Georgia WR AD Mitchell ‘back in the mix’ at practice
ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia’s Kirby Smart was rather quiet this week when asked about AD Mitchell‘s ankle injury. An abrupt answer on Tuesday was all the head coach wanted to give, saying that he was “hopeful.” One of Smart’s players though shared more insight into the situation though on Wednesday as running back Kenny McIntosh said that Mitchell is getting more involved and is in the right mental space to properly return from his injury.
“He’s coming along real well. His injury is coming along well,” McIntosh said. “He’s back running and getting in the mix of practice again, stuff like that. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be real fine. But his mindset, I don’t think he’s worried. He’s trying to get healthy, that’s all, before he steps back on the field. He’s not rushing it or anything like that. He’s just going to make sure that he’s back to AD.”
Asked what Mitchell’s return would bring to the offense after the star wide receiver has only played in one game this season without limitations, McIntosh believes that it would take the Georgia offense to whole new heights.
“A real explosiveness,” McIntosh said. “I feel like we’d go back up again, real, real explosiveness with the deep shots. The running game has been picking up because of the o-line and stuff like that, so being able to have him to go deep once we break a few runs, have the defense come up and then they run past the DBs, it’s going to make our offense more explosive. Georgia’s real explosive on offense, and the more weapons we got the better.”
Mitchell suffered a high ankle sprain in Georgia’s second game of the season against Samford and missed the next three outings for the Bulldogs. He returned briefly against Auburn but has missed the four most recent games. Smart shared prior to Tennessee week that Mitchell’s injury has been classified as a high ankle sprain. Overall, he has played just five snaps since the opener against Oregon.
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In Mitchell’s one full game of action this season, he hauled in four passes for 65 yards and a touchdown. That was in the season-opening blowout of Oregon. As a true freshman in 2021, AD Mitchell hauled in 29 passes for 426 yards and four touchdowns including the go-ahead score in the National Championship Game against Alabama.
“It’s been frustrating for him,” Smart said about Mitchell at Georgia vs. Kentucky media day on Monday. “He wants to get back. He works really hard at it. He was better last week than he’s been every week previous. He actually got to do individual drills last week and did some things. But he’s still not, or at least last week, I don’t know where he is this week because I haven’t seen him yet, but he was not where he could come out of breaks and do the things required to play receiver, and that’s tough. So he stayed here. He got extra rehab here, felt like he got a little better rehab here not having to be on it all weekend and during the game. So we’re, again, hopeful to get him back this week, but it will be day by day.”
Georgia goes on the road this weekend to take on Kentucky at Kroger Field in Lexington. Whether AD Mitchell makes the trip remains to be seen after he did not travel with the team this past Saturday to Starkville. Kickoff time is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
