Mitchell injury again tests UGA’s depth at receiver
UGA RECEIVERS
After the season-ending injury to Malcolm Mitchell, a look at Georgia’s top five wide receivers:
Player / Class / Ht., wt. / Career rec., yds, TD
Michael Bennett / Jr. / 6-3, 205 / 61, 725, 9
Chris Conley / Jr. / 6-3, 206 / 39, 697, 8
Justin Scott-Wesley / RSo. / 5-11, 206 / 10, 190, 1
Rantavious Wooten / Sr. / 5-10, 176 / 36, 510, 6
Jonathon Rumph / Jr. / 6-5, 208 / 0, 0, 0
(Note: Career stats are for all games played for UGA. Rumph, a junior college transfer, has not yet played in a game for UGA.)
Dealing with the fallout of a season-ending knee injury has become all too familiar for Georgia’s wide receivers. Last season, the group lost Michael Bennett and Marlon Brown to torn ligaments. And on the second offensive series this season, it lost Malcolm Mitchell to the same.
“I think we’ve showed we’re a resilient bunch of guys,” receiver Justin Scott-Wesley said. “We handle adversity very well.”
That trait is about to be tested again.
For the second year in a row, the Bulldogs head into a key game against South Carolina having lost a starting receiver — Bennett to a torn ACL in practice four days before the game last season and Mitchell to a torn ACL while celebrating a teammate’s touchdown in the opener at Clemson this season.
In preseason chatter and analysis, Georgia’s wide-receiver depth was hailed as a strength of the team. Even so, Mitchell was the Bulldogs’ primary deep threat and the most explosive playmaker among the receivers. Losing him five minutes and 43 seconds into the season requires some processing.
“Especially in the receiver (meeting) room, everyone has to look at themselves and say, ‘OK, with Malcolm out, how do I need to contribute to this team so that we can be successful?’” receiver Chris Conley said. “Now we’ve just got to step up and make plays and make it evident that Malcolm Mitchell wasn’t the only guy you have to fear on this receiver corps.”
No doubt, however, he was most feared.
“Obviously, when you lose Malcolm Mitchell, it hurts,” coach Mark Richt said. “It hurt us in the (Clemson) ballgame, I’m sure, as we had planned some things for Malcolm, and he wasn’t there to be able to have them. It definitely puts a dent in our depth. We’ve got other players who know that position and can make plays, and we have confidence in them. But Malcolm was an outstanding player.”
Mitchell, Bennett and Conley were Georgia’s starting receivers in the loss to Clemson. If the Bulldogs open in a three-receiver set Saturday against South Carolina, Scott-Wesley figures to join Bennett and Conley as starters.
“You know Malcolm was a huge playmaker for us … and will be missed,” Conley said. “But I don’t think this should slow the offense down. … Having this depth at the position will allow someone else who has prepared himself to step up.”
Scott-Wesley, the Class AA state champion in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at Mitchell County High in 2010, seems primed to step up as a deep threat.
“We already saw (him) begin to grow up towards the end of last year,” Richt said.
Scott-Wesley redshirted as a freshman in 2011 and caught only six passes last season, but half of those came in the Capital One Bowl victory over Nebraska. He followed with four catches for 55 yards and strong special-teams play in this season’s opener — a performance that prompted coaches to name him a captain for the South Carolina game.
“I don’t want to be known this season as a one-hit wonder,” Scott-Wesley said.
Larger roles also await Bennett, who returned from ACL surgery to catch five passes for 60 yards against Clemson, and Conley, who had three catches for a team-high 67 yards against the Tigers. Senior Rantavious Wooten, junior-college transfer Jonathon Rumph (sidelined last week by a hamstring injury) and former walk-on Rhett McGowan also will be in the mix. Freshman Reggie Davis could be, too.
“We’ve all got to pick up the slack,” Bennett said.
“We’ve got some speed at receiver,” Scott-Wesley said. “Wooten can go deep. Conley, he can go deep. Myself. Bennett, he has made plays downfield. We have some options.”
As familiar as torn ACLs have become to Georgia receivers, Mitchell’s was shocking because of how it occurred — on an awkward landing after jumping to “air bump” tailback Todd Gurley in celebration of Georgia’s first touchdown of the season.
“It’s a surreal moment anytime your brother goes down on a freak play,” Scott-Wesley said. “It affects you.”
“It kind of broke my heart for him, for anyone, to go through that injury,” Bennett said.
Last year’s torn ACLs came later — Bennett’s to his right knee in an Oct. 2 practice (the South Carolina game fell later than usual on the schedule) and Brown’s to his left knee Nov. 3 against Ole Miss. Like Bennett, Brown is back on the field; he made the Baltimore Ravens’ roster as an undrafted free agent.
Similarly, the Bulldogs are confident Mitchell, a junior, will return next season with his right knee as good as new. But for now, the schedule — specifically, Saturday’s game against a team that has beaten Georgia three years in a row — offered no choice but to move on.
“We don’t have any time to be down,” Conley said.
About the Author
Tim Tucker, a long-time AJC sports reporter, often writes about the business side of the games. He also had stints as the AJC's Braves beat writer, UGA beat writer, sports notes columnist and executive sports editor. He was deputy managing editor of America's first all-sports newspaper, The National Sports Daily.
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