Georgia football and the rest of college football likely won’t hold spring practices in 2020 because of the COVID-19 quarantine.
The ongoing quarantine has presented setbacks for everyone in the Georgia football program, but no group of players suffers more than the backup wide receivers currently on the roster.
If anyone needed to practice this spring, it’s them. Returning receivers Kearis Jackson, Tommy Bush, Matt Landers, Makiya Tongue and Trey Blount, and early enrollee Justin Robinson couldn’t afford a spring without reps with the new group of quarterbacks.
Besides a few weeks with D’Wan Mathis, and even less time with Carson Beck, Georgia’s receivers haven’t caught many passes from the quarterbacks. None of them have worked with transfer Jamie Newman. The four receivers with playing time (Landers, Jackson, Blount and Bush) only combine for 232 yards on 20 catches in their careers.
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The best receiver of that group is junior Matt Landers with 10 catches for 105 yards, and he’s the only player in that group with a touchdown. Redshirt sophomore Kearis Jackson is not far behind with five catches and 79 yards, and junior Trey Blount adds 52 yards on four catches. Tommy Bush only has one catch for one yard in his career. Makiya Tongue redshirted last season and Justin Robinson enrolled in January.
Usually, missing spring wouldn’t be a huge deal, they could just make up the time in the fall. But when three more wide receivers join the team this summer, the competition will be fierce. Georgia football has never had a wide receiver corps this loaded, and the aforementioned group of players needed a headstart on the competition.
Marcus Rosemy, Arian Smith and Jermaine Burton is the best group of receivers in one recruiting class Georgia football has ever signed. Each was ranked in the top 100 nationally by the 247Sports Composite rankings and in the top 15 among receivers. These are guys good enough to play immediately, bypassing the returning players who haven’t made an impact for Georgia football yet.
The only returning receivers who seem safe from the competition this fall are the sophomores George Pickens and Dominick Blaylock, and senior Demetris Robertson. Pickens and Blaylock had fantastic freshman seasons where they combined for over 1,000 yards with 13 touchdowns. Neither enrolled early last year either, they joined the team in the summer and quickly earned playing time. Robertson is a veteran who has worked with several quarterbacks since his college career began. He’ll adjust to whoever wins the starting job.
The rest of the returning receivers, aren’t in that category. They needed big spring practices to build chemistry with Newman, Beck and Mathis, while improving their own skills. The four of them already saw the 2019 recruiting class pass them on the depth chart and they needed a headstart on the incoming receivers.