Georgia receiver returnees meshing with newcomers for potential high-powered attack

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s wide receiver room has received tons of attention this spring. With a pair of transfers coming in plus a trio of early enrollees, there are a lot of new faces for fans to get excited about. Still a big part of the Bulldogs’ plans though will be returnees like Ladd McConkey and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint.

“Yeah, shoot, I felt like I still had more to do here,” McConkey told the media earlier this spring about his decision to return for a fourth season – a third playing a major role. “I love it here, I love the guys here and the coaches. In that aspect, it was easy to come back and wanting to be with them and, shoot, try to do it one more time …I had some good feedback, had some not-good feedback, stuff I liked, stuff I didn’t like, but I feel like that’s probably anybody. So yeah, hopefully I come back this year, get a little bit more consistency and then go from there.”

McConkey passed up on pursuing the NFL Draft after a fair share of thought and discussion went into his decision. He finished last season as the team’s top receiver, hauling in 58 passes for 762 yards – both second among all pass catcher behind Brock Bowers. Both McConkey and Bowers caught seven touchdown passes. Meanwhile, Rosemy-Jacksaint enters his fourth season with the program after a 2022 campaign where he showed major improvement. After his freshman year was cut short due to injury and he took a backseat role to others in 2021 combing for 11 catches and 156 yards during the two seasons, Rosemy-Jacksaint totaled 29 catches for 337 yards and two touchdowns in 2022, finishing top five on the team in receiving.

“I mean, he’s (Rosemy-Jacksaint) a guy that’s played a lot of football for us. He’s a leader who does everything the right way, so just to have him come back and his experience is big,” McConkey said about his teammate. “I feel like me and him can be some guys that can show the younger guys what it’s like and how to practice and do things like that. So it’s huge coming back. I’m glad he came back because I love Marcus, too. Everyone does, so yeah, we’re excited.”

“It helps a lot. Experience is like the key part of I’d say our team,” another receiver, Arian Smith, added. “A lot of young guys don’t really play [early in their careers] unless you’re like Brock Bowers, so he’s very valuable to our offense.”

Of course it’s a team effort in the receiver room and there’s no sense of jealousy towards the attention directed at newcomers from the returnees. In fact, Bulldogs across the board are excited to see the meshing together of the two types of threats for one dynamic offense.

“The new group of tight ends, the new group of running backs. I would say we have a couple of changes on the offensive line — not too different there. Some of the guys who, you know, were actually out and not actually starting on the o-line, guys who were probably injured or guys who probably just didn’t get that opportunity. And now that I see a difference throughout the o-line, it’s like, ‘OK, I see the dynamic that they’re still trying to get comfortable with just the offense.’ And then, like, the tight end group, we have Oscar Delp, Lawson Luckie, still got Brock Bowers. So a really great group of talent,” Georgia defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse said with a clear sense of excitement about the possibilities for the Bulldog offense in 2023. “Receiver-wise, we’ve still got the same guys out there: Marcus Rosemy, Arian Smith. We’ve got CJ Smith, and so we’ve just got a lot of guys who are just talented throughout the offensive corps. It doesn’t really surprise me at all because I know that most of them are going to step up to the plate and make big plays in big games.”

“Oh, the opportunities, you know what I’m saying? QB, receiver, running back, a lot of opportunities open, so if you want to play, go ahead and take ’em,” Smith added on what excites him most about the offense. “We still left a lot of stuff out there on the field — like, a lot of mistakes and a lot of busted plays or loafs or something. So I feel like we can be a lot better than last year.”

Georgia passes the midway point in spring practice on Thursday with the Bulldogs’ eighth session since their mid-March start date. They’ll go through the first of three scrimmages on Saturday, all leading up to the third and final intersquad action – the G-Day spring game – on April 15th.