UGA Football: Mitchell Among Standouts At Lively G-Day

At the end of a busy first half on Saturday at Sanford Stadium, Georgia wide receiver Adonai Mitchell made a lunging catch for a 24-yard touchdown. Mitchell, the 6-foot-4 freshman, then popped to his feet from the Dooley Field turf and blew the small crowd of fans behind the end zone a kiss.

It was one of many nice moments for Mitchell and the Bulldogs during a lively G-Day Game.

“He’s a competitor, he makes plays down the field,” head coach Kirby Smart said of Mitchell. “For a guy that just enrolled, that just got here, he did a good job.”

In the annual split-squad exhibition to wrap up spring practice, Mitchell, one of Georgia’s 16 early enrollees, was targeted often by the Red squad’s quarterbacks — and more often than not Mitchell delivered. After a couple of early incompletions when he was well covered, Mitchell wound up with five catches for 80 yards in the half and seven catches for 105 yards in the game.

In the end, the Red squad, led offensively by junior quarterback JT Daniels, Mitchell and running backs Zamir White and James Cook, edged the Black squad, 28-23, in front of a socially distanced crowd of 20,524.

“We were able to get out there, scrimmage and do some things. Really proud of our guys for the kind of spring we’ve had. … We’ve got a long way to go to get where we need to go and (we) have to find some depth at some positions and have got to get better at some other positions,” Smart said. “I thought our guys really competed hard today. Really just enjoyed watching and seeing the operations of the quarterbacks from the back end where I get to sit and hear them call the huddle and call the plays.”

Daniels, who started Georgia’s final four games last season, completed 28 of 41 passes for 324 yards and three touchdowns. His longest was a 59-yarder to wideout Demetris Robertson for a touchdown with 1:52 to play in the game, putting the Red up 28-16.

White and Cook combined for 54 yards rushing on 13 carries — White scored on a 2-yard run in the second quarter — and both versatile veterans also had six catches out of the backfield.

Leading the Black at quarterback most of the way was redshirt freshman Carson Beck, who also had a solid showing, going 22 of 31 for 236 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. True freshman Brock Vandagriff, another of the 16 early enrollees, was 6-for-9 passing for 47 yards.

Among the defensive standouts were linemen Devonte Wyatt (2.0 sacks) and Jordan Davis, who made their presence felt up front, getting after Daniels and providing some negative-yardage plays for the Black defense.

“We try and do that every day in practice, just focusing and causing havoc up front,” Wyatt said.

Linebacker Quay Walker led the Black defense with eight tackles and defensive back Ameer Speed had seven. True freshman defensive back Javon Bullard led the Red defensive with seven stops.

Saturday’s exhibition was an enjoyable show, a taste of what’s to come in the fall, we hope, and a welcome dose of normalcy after more than a year in a pandemic-altered world. Of course, normalcy is relative. After only three home games during the 2020 season, all with limited seating — the last was way back on Nov. 21, a 31-24 win over Mississippi State in Daniels’ first start for Georgia — the Bulldogs returned to Dooley Field again.

But it wasn’t the best thing the Bulldogs did this week. No, that came Thursday, when representatives from the football team delivered a check for $100,000, proceeds from ticket sales to the G-Day game, to the Downtown Academy school.

A kindergarten-fifth grade school that was opened in 2013, Downtown Academy strives to help children of inner-city Athens. The donation is the fourth Georgia”Dawgs For Pups” initiative in the past year. Receivers coach Cortez Hankton has been heavily involved with “Dawgs For Pups” and when he spoke to the children he opened by asking them to repeat eight simple yet meaningful words: “I know I can, I know I will.”

Between the first and second quarters Saturday, a video of the visit to Downtown Academy, showing players like linebacker Nakobe Dean, wide receiver Kearis Jackson and defensive back Lewis Cine speaking to the children. Their message: whatever your dreams are, you have it within you to go out and make them happen.

Georgia didn’t just walk up and present a big check Thursday. First, Josh Lee, Director of Football Operations, gave a check for $1,000, and then Hankton said he had to do a little better and gave a check for $2,000. Jackson then grabbed the mike and said that the players could do even better, pulling a check for $100,000 out of his pocket.

Regardless of what happened on the field Saturday, there wasn’t going to be a highlight that topped that kind of contribution and community connection. That connection is what the player-driven “Dawgs For Pups” initiative is all about. It’s not just showing up and doing some community service, it’s making the effort to conceive of ways to help an underserved segment of the community, and then seeing those efforts through to the end.

Saturday marked the first G-Day experience for all 16 of the early enrollees, of course, as well as the redshirt freshmen who missed out last season when spring practice was canceled because of the pandemic. It was also Daniels’ first since he didn’t transfer to Georgia from USC until last June.

On the other hand, for redshirt senior QB Stetson Bennett IV, it was his third G-Day. Bennett, who started five games last season, backed up Daniels on Saturday and was 3-for-4 passing for 58 yards.

In the second quarter, Bennett hit Mitchell on a 23-yarder up the right sideline. And on the next play, he found Jackson for 29 yards down the left side, setting up White’s 2-yard TD run that tied the game at 7.

After top returning wideout George Pickens suffered a torn ACL earlier in the spring and emerging weapon Jermaine Burton also went out with a knee injury, and with receivers Dominick Blaylock and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint recovering from injuries sustained last season, the Bulldogs have been able to give a lot of new or less established receivers a high volume of repetitions this spring.

Mitchell showed plenty in his chances to shine Saturday. Redshirt sophomore Steven Peterson had four catches for 60 yards for the Black side and true freshman Ladd McConkey had four for 28. Another early enrollee, tight end Brock Bowers, caught three passes for 37 yards, and junior Jaylen Johnson had two grabs for 21 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown with 22 seconds left.

“I know we have a lot of wideouts,” Smart said. “It’s going to be a really good competition come fall when we are in 100% health in the wide receiver position because some of the guys that got a lot of these opportunities this spring have really stepped up.”

The next time the Bulldogs suit up is a little less than five months away, when Georgia and Clemson meet in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 4. It will be one of the marquee games of the 2021 season and an early-season measuring stick for both teams that enter every season seeking a spot in the College Football Playoff. Let the countdown begin.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He’s also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.