On paper, it should be very easy to recruit the wide receiver position for Georgia at this point in time.
Mecole Hardman just caught the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. Chris Conley made a number of noteworthy plays for the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Ladd McConkey is seen as a possible first-round pick, despite an injury-plagued final season at Georgia. Mel Kiper Jr. tabbed Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint as a sleeper in Georgia’s upcoming NFL draft.
Yet with all that success, Georgia has leaned more and more on the transfer portal at the wide receiver position in the past two recruiting cycles.
And now wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon is departing the program after two seasons, taking the same job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The move comes at a fascinating time for the position. Even with Georgia signing the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the 2024 recruiting cycle, Georgia signed just two wide receivers in Nitro Tuggle and Sacovie White.
By comparison, Georgia added three wide receivers via the transfer portal. And only London Humphreys has multiple years of eligibility remaining.
“We feel like we should build every room through high school, but over the last I guess 2-3 years we’ve gone into the portal and been able to get some experienced wideouts,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on National Signing Day. “I think that’s critical. I do think you can play early in college football at wideout. I think people have proven that. George [Pickens] proved it, AD proved it, Jermaine [Burton] proved it. They’ve all proven — Dillon Bell proved it — that you can go out and play as a freshman, but it’s nice to get some SEC experience in the two guys we got last year.
“You know, we need more depth at receiver. It’s a position that we’re thin at that we’ve got to have enough people to surround Carson with to create weapons.
Of the 12 scholarship wide receivers on Georgia’s roster, five are seniors. Dillon Bell, perhaps the player with the most upside in the room, is a draft-eligible junior. And that’s before even factoring in the possibility of Georgia losing players to the transfer portal. The Bulldogs had four wide receivers transfer out this past cycle.
