I’m a little surprised that the coaches are willing to consider this…
Wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell acknowledged there has been some kind of preliminary discussion about him possibly playing some cornerback next season. However, offense would still be his primary role.
“If I think that it’ll help us win and he can function and do that, that’d be fine,” Richt said. “We have a few guys that play both ways but we try to have them focus on one position. If they have enough of a comfort level knowing what to do, we can begin to share a little bit. I wouldn’t be against it.”
… more accurately, that Richt and Bobo are willing to consider this (I’m sure Grantham’s just fine about it), but it’s worth remembering that coming out of high school Mitchell was more highly rated as a defensive back than as a receiver.
He’s been Georgia’s best deep threat this season and I’d hate to see that go. But if he can pull the whole thing off, I won’t complain. Although I do wonder what this says about how the coaches feel about the secondary post-Brandon Boykin.
Get The Picture 
Crowell “was standing on the sidelines and not participating.” Couldn’t see that coming lol. He is so delicate and fragile. I have already written him off as ever amounting to anything but frustration. Bring on Keith Marshall.
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Yawn. This Crowell bashing isn’t getting old at all.
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I will stop bashing him when I perceive an average level of effort, average toughness, average competitiveness, and just average maturity and attitude.
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yawn
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Or you could just follow Momma’s advice to not say anything if you can’t say something nice. You’d think the guy farted on your best suit or something.
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As someone else once posted, do you think a 300lb lineman landing on your ankle is something that a mature kid with a good attitude doesn’t notice?
I’m not saying he doesn’t have some weaknesses to address. But I’m not willing to dismiss a kid that’s going to finish with around 1,000 yards in favor of a kid who’s never seen a snap in the SEC.
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I think people just want to see an average level of maturity and attitude out of you.
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Well, when you lose Richt and kinda Bobo, you have to find someone, right?
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Got “1980 Dawgs” for Christmas and noted the section on herschel’s ankle injury in ’80 and how he missed a game and a half. I turned to my wife and said, “but I thought only isaiah got hurt and everyone else was invincible”. Herschel missed games. Samuel missed 4. Lattimore has yet to make it through a season. Get over it and smell the coffee that being an sec RB is tough sledding.
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It isn’t limited to Crowell, and it’s gotten real, real old. It’s been going on for over a decade with Sanks, Cooper, Lumpkin, Ware, King, Ealey, etc., etc., etc. Haven’t the experiences of BVG, CTG, Olivadotti, etc. taught us anything about hiring qualified professional assistants?! It’s long past time to hire a real RB coach.
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What exactly is the “it” you’re referring to here? And what would a “real RB coach” do differently about “it”?
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Watched him play both quite a bit in HS. Remember a game where he had a pick to give the offense a chance and caught a deep TD pass to win the game.
He really could be Champ 2.0. He was a GREAT corner in HS.
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I’m surprised by that as well. It’s one thing for a cornerback to learn a few routes and be effective on offense. But it’s something else for a receiver to learn coverages enough to be effective.
I’m sure Mitchell has the physical skills. But, the offensive coaches could put a cornerback, like Smith, in on a play that will they will know what’s coming. On defense, Mitchell would be required to adapt to any play the offense runs.
If he can be effective both ways, it will certainly be fun to watch. I used to love watching Champ blow past defenders back in the day.
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Mitchell was primarily a DB in high school, Hack.
I was surprised when UGA put him on offense this year, and shocked at how good he was from the get-go.
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I know that he was. That’s why I said he could physically do the job. But I would be very surprised if his high school coach ran something comparable to Grantham’s defense. Rambo explained his improvement this year by saying that he spent the entire season last year learning the defense. And he didn’t share time on offense. And he already had one year learning a college defense (no Martinez jokes, please).
I’ll just be surprised if a receiver, who will spend time on defense only as his secondary job, can learn the system enough to be effective.
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Maybe I miss-read your meaning.
Anyhow, from what we’ve seen from this kid already, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
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Or, it could be a sign that Rambo is leaving and they have to fill voids of Boykin, Rambo, and maybe Commings if he goes as well.
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But they also said they would give Swann a shot at WR too, plus they have B.Smith and at least one of the DBs they are recruiting has also said they might let him try both sides too.
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Let’s stick with stuff that works. These kids don’t have enough hours in the week to keep experimenting. If he wasn’t getting a chance on the field, fine. But he’s our major deep threat and the only one Murray has a hard time overthrowing. We may not be able to be LSU, but we can sure as heck be Boise St. By that I mean proficient and deadly. No mistakes. Be experts at just a few things. Our playbook is already pretty big and our kids are definitely NOT known for mistake free play.
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Or, it could be a measure of how the coaches feel about Justin Scott-Wesley as a deep threat WR.
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Having Mitchell available gives them 4 capable bodies with smith, commings, and swann. I’m not sure they think smith is an every down corner especially vs. A big body. So you might see mm in some nickel situations and when the opponent gives a match up problem. My guess is they think he’s good enough to play man on an island for 10-15 snaps a game.
The patriots do some of this bc on personell issues. Nothing to get too worked up about.
I do wonder what this may mean for nick Marshall. Watching him play on KO coverage gave me some pause.
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Well, whatever it means it couldn’t possibly be the fact the guy is a balls out badass on both sides of the ball. No, that would be too positive for us.
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Word. He might be too damn good to leave him on the sideline. Just like Champ…
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I’d sure rather see hime “cross trained” for a role similar to the one Boykin and Smith played at times on O. Speed from motion for sweeps, screens, etc.
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If he has that kind of tackling toughness I would prefer to see that extra energy used as a gunner on punt returns. I get using the DBs a few plays on offense, not so sure about putting MM in a position to stop sweeps by taking on blockers. We seem to have some depth at WR but Mitchell looks too special to me to taake unnecessary risks. We lost him for several games playing one way this season, and it had an impact.
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If he’s willing and able … and the coaches NEED him to go both ways … then I’d say “go for it” if it makes the team as a whole better.
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