George Pickens makes return to field as UGA plays Georgia Tech
Georgia wide receiver George Pickens has made his return to the field from a torn ACL that he suffered in the spring.
The junior out of Hoover, Ala. was considered to be one of the top wide receivers in all of College Football and expected to be a big part of Georgia’s passing game before his injury, as evidenced by his selection as a preseason All-American by Walter Camp and All-SEC by the league’s 14 head coaches. His return is certainly long-awaited and comes at the right time for the Bulldogs who take on No. 3 Alabama next week in the SEC Championship Game.
In his first two season in Athens, Pickens hauled in a total of 85 passes for 1,240 yards and 14 touchdowns in 22 games. As a freshman he was named to the Coaches’ Freshman All-SEC Team and a co-winner of Georgia’s Offensive Newcomer of the Year award. He capped off that season with a 12-catch, 175-yard performance in a Allstate Sugar Bowl win over Baylor. Then, as a sophomore, he tied for the team-high in receptions (36), was one yard shy of the team-high and caught a Bulldogs’ best six touchdown passes.
“George has been practicing with us doing more, repping with the threes and the twos some,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said about Pickens earlier this week. “Still waiting to get him cleared but we didn’t have him with the scouts. We’re getting him working with the offense, trying to kind of integrate it back into getting calls and doing assignments. But he was still black jersey, no contact today.”
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“He’s got to his percentages on his knee, on his testing,” Smart added when asked about the possibility of his return last week after Georgia’s win over Charleston Southern. “He’s got jumps, he’s got cybex, he’s got about 15, 16 tests he does, and when he hits a certain percentage we think he’ll be able to get cleared. But we don’t know when that’s going to be. It’s a matter of the strength in there, and making sure he’s safe.”
Pickens is the second Georgia receiver to return for injury in as many weeks. Dominick Blaylock, who suffered a torn ACL in the 2019 SEC Championship Game before re-injuring his knee prior to the start of the 2020 season, caught two passes for 11 yards in his return last week against Charleston Southern.
*** UPDATE: Pickens hauled in his first reception on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, picking up five yards on the play.
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