Georgia football: 30 greatest players of the Mark Richt era
By John Buhler
- 2x First-Team All-American (2009-10)
- 2x First-Team All-SEC (2009-10)
- SEC Freshman of the Year (2008)
- Second-Team All-SEC (2008)
While Terrence Edwards put together better receiving numbers in Georgia uniform, there is no denying who the best receiving talent was under Mark Richt. It was by far and away A.J. Green. Though he only played three years in Athens, Dawg Nation still raves about the acrobatic plays Green would make in the Georgia receiving game.
Green played his high school ball at Summerville High School in Summerville, South Carolina. He was the crown jewel of the 2008 high school recruiting class, as a five-star receiver and a top-10 player nationally.
With already a ton of hype, Green joined a Georgia team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation before his first game in Athens versus Georgia Southern. While Georgia failed to live up to lofty expectations that fall, Green would be Second-Team All-SEC and be named SEC Freshman of the Year. He had 56 catches for 963 yards and eight touchdowns in 2008.
As a true sophomore in 2009, Green would be named First-Team All-SEC and garner some First-Team All-American nods in some publications. In only 10 games due to injury, Green had 53 catches for 808 yards and six touchdowns.
2010 was frankly a strange year for the program. Georgia went a miserable 6-7 in what proved to be Green’s final season with the team. A lot of this had to do with him being suspended for the first four games of the year due to selling his autographed Independence Bowl jersey for $1,000. Georgia struggled mightily out of the gate in quarterback Aaron Murray’s first year under center.
Even though he missed the first four games of the 2010 season, Green finished with 57 catches for 848 yards and nine touchdowns. He was First-Team All-SEC for the second straight season, earning another First-Team All-American nod as well.
After his true junior season, Green opted to enter the 2011 NFL Draft. That proved to be an outstanding decision for him, as he would be the No. 4 overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals. He has made the Pro Bowl in every one of his professional seasons so far, along with making two All-Pro teams.
Overall, Green is the only certain lock to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame out of these former Georgia greats under Richt. His Cincinnati teammate Geno Atkins seems to be projecting that way as well. In three years with the Dawgs, Green had 166 grabs for 2,619 yards and 23 touchdowns. It remains to be seen if Georgia will ever have a wideout as gifted as Green tee it up Between the Hedges for the Dawgs.