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Georgia staying careful with Ladd McConkey after making season debut

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•10/02/23•

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Ladd McConkey
Tony Walsh / UGA Sports Communications

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia got wide receiver Ladd McConkey back this past weekend against Auburn, but the Bulldogs are going to remain cautious with him going forward. Knowing how his battle with back pain truly is day-to-day, Smart said after the game on Saturday that his biggest concern was an aggravation of the injury from the snaps he played.

“Yeah, no clue. We don’t know if it’s going to come back. I don’t know,” Smart said with a sense of frustration in his voice. “I know that the medical advice we got was to shut him down, we did that. He feels like he’s recovered, he feels good. He had to progress last week to the point of full speed, didn’t bother him. I’m pleased with that part of it. He wants to be out there. The biggest thing now for him is the conditioning level.”

On the battle to get him – and other banged up Bulldogs back to full speed in terms of conditioning – Smart said it’s a difficult one. There’s a balancing act that goes on between getting them the necessary work to condition and saving their legs for Saturdays.

“We’re trying to get them in shape now because we feel like they’re healthy. It’s a matter of, can they get in shape without wearing down their legs,” Smart said about McConkey, as well as running back Kendall Milton who made a return after missing the UAB contest due to a sprained MCL. “You don’t really get in shape in season, you either get in shape or you’re not. Those guys haven’t had a chance to have the stamina in practice. We try to do it other ways, non-weight baring, under water running, you do all the things you can do. We’re trying to get them healthy to the game and get them some more snaps.”

McConkey had four catches for 38 yards on Saturday. The more telling stat in terms of his impact though is that three of his four receptions went for first down conversions on third down. According to Smart, it was an even bigger impact that they had hoped for considering how little he had practiced.

“It was awesome. I’m so glad to be out there with my guys,” McConkey said after the game on Saturday. “I’ve been craving to get out there … I wanted to be out there more than anything really. Been grinding, grinding, grinding and finally felt good enough to get back out there.”

“I felt pretty good,” he added when asked if he felt 100%. “Obviously it was my first week back at practice so I’m trying to get some more reps as the weeks come, be able to get more comfortable, but I feel good.”

Georgia hosts Kentucky this coming Saturday in its first ranked-on-ranked matchup this season. The No. 20 Wildcats enter Athens at 5-0 and coming off of a big win over Florida, their third straight in that series.

Kickoff time at Sanford Stadium is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. Vegas oddsmakers at both FanDuel and DraftKings opened the line with the Bulldogs being favored by 17. That spread is down to Georgia -14.5 at the time of publication.

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