Smart on Hardman's move to receiver, what it means for cornerback position

It's official. Absolutely official.

While Mecole Hardman's roster designation was changed to receiver only during the summer, head coach Kirby Smart confirmed that sophomore athlete will stick on the offensive side of the ball this season.

“I think that’s safe to say. You guys have finally cracked the egg,” Smart said. “Mecole worked over there about 95 percent of the spring. He did a lot of work there. He did double as a DB in some occasions. We were very down on DBs in the spring. But we think Mecole’s biggest attributes will help us – offensive slot, return game. He can do a lot of different things. We have to try to find a way to get him the ball. He’s also got to find a way to protect the ball. That’s going to be a growing curve for him, carrying the rock – very much that Isaiah (McKenzie) and Reggie (Davis) went through upon my arrival.”

Hardman spent time mostly on special teams a year ago and saw spot time at corner. He began the spring at cornerback but moved to receiver shortly after practice started.

As a result, Georgia only practiced with two scholarship cornerbacks during the spring. Five defensive backs enrolled at Georgia this summer – Tray Bishop, William Poole III, Ameer Speed, Latavious Brini and Eric Stokes – and Smart said three or four could wind up at corner.

Even so, Smart said it is too early to tell how the new corners look based only on conditioning drills.

“It’s hard to evaluate corner because to me, you evaluate a corner based on ball skills,” Smart said. “We don’t get to see that, we don’t get to participate in that. You see conditioning level, you can see them run, work out, see how tough they are, how they compete. You can’t really see how they cover anybody. A lot of that will go into fall camp.”

Therefore, it was a calculated decision for Smart to move Hardman solely to receiver. But in the end, that's the position Smart believes he will best help the program.

“I don’t know that we can really spare him defensively. That’s why it was such a tough decision,” Smart said. “We went through the spring with only two scholarship corners. That’s the toughest thing about making that move, is we knew it was going to hurt us development wise – probably at receiver because there wasn’t good competition to go against at corner. When you make that move, you’re making that move to make the offense better but you’re also betting on the incoming freshmen to help us in the two deep at defensive back.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Smart on Hardman's move to receiver, what it means for cornerback position ."