Georgia lost star receiver Malcolm Mitchell to a season-ending injury that he suffered while jumping in the end zone with teammates in celebration of a Todd Gurley touchdown Saturday night. But that didn’t spur a no-jumping edict from coach Mark Richt.
“You can’t temper celebration,” Richt said Tuesday. “That would be a bad thing to do. We’ve done a good job of that from time to time. But you have to play with enthusiasm and energy. You have to celebrate with your teammates. … It wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of that happening on a celebration.”
Mitchell, a junior wide receiver, leaped to “air bump” with Gurley and fellow wideout Chris Conley after Gurley’s 75-yard touchdown run tied the score 7-7 in the first quarter against Clemson. Video shows Mitchell gingerly walking out of the end zone and back to the sideline while his teammates continued to revel in the moment.
Mitchell ended up on the sideline with ice on his knee and did not return. An MRI revealed a tear in his ACL.
“We always celebrate the same way,” said Conley, a junior flanker. “We always have a little competition to see who can jump higher, so everybody was thinking the same thing, and no one really even noticed until we got back over to the sideline that something was wrong.”
Said Gurley: “I didn’t really pay it attention. After that he kind of grabbed me and I know that look, like something happened.”
It’s not the first time a player went down in celebration. Richt recalled a teammate at Miami doing it once. And Arizona Cardinals kicker Bill Grammatica infamously injured his knee while jumping in celebration of a winning field goal in 2001.
While there is no mandate, Conley said he expects the team will be more mindful of their joyful moments.
“Now everyone is a little more conscious about it,” he said. “It’s kind of an unspoken rule that we’re not going to do that anymore. We’ll find another way to celebrate, and it won’t really take away from it. But we’ll definitely be more conscious about it so that we can prevent things like that from happening again in the future.”
Said Gurley: “Stuff happens, you know. God’s plan. Anything could happen. I could fall down right now in this chair. Hopefully that won’t happen.”
Meanwhile, Richt said Mitchell’s spirits were up two days after getting the news.
“Thomas Davis was an All-American safety here and now is playing with the Panthers,” Richt said. “I think he’s the only NFL player that has had three ACL surgeries on the same knee and returned to play, and he played extremely well. Thomas called him and got on the phone with a little bit, and that helped him out.”
Back in the mix: Back from suspension, sophomore defensive back Josh Harvey-Clemons practiced with the No. 1 defense Tuesday. The difficulty for the Bulldogs now is in figuring out how to get both Harvey-Clemons and freshman Leonard Floyd on the field at the same time. Floyd played much of the Clemson game at the "star" position that defensive coordinator Todd Grantham essentially created for Harvey-Clemons.
“Josh will end up playing the positions we talked about before. He can play safety, and we can move him around and play him at the nickel. So he’ll play both,” Grantham said after Tuesday’s workout. “We can move guys around. We can play Leonard as an outside ’backer or the nickel, and we can play Josh at strong safety. So we’ll be able to do all of that.”
Injury report: Tight end Jay Rome had his left ankle heavily wrapped and worked to the side of the field with Georgia trainers Tuesday. Rome was dressed in full pads but in a green, non-contact jersey. A high sprain in that ankle kept Rome out for nearly two weeks during preseason practice. Others on the injury report included defensive back Kennar Johnson (illness), tailback A.J. Turman (knee, ankle), linebacker Chase Vasser (ankle) and receiver Rantavious Wooten (ankle).
Quotable: "Personally I just think he was playing so hard in that game he was trying to win the Heisman in the first 25 snaps."
— Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo on South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney “getting gassed” against North Carolina on Thursday night.
Etc.: Richt said he thought walk-on kicker Patrick Beless did "a very good job for us," but indicated his competition with Adam Erickson would continue. "Either one of them could possibly kick for us," he said. … Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd, center Ryan Norton and receiver Sammy Watkins all were named ACC players of the week at their respective positions for their performances against Georgia.
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