David Ching has outdone himself with this terrific story on what to expect out of Malcolm Mitchell this season. What makes it so good? Two things – one, he goes back and tries to place the present expectations on Mitchell against the historical backdrop of Champ Bailey’s incredible 1998 season, and, two, he talks to Brandon Boykin, Jay Rome and Scott Woerner (!) about how realistic it is for Mitchell to be a significant contributor on both sides of the ball.
No sugar-coating here; it’s going to be a tall, tall task. If Mitchell can pull it off, he’s one special player.
By the way, in the last six games (four SEC opponents, Georgia Tech and the bowl game) of the ’98 season, Champ Bailey averaged almost 107 plays per game. That’s insane. And it’s an effort that should have been worthy of much more Heisman attention than it got.
Get The Picture 
Champs season was way better than what Woodson did at Michigan in winning the Heisman. The difference was the team that each had around them. Woodson was the best defensive player that year and contributed some big plays on offense. Champ was the best defensive player in the country and Georgia’s best offensive player. He didn’t just contribute big plays on offense he had to be THE go to guy at WR.
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All of the Bailey boys were DGDs
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What am I?
You da MAN!!
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Expectations for MM are really building up. I thought we had some CB depth with Commings, Smith, Swann, Bowman & Dawson. And at WR we’ve got King, Bennett, Conley, Brown, Wooten, Scott-Wesley & Tibbs. Is MM such a far superior player to all these others? If so, he must be like lightning in a bottle. Going to be fun to watch.
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Or one could look at this move and say the talent at WR and DB is not very good. Hence the need for Malcolm to play both ways. Guess it depends on if you are a glass half full or half empty kinda guy.
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Or in your case the glass is broken.
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Ask another VHS Wildcat [suggest Buck Belue] what they think of Mitchell. Saw enough in high school and freshman year to say he is a “player”.
You wonder how much of his “player” ability was considered in moving to defense. You can see a need there re numbers, but you can almost say that on the other side of the ball. He comes across as a player that can generate turnovers. Just wondering if this fits Grantham’s mindset and schemes. I would say it would be an issue for opposing offenses. He has what it takes with Jones to stop offenses from locking the box.
One good thing about this season the Dawgs are not opening with those Dome uniforms.
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Marshall is getting ready for the fourth quarter of the SEC championship game. Ging to be tough to score quick on us late at the end of the year with him in the secondary.
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I’ll settle for 50 plays a game and a healthy hamstring.
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damn straight
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