Ladd McConkey back to making big plays for Bulldogs
ATHENS, Ga. — Ladd McConkey grew up a Tennessee fan. During the recruiting process, Georgia came calling with an offer while the Volunteers never did, thus, the Chatsworth, Ga. native made his way to Athens for his collegiate career and never looked back. On Saturday, Tennessee fans might’ve been looking back and wondering why McConkey was in red and black as opposed to orange and white as he led Georgia in receiving with five catches for 94 yards and a touchdown in the Bulldogs’ 27-13 win over the Volunteers.
McConkey’s redshirt sophomore season has been full of ups and downs. He scored twice in the opener against Oregon, once receiving and once rushing. He followed that up with decent days against Samford and South Carolina before things seemed to fall apart versus Kent State. McConkey had a muffed punt and a fumble along with a couple of drops. Things weren’t much better at Missouri the next week. There were a couple of highlights against Auburn and Vanderbilt, but it wasn’t until the Florida game that McConkey found the end zone again. Then, against the team he grew up loving, McConkey put up a season-high yardage including a 37-yard score on the first play following a controversial call that Georgia fans thought should’ve been a safety.
“It always feels good to get in the end zone, especially here because the crowd’s going crazy. I’ve just been putting in the work, put my head down and tried to get back to the basics. I feel like it’s paying off,” McConkey said.
“The guy just runs ’til his tongue hangs out,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said about McConkey. “We have to temper him in practice. We’ve got to slow him down. He’s going to run himself to death, and I’m like, ‘We’ve got to check his GPS, check his volume.’ I said he wasn’t able to go Wednesday or Thursday. He came out and played with great toughness. He blocks well. The guy’s a competitor, and you know, his family is the biggest Tennessee people there are. He grew up a Tennessee fan all his life, and that was a big game to him.”
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Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett understands what McConkey’s been through. He himself has been caught in the fire of criticism over the course of his career and feels for his receiver. He also felt a little bit for himself, wanting to connect with McConkey and the rest of the receivers on a deep ball at some point soon. That time came on Saturday.
“We finally hit a deep ball. That was awesome,” Bennett said. “He ran great routes, protected the ball, cut back a million times on that third down in the second half. It was beautiful to watch just him running, everybody else blocking and I’m just back there watching. He had a great day.”
