Bulldogs look for new wideouts to step up as life after Marlon Brown begins
Expect the Bulldogs to go to this guy a little more with Marlon Brown joining Michael Bennett on the injured list. Malcom Mitchell has averaged 4.8 catches per game since returning to receiver full time. (AJC photo by Bob Andres)
ATHENS – Life without Marlon Brown began Monday for the Georgia Bulldogs. That was their first practice for the Auburn game and their first without Brown this season.
Make no mistake about it: Brown’s loss was a big blow. His season-ending knee injury is as hurtful as Michael Bennett in Week 6 and probably makes it twice as bad since Bennett was already gone.
The best thing about Georgia’s receiving corps this season is it doesn’t have a “feature guy” who Aaron Murray feels like he has to throw to every series. There are great things about having an A.J. Green or Sammy Watkins or Marqise Lee, but it’s even better if you have a 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D as Georgia did in Bennett and Brown and Tavarres King and Malcolm Mitchell. When coupled with a quarterback like Murray, who is a true reader of defenses and simply throws to the open man, it makes the Bulldogs a tough team to defend.
Case in point, Murray’s four touchdown passes against Ole Miss this pass weekend went to four different receivers. His 21 completions went to 11 different targets. Even more telling: He never had a leading receiver in back-to-back games through nine games. Brown led five different wideouts with three 100-plus receiving games, including this past Saturday, when he left the game in the third quarter with 113 on three catches.
The problem in losing Brown now is you lose the chance to have any guy like him. Bennett’s loss the week of the South Carolina could be absorbed in that he and Brown were very much the same kind of wideout — in the 6-4 to 6-5 range, faster than defenses expect, very sure hands in traffic. Brown left Saturday’s game sharing the team lead in receptions with 27 along with 469 yards and 4 touchdowns. Together with Bennett, they combined for 51 catches and 814 yards and 8 TDs over 14 games played. That’s tough for any team to absorb.
Certainly King has been stalwart captain of the group and he will continue to be so. As he did last season, he leads the Bulldogs again this one with 27 catches for 551 yards and a team-best 6 TDs. And Mitchell has proven to be the play-maker he was last year on offense since returning from the defense in week five. He currently has 26 catches for 358 yards and 2 TDs. Expect Murray to be looking their way a little more often.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs will be looking for somebody else to step up out of the “next” group. It includes experienced junior Rantavious Wooten (12-154-2), talented sophomore Chris Conley (7-84-1) and reliable junior Rhett McGowan (5-46). Now would be a good time redshirt freshman speedster Justin Scott-Wesley (1-43) to show he can get into the mix as well.
“We still have some playmakers,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Sunday. “But Marlon and Michael were just two outstanding football players . . . And they actually had a nice physicality to them them (at) that position. We’ll miss that. Other guys are just going to have to step up and get after it.”
Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they also run a pro-style, multiple offense that’s very diverse when it comes featuring personnel groupings. It’s easy for offensive coordinator Mike Bobo to call more pass plays for tight ends and fullbacks, especially with Murray at the controls.
But as all the Bulldogs will attests, it’s certainly not going to be the same without Marlon Brown.
UGA WIDEOUTS
- Tavarres King, Sr. — 27 catches — 551 yards — 6 TDs
- Marlon Brown, Sr. — 27 — 469 — 4
- Malcolm Mitchell, So. — 26 — 358 — 2
- Rantavious Wooten, Jr. — 12 — 154 — 2
- Christian Conley, So. — 7 — 84 — 1
- Rhett McGowan — 5 — 46 — 0
- Justin Scott-Wesley — 1 — 43 — 0
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
74 comments Add your comment
Skokie Dog
November 5th, 2012
11:16 pm
“When coupled with a quarterback like Murray, who is a true reader of defenses and simply throws to the open man, it makes the Bulldogs a tough team to defend.”
Chip, is this true when the open man that Murray throws to is a defensive player, snagging another interception?
L.A. BULLDAWG
November 6th, 2012
12:51 am
UGA WILL BE FINE! ADAPT AND OVERCOME! STEP IT UP, MCGOWAN, & CONLEY! NO EXCUSES!!!!
Rick
November 6th, 2012
12:55 am
Too bad Marlon was blind sided with a cheap shot on very dirty play and extended tackle. No 7 for Old Miss has already been suspended for four games this year for dirty play.
So much for pre-game surmons by Freeze. Can you say hypocrit?
Marlon brown was my favorite UGA receiver. Good guy great talent.
I don’t like Old Miss.
William
November 6th, 2012
4:17 am
I said it yesterday #7 for Ole Mss should be suspended for the rest of the year. I can’t believe we didn’t target him in the second half. What a cheap shot by him. We should have went after his knees after what he did. too bad we don’t play them next year.
This is Big Boy Football
November 6th, 2012
5:33 am
Rick UGA fans have a lot of nerve talking about dirty players when you have the king thug of them all in Sean Williams.
Destin Dawg
November 6th, 2012
7:13 am
if you pay taxes, love the USA., or have kids/grandkids… please vote Romney !!!!!
RedandBlackDAWG
November 6th, 2012
7:40 am
UGA has wide receivers that can step up and fill in. Conley played a lot last year and has very sure hands. He is not as fast as Marlon was but he has glue on his hands. Wesley was highly recruited and I expect that he could also step in and with some real game time experience, be a real asset.
Possibly, UGA will utilize their TE’s more now, as I think that has been an under used asset so far this year. When the big boy gets the ball, he is hard to bring down, and allows the offense to control the clock more. Of course, our OL will have to block a little better in order to free up the TE to accomplish that. Losing Marlon could also mean that we will run some more and I can’t see anything but positive if that is the case.
Ghost of Sinkwich
November 6th, 2012
8:11 am
Marlon will be missed. Good luck in your recovery and your NFL future.
The other wide-outs will have to bring more game and look for the TE’s to get more involved.
Harvey-Clemons could be inserted?
SEC Fan
November 6th, 2012
8:11 am
@Destin Dawg
Georgia voters are just as irrelevant as are Alabama or Mississippi voters. The Solid South is still solid, although demographic changes in our population might well render this the last presidential election in which the vote in the Deep South can be taken for granted by the GOP.
NC Dawg
November 6th, 2012
8:14 am
Mitchell will have 11 catches for 144 yards against AU
Doogsga
November 6th, 2012
8:49 am
Can Richard Samuel play wideout?
RMikel58
November 6th, 2012
8:58 am
Bring in the freshmen corp. Utilize the TE more.Losing MB will not give us 20 plus yard potential down the field. If we’re way ahead of Auburn come saturday CMR needs to take out those WR’s and put in Freshmen incase of injuries.
Same way on Defense. Bobo needs to do the same with Murray and put in someone else.
Too late in the season with so much at stake for a season ending injury to occur ending hopes for a SEC Championship and Bowl Game.
Quit building on individual stats and do things for the team……………. idiots.
Not about them, its about the Program.
i am Jeff Schultz and the only reason I write is for pageviews because I am not a journalist
November 6th, 2012
9:03 am
I am jeff schultz and I never went to j school but i do know how to generate pageview because that is what my editor tell me to do
RMikel58
November 6th, 2012
9:05 am
Why do you think when Bear Bryant was coaching Alabama , he put in everybody. They all got experience and played.
Our problem this year was we let teams stick around and make a game out of it.
Dont care what anyone says “Defenses” win games and it all starts there.
JJ should take more leadership role and seeing that the defense rises up and make sure that they play 100% and call them out if they dont.
JJ is the heart and soul of our defense and id say this is one area i think he has underperformed on.
Our defense has been looking for a player to step up and take control and yes who better than JJ to do that.
Joey
November 6th, 2012
9:27 am
We don’t have anymore WRs as big as Brown and Bennent, but Conley is 6′3″ and both of the TEs are huge, by college standards. So Murray still has some big targets.
Joey
November 6th, 2012
9:30 am
“if you pay taxes, love the USA., or have kids/grandkids… please vote Romney !!!!!”
************************************
Destin, I do, I do, I do, and I already did.
Go Dawgs!!!!
November 6th, 2012
10:35 am
u have to be an IDIOT if u r on a SPORTS BLOG but telling people who to vote for….do it somewhere else….all the real UGA fans are concerned about beating Auburn
seabass
November 6th, 2012
10:49 am
I still say put Josh Harvey Clemons in at slotback. Big, physical, athletic!
Tee off
November 6th, 2012
12:42 pm
Good thing we were 6 deep at WR coming into the season. Every team in the country would love to have T king, Malcom Mitchell, Wooten and Conley as their receivers. Plus our TE’s are servicable. Its tough to lose Marlon Brown but we’re so deep at WR we wont skip a beat.
Barry
November 6th, 2012
1:19 pm
Ole Miss was another quality win over a potentially dangerous SEC team. Congratulations to the Bulldogs!
I did think that freshman right tackle Theus appeared to be trying to get Murray killed early in the first quarter, but thankfully he got better later. Whew! Why do we always seem to start off so slow??
One other thought, though it is probably too late to worry about it now – Have we played Murray too long in games when we have convincing leads? Point being, we need to get whatever back-up that is next in line more experience. Not to mention keeping Murray healthy. Whenever he leaves UGA we will have no game experience at that critical position, and very little true game conditions in which to evaluate Murray’s successor. I dread the thought that anything happens to Murray this season. Don’t have a clue who might be able to lead the Dogs.
Just a thought…not meant as a criticism.
Destin Dawg
November 6th, 2012
3:40 pm
play LeMay when we are 3 TD’s ++ ahead in 2 nd half… BIG fault of CMR does not get back ups enough game experience… Marlin Brown should have been on the bench instead of injured ??
Atoaz12
November 6th, 2012
3:53 pm
This is a great opportunity to use Marshall and Gurley together. Marshall should be used just like Florida used Percy Harvin. Out of the backfield, on the slot, as a decoy… Get our two best playmakers on the field at the same time. Probably too late for this year but something to consider for next season
2_dawgs
November 6th, 2012
5:00 pm
Keep an eye on Artie Lynch. Lot of potential.
Showmeyurtd's
November 6th, 2012
9:56 pm
Prayers to brown and Bennett….put yo money on THE KING! I have…… Go Dawgs! Ga 34 auburn 17……Book it Danno!