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ESPN released its SEC spring football preview on Thursday morning, calling out key players and storylines for each of the league’s 16 teams.
Georgia has become a glamour team in the SEC in recent seasons, breaking through after so many near misses with national championships in 2021 and 2022 under Kirby Smart. After falling short of the College Football Playoff in 2023 and getting eliminated in the Playoff quarterfinals by Notre Dame last season, the Bulldogs are looking for a return to glory in 2025, and ESPN’s Mark Schlabach has pinpointed a few “players to watch” who could be key in accomplishing that.
Schlabach believes Georgia’s receivers room will go a long way toward its success this fall, and so their performance in the spring will be a big key in leading to that success when the games count. Here’s Schlabach’s analysis on the Georgia wideouts entering spring camp:
No position on the team was criticized more in 2024 than Georgia’s receivers. The Bulldogs led Power 4 conference teams in dropped passes, and top receivers Arian Smith and Dominic Lovett left for the NFL. Georgia brought in two high-profile transfers, Zachariah Branch (USC) and Noah Thomas (Texas A&M), and Talyn Taylor and C.J. Wiley are two highly regarded freshman receivers. Branch had 1,863 all-purpose yards during his two seasons with the Trojans, including two kicks returned for touchdowns in 2023. He caught 78 passes for 823 yards and three scores.
Clearly, a lot of Georgia’s success on offense in 2025 will come down to the wide receivers being a lot better than they were in 2024. With Carson Beck transferring to Miami, that won’t be an easy task, but Branch and Thomas will bring an infusion of talent at the position, and Georgia will count on the improvement of Taylor and Wiley in 2025.
With Smith and Lovett gone to the NFL, there will be a certain breath of fresh air at the position this season, but the question will be if the 2 transfers and the 2 freshmen can combine to make the position better (or far better) than it was in 2024.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
