Georgia looking for some more strong freshmen

ATHENS -- Last year, it was Lorenzo Carter and Isaiah McKenzie. It was Sony Michel and Dominick Sanders. And, of course, it was Nick Chubb.

In the never-ending quest of college football coaches to find and recruit the best young talent across the country to fill the holes on their team, Mark Richt and the Georgia coaching staff did a pretty good job before the 2014 season.

Sanders was the only player to start all 13 games in the Georgia secondary last season, and he finished third on the team in interceptions. McKenzie, Michel and tight end Jeb Blazevich all finished in the top 10 on the team in all purpose yards. Chubb rushed for nearly 1,600 yards despite starting just eight games and established himself among the elite running backs in the country.

And they all did it as true freshmen.

But for all of the freshmen who were major contributors on both sides of the ball, there were also seniors like Damian Swann, Michael Bennett and Chris Conley.

That’s where this year’s freshmen come in.

“We’re going to play a lot of guys,” defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt said. “We signed them to play them, so they’re going to get an opportunity.”

That follows what came from Richt, who said the Bulldogs plan to play “a bunch” of freshmen come Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe. While some of that is to be expected against an early season, non-Power 5 opponent, not all of these freshmen will be relegated to late-game mop-up work and special teams.

On the depth chart provided to the media Tuesday, Georgia listed three starting receivers and four starting defensive backs. All seven of their backups were true freshmen.

“All freshmen better be ready to play,” said senior receiver Malcolm Mitchell, who is backed up by freshman Michael Chigbu. “That’s just the way it goes. You know you always have, on every team, those freshmen that will stand out as the season goes on, and I guess as the season goes on we’ll figure that out.”

At the receiver positions, Chigbu, Jason Stanley and Terry Godwin are behind Mitchell, McKenzie and Reggie Davis. This group of freshmen will play a significant role despite being backups because of the fast-paced nature of Georgia’s offense and the team’s inexperience at the position.

Godwin, especially, is in line for playing time. He has been one of the most impressive playmakers in the preseason and went with the first-team receivers in drills as recently as Tuesday.

“The bottom line is we need help,” Richt said. “If we are going to play a lot of three-receiver sets, which we do, and if we are going to try and play with some type of up-tempo, we need to have at least six and I would say, seven, eight, nine guys that are very capable of being plugged in and ready to play. It just so happened that we are young at that receiver position.”

The defensive backfield shakes out similarly. The top name among that group is Rico McGraw, who is listed as co-starter with Malkom Parrish at cornerback. McGraw also could see time as nickel back when Pruitt opts for a five-defensive back set.

“Rico has taken the majority of his snaps at corner, and he is a talented guy, no doubt,” Richt said. “He has good size, good speed and athleticism. You have to have a certain level of maturity to compete that young, and he takes that very seriously and works very hard at it.”

Also in the mix are Juwan Briscoe, the backup to Aaron Davis, and safeties Jonathan Abram and Jarvis Wilson, who will be behind Qunicy Mauger and Sanders. Although these three aren’t listed as starters, if their backup positions hold on the depth chart, Pruitt’s tendency to rotate players in and out of the secondary could have them on the field sooner rather than later.

But that “if” does exist. There’s a fine line between getting players on the field based on what they have shown in drills and against their teammates versus their preparedness to play at game speed and keep up both mentally and physically.

That is what Richt, Pruitt and receivers coach Bryan McClendon have to evaluate in the waning hours before Saturday’s kickoff.

“When you’ve got freshmen, you’ve got guys that you want to coach,” Pruitt said. “But there comes a point as you’re game-planning that you’ve got to decide are the guys going to be ready by Saturday because the last thing you want to do is put a guy out there that’s not ready. And we’ve got a lot of guys that are like that. They’re close.”

But if the comments from their teammates are any indication, this group of talented freshmen should be fine.

“I think they’ve put in the work, they’ve worked hard,” Mitchell said. “Coach wouldn’t put them on the field if they weren’t ready. So they’re ready to play.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 9:35 PM with the headline "Georgia looking for some more strong freshmen ."