Dillon Bell emerging as option to contribute early in Georgia receiver room
Throughout all of fall camp, there’s been one wide receiver that has stood out from the rest. He might not be the 1,000-yard receiver that Georgia is looking for to end its drought. He might not even be a starter, but day in and day out, Dillon Bell has been on Kirby Smart’s radar. And with a couple of injuries in the wide receiver room, the freshman from Texas is making the most of the opportunities he’s getting. Whether it’s been a compliment for his route running, his burst or simply the energy that Bell brings to practice, Smart has praised him out on the practice field. Saturday, Bell made an athletic catch on the sidelines during the eight minutes of media observation. That was just the latest of several examples of Bell showing out early in fall camp.
“He has worked his way into rotation by necessity,” Smart said when asked about Bell on Saturday after Georgia’s first scrimmage of the season. “We don’t have the depth at the position. It is every year. I don’t think that across the country you will see four senior wide outs. Show me where you have four senior wide outs. Show me where you have two seniors and two juniors. Wide outs are very similar where if they don’t get the ball, they are gone. You constantly have new players. If they are really good they are gone to the draft. That is where one of our juniors is. Everything is cyclical. Right now at wide out, we don’t have great depth and we have a couple injuries. Those young guys are getting thrust out there, and they have to go up. We have done it before. We’ve had productive young wide receivers.”
“Dilllon (Bell) made some plays today. Jackson (Meeks) made some plays today, if he counts as young. Right now these sophomore aren’t young. These sophomores are old. If you count, 40 to 35 percent of our team are freshmen. I thought Dillon Bell stepped up and made some plays. I thought Oscar (Delp) made some plays at tight end. We have him as a receiving weapon. Those guys continue to do a good job. We just don’t have the depth at receiver. I thought (Marcus) Rosemy-Jacksaint did good job today. Adonai (Mitchell) made a few plays,” Smart continued, rolling through the names of young wideouts the impressed. “We are going to have to be really good at the perimeter to be explosive. We have our tight ends, but we have to be good outside to compliment the tight ends. We need to get De’Nylon (Morrissette) back, and we need to get Dillon Bell rolling to get where we need to get at wide out.”
Bell was a do-it-all player in high school, helping lead the Kinkaid School to a 9-2 record and an SPC 4A Championship during his season season. he finished that year with 662 receiving yards, 46 catches (14.4 yards per catch) and 10 receiving touchdowns to go along with 655 rushing yards on 101 carries (6.5 yards per carry) and 14 rushing touchdowns. Bell also threw for 164 yards and three scores, bringing his touchdown total to 27 in all during his season season. For his efforts, he was named Offensive Player of the Year by the Houston Touchdown Club.
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While Bell won’t be asked to do all of that this fall with Georgia, he could be asked to contribute. As Kirby Smart said, the Bulldogs are in need of depth at the position, short on receivers from a numbers perspective already before injuries to Arian Smith and De’Nylon Morrissette. That only makes it all the more important that Bell is capable of contributing.
Georgia is through nine practices in fall camp and has the day off on Sunday. The Bulldogs will watch the tape from their first scrimmage of the fall before getting back out onto the field to correct those mistakes this week.
