Kirby Smart: Georgia is 'hopeful' Adonai Mitchell can return from injury against Auburn

No. 2 Georgia is coming off two relatively ho-hum performances by its lofty standards as defending national champions, sleep-walking through a win against Kent State before surviving a real scare in a 26-22 win over Missouri. One of the issues against the Tigers was the passing game being a touch out of sync, an issue exacerbated by an Adonai Mitchell injury keeping him from taking part yet again.

Mitchell was on the trip to Columbia, Mo., but did not play. Could he return for this week’s home game against Auburn?

“AD is hopeful again,” coach Kirby Smart said. “He was close to being able to go, we thought, last week. We took him with the intention of seeing if he could go. Pre-game thought he looked pretty good, didn’t feel comfortable putting him out there.”

Georgia did manage to throw for 312 yards against Missouri but not with the team’s usual efficiency.

Starting quarterback Stetson Bennett IV had to throw 43 passes to hit that mark, connecting on just 24 of them (55.8% completion rate), his lowest completion percentage of the year by nearly 14 percentage points.

Georgia did survive the road challenge, though, an experience Smart thinks might have helped round out the depth chart at receiver. That said, he’d still love to get Mitchell back.

“We’re hopeful that he’s able to go this week,” Smart said. “We don’t know until we get out there and get closer to the game, but he’s much closer this week than he was last week. Getting Arian (Smith) back helped with that, and all the reps we’ve gotten for these freshmen have helped. We’ve got to continue to get those guys better.”

Adonai Mitchell injury soon to be a thing of the past?

Mitchell recorded 29 catches for 426 yards and four touchdowns during Georgia’s national championship season in 2021, and he was expected to be a major part of the offense this fall.

However, the talented sophomore wideout suffered an ankle sprain against Samford in Week 2 and has not played since.

He had recorded five catches for 69 yards and a touchdown prior to his injury.

Seemingly on the mend, he could provide a big boost to a Georgia passing game that didn’t look all the way in sync for most of the night against Missouri on Saturday. Mitchell, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound target, is capable of winning in traffic.

That was problematic at times against the Tigers.

“I think it was a different kind of game,” Smart said. “There was a lot of opportunities for one-on-ones and you’ve got to win some of those opportunities. If you’re in third-and-long all game, you’re not running the ball, you’re managing the sticks real well, it puts you behind it.”

Georgia will host Auburn on Saturday in a game that kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET with a national broadcast on CBS.