AD Mitchell, Jermaine Burton shined. Don't forget about Georgia football's transfer WRs
Kirby Smart spoke with pride this summer about the players from Georgia football’s 2021 recruiting class that he called the “COVID babies,” because they didn’t get to take recruiting visits due to the pandemic.
Seventeen of 20 signees are still on this year’s team including key cogs in tight end Brock Bowers, linebackers Smael Mondon and Jamon Dumas-Johnson and offensive tackle Amarius Mims.
Some still get away.
Two were on display Saturday in the game of the week.
Texas’ AD Mitchell, a member of that 2021 class, and Alabama’s Jermaine Burton, a 2020 Bulldog signee.
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The wide receivers traded touchdown catches in the second half as the lead exchanged hands.
Burton hauled in a 49-yard touchdown. Mitchell responded with a 7-yard scoring grab.
After Alabama pulled within a field goal, Mitchell caught a 39-yard touchdown for the final score in a 34-24 upset of the then No. 3 Crimson Tide.
“I got to see some of the highlights from that game and was back and forth between other games,” Smart said Monday.
Burton left Georgia after the 2021 season after helping beat Alabama for the school’s first national title in 41 years. He led all Georgia wideouts that year with 497 receiving yards and averaged a team-best 19.1 yards per catch with 5 touchdowns. He led Alabama last season with 677 receiving yards.
Mitchell returned to his home state of Texas after the 2022 national championship. He had one of the most iconic catches in program history in the 2021 title game and caught a touchdown pass in all four playoff games during his two seasons.
“Really excited for the guys, excited for the games they had against each other Saturday,” nickelback Tykee Smith, a teammate of both at Georgia, said Monday. “It was a really good game. Kind of saw those moments in practice for the time that were here.”
The transfer portal is a two-way street and Georgia likes what it has in Dominic Lovett, who arrived from Missouri and Rara Thomas from Mississippi State after standing out at those SEC schools.
Now they play for a No. 1 ranked team that is a 27-point favorite for Saturday’s game against South Carolina.
“Both of them are in growing stages,” Smart said.
Lovett is Georgia’s leader in receptions with 7 for 54 yards on a Bulldogs’ team that has eight players with 3 or more catches.
“Dom’s been able to pick the offense up well, he’s intelligent,” Smart said. “He’s become a better perimeter blocker. He’s made some plays for us. A big conversion on third down, a touchdown called back but made some nice plays for us in the passing game. He’s really been a weapon on special teams for us at gunner.”
Thomas leads Georgia in yards per catch at 30. He has three for 90 yards.
“Rara continues to grow and is getting better at every practice,” Smart said.
Smart didn’t take a transfer in 2022, not that there weren’t some players he may have wanted, but there will always be more looking for more snaps (or NIL money) elsewhere.
Dominic Blaylock was a valued member of the program, but he has four catches for 46 yards and a touchdown already at Georgia Tech. Another former Georgia player, tight end Brett Seither, leads the Yellow Jackets with two touchdown catches. He had four catches at Georgia in 27 games playing as a reserved in a loaded tight end room.
Alabama’s co-leading tackler the other night was linebacker Trezman Marshall, who had 10.
Marshall’s path to a starting job was blocked by Mondon and Dumas-Johnson at Georgia.
“Most kids are ready to leave if they're not starting by their third year,” Smart said at the SEC spring meetings. “It's a lot more energy now in terms of spending with your own roster and just trying to maintain it. It's not just the portal. It's the combination of the portal and the NIL and everything going on that makes it at times excruciating."
Smart said coaches spend a lot of time with "connection and asking players 'Where are you? Are you happy with where you are? If you're not, what can we do to improve that and improve you as a player? Do you think that you're being developed?'”
Smart said he mentions Quay Walker, a linebacker who never started at Georgia but became a first round draft pick.
Walker had a pick-six Saturday as a member of the Green Bay Packers.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: It's receivers Dominic Lovett & Rara Thomas' time for Georgia football
