that sometimes in the past, we’ve kind of let the offense run through the quarterback and he takes the guy that the defense gives us on maybe a passing concept,” Bobo said. “We’re going to have to figure out ways to … generate touches for those guys.”

Thomas and Young won’t just make life easier for Stockton, but the other wide receivers too. Their presence allows Bell to be used wherever he is most needed.