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At some point in between watching Ladd McConkey torch the New England Patriots and Brock Bowers break Mike Ditka’s 63-year-old rookie receiving record, you can bet plenty of Georgia fans got a painful reminder.
Replacing those guys has been more difficult than anyone could’ve imagined.
I, along with plenty of UGA optimists, thought that depth would be a bigger strength for UGA even after losing the greatest tight end in college football history and McConkey, who I would’ve taken with a first-round pick for my imaginary franchise. But instead, UGA’s pass-catchers are a true Achilles’ heel heading into the Playoff. If you disagree with that, perhaps you missed the part where UGA entered bowl season with 30 dropped passes (via PFF).
(Take PFF grades for what they are, but UGA’s highest-graded receiver is Dillon Bell, who ranks No. 40 in the SEC. UGA’s team receiving grade ranks No. 84 in FBS.)
The question isn’t about whether the pass-catchers have been a strength or a weakness. The question is whether UGA can have anyone step up in the passing game against Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl (UGA -1.5, via ESPN Bet).
Call me crazy, but something tells me that Gunner Stockton would appreciate that in his first career start, especially against an Irish defense that leads FBS in opposing quarterback rating (96.95). Say what you want about the injured Carson Beck. The veteran had a much higher likelihood of fitting throws into tight windows than Stockton. Ergo, Stockton needs guys who can step up and make some plays, even if it’s a more ground-heavy approach with Trevor Etienne and Nate Frazier.
Let’s backtrack. Calling for “guys” to step up and make plays in the passing game is ambitious. At this point, UGA would just take a single guy doing that.
For an offense that threw the ball 37 times a game, it’s baffling to think that UGA didn’t have anyone hit 800 receiving yards in 13 games. Arian Smith leads the team with 750 yards. Also of note, Smith is in Year 5 at Georgia and he’s never had consecutive games of 40 receiving yards against a Power Conference foe.
Smith has also been the all-too-familiar offender of UGA’s drop issues. He’s had 10 this season, which is twice as many as anyone on the roster and he’s got a 17.5% drop percentage. Ideally for the Dawgs, he’d leave those issues — and the Notre Dame secondary — behind him. Two years ago in the Peach Bowl, Smith delivered one of the more timely touchdowns in Georgia history when an Ohio State corner fell and he took it 76 yards to the house to narrow the UGA deficit to 1 score, which was followed by a 2-point conversion catch by McConkey.
But maybe it’s not about whether someone like Smith can step up and become McConkey or Bowers, and rather, it’s about if someone on the UGA roster can step up and be the guy who scored the game-winning touchdown that night — AD Mitchell. He was the guy who delivered a touchdown in each of those 4 Playoff games that UGA won en route to consecutive national titles. Never mind that Mitchell had more Playoff touchdowns than regular-season touchdowns in a Georgia uniform before transferring to Texas.
If UGA is going to make a run in this expanded Playoff, it’ll be because finally, someone emerged from that group. Maybe it can be Dominic Lovett, who leads the team with 87 targets. Lovett was the one who was expected to step into the No. 1 role following the departures of McConkey and Bowers. Instead, Lovett has had 1 game with 60 receiving yards all season, and it was the too-close-for-comfort win at Kentucky. UGA quarterbacks only had a QB rating of 91.5 when targeting him, which is 7th on UGA’s roster (min. 20 targets). Lovett had 3 catches for 0 yards in the comeback win against Texas in the SEC Championship, wherein Stockton played the entire second half and overtime.
Stockton might rely on UGA’s tight ends, just as he did against Texas when Oscar Delp had 2 catches in overtime. While Delp was never going to fill the All-World Bowers shoes, it’s surprising that he had just 1 game with 50 yards and he saw more than 3 targets just twice all season. He did score all 4 of his touchdowns in the final 3 regular-season games, and he’s had a 132.4 QB rating when targeted (that’s 2nd-best on UGA behind Cash Jones).
Targeting Delp or Lawson Luckie against the Notre Dame secondary might be a better option than trusting UGA’s wideouts to win those battles.
Based on what we’ve seen from UGA’s pass-catchers since that comeback at Alabama, it’s ambitious to think any Georgia pass-catcher will take over a game. Bell and Smith both hit the century mark that night, but after that, the only time Georgia had a player hit 85 receiving yards in a game was when Smith did so against the likes of Mississippi State (2-10) and UMass (2-10). Shoot, that Mississippi State game on Oct. 12 was the last time that a UGA player had 65 receiving yards against a Power Conference foe.
You can say “Georgia just likes to spread it around,” or you can acknowledge that the Dawgs are still trying to answer major questions at the pass-catcher spots. The latter makes more sense with this group. This isn’t necessarily the defense that you’d like to have such uncertainty against. On extra rest, Notre Dame has been unkind to quarterbacks.
It remains to be seen how the Irish will treat the Georgia passing attack. At some point, the Dawgs will be staring at 3rd-and-long in desperate need of someone making a play to keep a drive alive. Who does Stockton trust? Better yet, who should Stockton trust? That will define UGA’s showing against Notre Dame.
The margin for error is slimmer than ever for the Dawgs. Overcoming that in the form of a breakout game from someone (anyone) in that scrutinized group of pass-catchers would go a long way toward sending them to the semifinal.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
