I know there’s a touch of the tongue in cheek in this exchange about Malcolm Mitchell between Bobo and Grantham…
“We lost three linemen,” Bobo said. “Still trying to find those five to seven linemen that are going to play and help us. We lose our top two tight ends. We lose our top fullback. One of our running backs is now gone and (defensive coordinator Todd) Grantham’s trying to steal one of our receivers.”
Grantham can understand if Bobo is upset.
“He should be,” Grantham said. “I would be upset if I was him, too.”
… but underneath it all, I wonder if both coaches aren’t doing some real turf staking at the same time. What happens if Mitchell emerges as a shut down corner in the Missouri game and the offense does struggle to move the ball in Mitchell’s absence? Do things change once all the suspended players in the secondary return? And what if Mitchell simply isn’t durable enough to put in the 80-100 snaps a game that would leave both coordinators happy?
I don’t think any of those possibilities are unreasonable. Which means Richt may very well have some tricky waters to navigate before the South Carolina game.
Get The Picture 
If we score, we may win. If they do not score, we cannot lose.
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I cannot imagine that MM will not return to offense following the return of the suspended players. He’s just too valuable there.
In the event he does prove to be a shut down corner, you would still assume he would play many snaps on offense, but you then start worrying about total number of plays and nagging hammy issues.
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“What happens if Mitchell emerges as a shut down corner in the Missouri game……” I don’t think we find that out in his first college football game playing corner. The return of those he is subbing for mean he splits some time at db and might find himself back at wr.
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Missouri will be his second game, and given the amount of five receiver sets the Tigers run, I don’t think he’ll be splitting as much time at DB in that game as you might think.
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I was thinking of Buffalo as more of a practise scrimmage.
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While I desperately want Mitchell on offense – where he’s by far our best receiver – you give the Grantham what the Grantham wants.
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Grantahm trades Josh Harvey Clemmons for Malcolm Mitchell? And is it really a big problem to find out you have a superstar wide receiver AND a shut down corner? I’ll take thst over not having either, especially since we’ll have some presumably good corners after Mizzou.
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We could use a ‘shut down’ player on offense and special teams – they give up nearly as many points as the D.
MM’s speed on deep routes is a game changer on O. He needs to play offense occaisionally for that reason, if nothing else. Maybe Scott-Wesley can help replace that speed. I suppose we have sufficient other receivers (TKing, Conley, Bennett, etc.) and TE’s (Rome, Lynch) for the short & intermediate passing game
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Guys, a shut down corner is worth three receivers. If you can close off one side of the field, it opens up the defense to do all sorts of things, mainly blitzing safeties. I also think you are not giving our receivers enough credit. We have a good group that will have no problem moving the ball. Murray has time, the receivers will be there to make plays. It’s really all on the offensive line at this point.
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I agree that the receiving core sans Mitchell should still be very effective. Bennett and Conley showed that they can be great possession receivers and T. King is solid as well. Add in Rome who is supposed to be have excellent hands (assuming Bobo doesn’t abandon the tightend like he did at times last year), and I think we will be OK in the passing game as long as the O-Line can give Murray time and allow us to have a credible running game.
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Are we really ready to anoint Michell as a shut dn corner …..forget that he will start against a HS team in our opener . Doesn’t count. Catching Zoo early is a double edge sword game. We aren’t at full strength and neither r they.
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The return of Champ Bailey is a good thing.
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Mitchell is definitely versatile, but I do not know if Bobo planning is versatile enough to make a difference. We’ll see.
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I don’t do good in the maths, but two D backs kicked out, two suspended and the best DB graduated. Them ain’t no maths, that’s one of the 3rs, ‘Rithmatick! Besides, if the Dawgs have to fill the air with footballs to keep up with Big Mo it’s a loss anyway and one more WR won’t matter. See there Senator, we do get some edumacation down here.
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