ATHENS, Ga. — A teaser to begin: There’s a question you all have seemed to ask every week for a very long time, and I’ve declined to answer because it was a hypothetical. Well this week, out of the goodness of my heart, I finally answered it. That and the fact it got so many likes, the most of any question, that it would’ve seemed rude.
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First, however, the question that got the second-most likes, and also seems the most relevant right now.
Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
This is the second straight year that one of our top receivers (first Jermaine Burton, then AD Mitchell) has entered the transfer portal. Any insights as to why they’ve left? Is it simply because Todd Monken’s offense spreads the ball around so much that an AJ Green-type “star receiver” doesn’t really emerge? — Doug G.
Well, you can’t blame the offensive system this time: Georgia ranked 15th nationally in passing yards per game (295.8), and that’s counting all those fourth quarters the offense was hanging out on the sideline, eating buffalo wings. (The average for just the first three quarters was 249.7 passing yards per game, and the average for the first half was 174.3 yards per game. So you can imagine what it would’ve looked like if more games had been close.)
Georgia didn’t have any problem convincing the top receivers at two other SEC schools to transfer this offseason. But the narrative may not be officially dead until it gets another five-star receiver directly out of high school, or a current receiver finally breaks the 1,000-yard mark. Better yet, blows past it.
It won’t be Mitchell, but his situation was different from Burton. Burton’s decision was guided heavily by concern that he wouldn’t put up huge numbers in an offense that doesn’t feature one wide receiver. Or at least wasn’t going to feature Burton. In Mitchell’s case, he’s returning home to Texas, and in this age of NIL you also shouldn’t be surprised some of that was at work. Mitchell made a name for himself with game-winning catches in a College Football Playoff national championship and semifinal and is headed to a Longhorns program starved for success and willing to dig deep in those coffers.
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That’s not to say Georgia didn’t want to keep Mitchell and not to say it doesn’t have the capability to do so NIL-wise. But sometimes people are ready to go.
Mitchell’s departure hurts Georgia, especially with the RaRa Thomas situation. Both are outside receivers. (Dominick Blaylock doesn’t play the same position so bringing him back doesn’t change the dynamic too much.) The return of Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint does help, so now you’re at least looking at a good starting trio of Rosemy-Jacksaint and Ladd McConkey on the outside and Dominic Lovett in the slot, while also working in Arian Smith, Dillon Bell and depending on what happens legally, Thomas.
What’s next for Thomas, and how do you see this playing out? — Alan S.
The incident report details came out Tuesday. It’s hazardous to predict an end to this, only that this could be a situation where the school watches to see how the legal situation plays out. And this is one where the school is involved, but from outward appearances the administration, athletic department and Kirby Smart have tended to be on the same page about how to handle these things.
Having been around Stetson Bennett for years, what is your take on how he feels about the fans? Does he roll his eyes in private about “Dawg Nation” or is there a true connection? I noticed he said, “It was nuts. Them hating me, me hating them, us falling in love together and coming back, playing football.” Is “them” us? — Mark M.
Remember the flip phone? There was a reason Bennett used it in 2021 because he admitted that he read too much on the internet and social media, and ditching the smartphone was a way of avoiding that. After winning one national title, he felt confident enough in himself to get back in the 21st century, and while you didn’t see him become a mad tweeter, there were hints and indications that his rabbit ears were back up. They were never really gone: Bennett, like many within the program, used much of the criticism as fuel. But as anyone paying attention knows, Bennett got way more fuel the past three years than any other player.
He buried and hid any bitterness he had the past three years. But some of it is coming out now, in moments like the celebration speech, and the comments Mark M. cites, which were from the Manning Award celebration. There are other, more magnanimous moments, including during the parade. Photos do exist of Bennett smiling and posing with fans. And his tone in the Manning Award press session was more vintage Bennett, citing the “Last Waltz” documentary (about “The Band” in 1978) and being reflective and deferential. The Bennett I covered for six years was on the whole a joy to cover because he was so honest, analytical and funny.
GO DEEPER
Stetson Bennett: The Athletic's College Football Person of the Year
But the negative moments also stand out in an age when people tend to be phonier and know what they’re supposed to say to avoid criticism. Bennett, to his credit, always has been more emotive, and we’re seeing that now. His people are probably telling him to tone it down as he tries to impress NFL teams, which don’t like many emotional strings attached to their rookies. But to ask Bennett to be the bigger man and just totally ignore all the criticism and invective he got the past three years — local and national — is a tall order if you’re not walking in his shoes.
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If Monken were to leave for the NFL, who would be the top targets to replace him? — Matthew M.
OK, I don’t like to engage in these hypotheticals, but this question gets the most likes of any other, and someone has asked a version of it every week for about a year (maybe longer), so I’ll come down from my ivory tower just this once.
Smart clearly has a plan in mind. Every head coach does. He has not shared the plan with me, weirdly, but my sense is he would first see how much interest there is nationally in the job that is a lot more attractive than it was three years ago when Monken was hired. The pay is good, and Monken has shown that Smart will let his offensive coordinator do his job, meaning run a modern offense.
But Smart also has a perfectly good candidate in-house in Mike Bobo, whose offenses at South Carolina and Auburn weren’t all that great but also didn’t have anything near the talent he would have at Georgia. Plus the whole “ran the highest-scoring offense in Georgia history in 2014” thing that Bobo has going for him. Now it’s not clear Bobo wants to get back in the play-calling seat. It sounds like he could have had the Mississippi State offensive coordinator job if he wanted it. But doing so at Georgia, and remaining around his son, would be big.
I’m not sure if Buster Faulkner would be the choice, not because coaches don’t leave jobs that quickly — Bryan McClendon did last year after a few weeks at Miami — but because Faulkner going to Georgia Tech seemed a tell that he knew either Monken wasn’t leaving this offseason or that Faulkner wouldn’t be next man up. At least not yet. One good year or two at Georgia Tech, and he could get the call.
If you were in charge of college football, what are two changes you would make to NIL? — Danny G.
Actually, I would need to be the dictator of the United States of America. If I were in charge of college football — currently nobody is, which is a whole other problem — I still would need to answer to the law of the land, which as interpreted by the Supreme Court and others has said you can’t restrict the earnings of student-athletes just because that’s the way it always has been.
This all goes back to the story I did last summer on Greg Shaheen, the man inside the NCAA who tried to warn it, but instead, it fought and fought and lost and lost, and the result is the current wild west. The NCAA and people who run college sports still are hoping for a lifeline from Congress and hired former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker with the hope that he would know how to grease the wheels in D.C. But I remain skeptical because (and this is simplifying it) Republicans like free markets, and Democrats like young people having rights, so getting both sides of Congress to agree on something and then getting the White House to sign it is a tall order.
Maybe Smart and Jere Morehead can put in a word with President Joe Biden when they’re at the White House, which apparently is happening this time around, with the date and logistics to be worked out.
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But let’s say I was the dictator of America and could do something about NIL. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d do much. It’s hard for me to sit here as someone who makes my living off college sports and hangs out with other adults who make their living off it, all of it uncapped and dictated by the market, and say that college athletes should have their earnings capped. Pro athletes do, but they collectively bargain that, so that’s probably the first order of business: the athletes having some sort of union. But then that gets into whether they’re employees and the host of other issues.
The biggest problem is nobody is in charge. That’s the first thing I would change if I were given dictatorial powers: organize college football in a way that somebody good, somebody smart, was in charge and had smart people working for him or her. I nominate Andy Staples as one of the advisers, although on a part-time basis so he can keep working for us.
College sports are great. They’re worth saving. And they can exist in a world where athletes are part of the free market. What we’re seeing now seems messy partly because it is but also partly because it’s new. It should all evolve and work out, but the people making decisions need to be smart and forward-thinking about it.
Is it Sedrick Van Pran or Sedrick Van Pran-Granger? Regardless, I’m ecstatic he’s is returning. — Chad W.
I’ve actually asked him which he prefers, and he didn’t commit, so I tend to go with the shorter version. I also asked the aforementioned receiver named Mitchell whether he prefers AD or Adonai, and he also didn’t specify, so as you can see above I’ve gone with the shorter version. I never asked Rosemy-Jacksaint about adding the second last name, but I’ve kept writing his entire name because … and this is weird … Jacksaint seems to fit him, for some reason. Tall, lanky, athletic receiver. For some reason, Marcus Rosemy seems too short. Plus Jacksaint is easy enough to spell every time.
The player I’m afraid to ask is David Daniel-Sisavanh, who is in store for a bigger role this year at safety. I’ll respect his wishes, but if he’s also neutral on the subject, it won’t hurt my feelings.
(Top photo of AD Mitchell: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
