After Georgia suspended receiver Nitro Tuggle, more focus put on newcomers

Young is back with the team following the resolution of his legal situation. Having him among the wide receivers helps offset the temporary, and potentially long-term, loss of Tuggle.

Georgia’s wide receiver group has a lot more to it than Tuggle and Young. Georgia brought in seven new wide receivers this offseason, two via the transfer portal and five by way of the 2025 recruiting class.

The early returns on those players to this point have been mixed. Transfer wide receivers Noah Thomas of Texas A&M and Zachariah Branch of USC have earned strong reviews.

Given their experience playing high-level football, that shouldn’t be a surprise.

“Yeah, those guys are monsters, man,” defensive back KJ Bolden said. “They both got here, they had to get used to it, the program. We kind of do things different here at Georgia. But I feel like they kind of have bought in to what we’re doing, and those guys are gonna have a great season.”

Bolden praised Branch’s practice habits while comparing Thomas with Young. Both receivers bring a physicality on the outside that Georgia was sorely lacking for much of last season.

As for the freshmen wide receivers Georgia has brought in, they’re having to adjust to the way Kirby Smart wants things done.

Four of the five 2025 signees are with the team this spring, including 5-star prospect Talyn Taylor and top-100 signee CJ Wiley. Landon Roldan, wearing the same No. 84 jersey that Ladd McConkey wore during his stellar Georgia career, has already produced some bright moments, according to some people with practice intel.

But overall, the group has a long way to go to get to the point of being consistent contributors.

“They’ve got to get in shape,” Smart said following Tuesday’s practice. “They’re constantly tired at practice. They’ve got their hands on their hips, exhausted. I think there’s a little anxiety in that. So it’s not like it’s all, they’re not taking more reps. So like the older players might have 25 reps in a practice. They might have 20, but they can’t sustain their 20 reps throughout practice. They get really tired.”

Smart later softened some of his criticism of the freshmen wide receivers, extending it to the entire 2025 signing class. Those new additions have had all of five practices with Georgia to this point.

It always was going to take some time for Taylor, Wiley, Roldan and Tyler Williams to get acclimated to the way Georgia practices. Williams is expected to miss the remainder of spring practice following ankle surgery.

“You know, they’re trying,” Smart said. “There’s no lack of effort and they’re talented, but they’ve got a long way to go in terms of learning what to do and that’s our job. Our job is to get them ready to go. They are not where they need to be.”

Even before Tuggle’s suspension, Georgia’s wide receivers were under scrutiny. This group led the nation in drops last season and lost its two leading receivers in Arian Smith and Dominic Lovett.

Tuggle’s suspension takes away an option, at least for the time being. Georgia isn’t yet in the position where it was last year when it had to turn to Tuggle for key plays in a late-season win over Tennessee.

But the suspension puts even more pressure on the newcomers among Georgia’s wide receivers to get up to speed.

“I definitely see improvement in that area,” Bolden said. “The receivers look great, just going at them every day. At the DB, we’re gonna try to make it hard on them, so it could be hard for them to catch it. But no, they’ve been making definitely a lot of great catches.

“They’ve been staying after a lot of the practice, so I feel like this year we definitely have a great year with them.”