What a year gets you

Finally, from yesterday’s presser, a couple of quotes about what we hope will be Georgia’s high octane passing game.  First, there’s what experience brings for developing versatility:

… Last year we weren’t able to be very versatile, because Jermaine Burton was trying to learn one position. Now, we’re training Jermaine Burton to learn both sides. He was the Z last year; he needs to be the Z and the X. There’s so much little things where they are so much further ahead as far as knowledge.

Then, there’s just the whole “getting to know you” aspect to having a spring at all.  You know, unlike a certain spring that was blown up by a pandemic.

What steps has JT Daniels taken since he announced he was coming back to lead, organize sessions with receivers, etc.?
“I think the wideouts like to throw more than any of the quarterbacks. JT does a good job with those guys, but there’s been several Saturdays I’ve stopped in prior to spring practice starting and they’re in there throwing, doing things on their own. They just like to go in there and throw. We didn’t have a lot of sessions, we wanted to get away from football. The NCAA’s given us a lot of latitude with 10 hours now instead of eight hours a week, we get a lot of football time with our players to work, walk-through, and they choose to go throw on their own. Those wideouts really enjoy it, embrace it. I know Carson, Brock and JT and Stetson, all those guys have been out there to throw on their own.

“But JT, he’s a really good leader. I think the fact he’s come back, and he’s had a little more time, he never had a chance to really get to know these guys. He showed up, we’re in Covid, he wasn’t playing, then he was playing, then the year was over. So he’s just now kind of embracing the relationship with those guys.”

If the “Georgia’s offense will be screwed by not having a spring practice” narrative turned out to be a fair characterization of how things turned out last season, it sure seems reasonable to think that a return to normalcy in that regard should pay some very nice dividends in 2021.