UGA Football Coach Raves About Veteran Wide Receivers
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ATHENS - The buzz around the Georgia Bulldog receiving core is at an all-time high.
After a forgettable 2024 season, Kirby Smart and James Coley have an extremely talented group right now thanks to two big transfer portal additions in Zachariah Branch and Noah Thomas.
Those two are difference makers who are going to play early and often this fall.
They also have senior Colbie Young coming back. Young started the 2024 season strong before a suspension ended it in early October. Young was reinstated on March 20th and is hoping to have a big bounce-back season in 2025.
Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo is happy with what he’s seen out of Young this fall.
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“I've been extremely impressed with Colbie”, Bobo told reporters last week. “He's grateful to be here and his opportunity to be at Georgia. He was dealing with a little nagging injury in the spring, but he wanted to go through spring and fought through all 15 practices. Since he's been back every day, he doesn't take a play off. He's a guy that we brought in out of the portal, but he is probably the leader in that room. He sets the standard of how to work and I'm not just talking about whether it's route running or catching balls, it's blocking and it's his effort. That's kind of contagious, because we've got some talented receivers in that room, and some of them are young. They need to know what it means to wear the Georgia uniform, and he represents that every day. We brought Noah [Thomas] in, that's competition for him and he has not shied away from it.”
Competition is key. You have to have it. Young, listed at 6-foot-3 215-pounds, and Noah Thomas, listed at 6-foot-5 205-pounds, both bring lots of size and the ability to stretch the field. They’ll fight for playing time at the “X” receiver spot but could also play on the field at the same time in specific situations. They both good can be tough to stop on the outside by smaller defensive backs.
“Noah (Thomas) is through six practices and it’s starting to slow down for him,” Bobo added. “The spring was probably a struggle, if you ask him, new system, new terminology and trying to figure everything out. He probably was not playing as fast as he would like and our message to him was, ‘it's gonna be okay, just keep your head down, keep working’ Now you're seeing incremental improvements from him and he's light years ahead of where he was in the spring. He gives you another big body outside that can catch those balls that are contested.”
The Bulldogs also have veteran receivers Dillon Bell, London Humphreys, and Cole Speer coming back along with second-year wideout Sacovie White and several talented freshmen. They’re loaded with talent, and it’s clear they have to big weapons on the outside who should make an immediate impact this fall.