Kirby Smart, Stetson Bennett on McConkey's miscues, their messages for him
When Ladd McConkey woke up Saturday morning, I’m certain he didn’t expect his day to go the way that it did. The redshirt sophomore wide receiver led the team in receiving with six catches for 65 yards, but it’s his mistakes that stand out more.
McConkey muffed a punt inside the UGA 25 after Georgia’s defense forced a three-and-out on Kent State’s first possession. That gave the Golden Flashes great field position and allowed them to get on the board easily with a field goal.
Later, McConkey coughed up the football on a fumble that let Kent State score the first touchdown of the season on Georgia’s first team defense and dropped a pass on the next possession that could have gone for a touchdown of his own. Needless to say, McConkey’s had better days.
“Just that I love you,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said after the game when asked what he tells a guy like McConkey having a rough day. “I was more upset with the punt, not the fumble, those things happen. The punt was more decision. The fumble was something else.”
McConkey has grown into one of quarterback Stetson Bennett’s top targets during his two seasons playing for the Bulldogs. Last year, McConkey finished second on the team in receptions with 31, third on the team in receiving yards with 447 and tied for second in touchdowns with five. After the offseason departure of Jermaine Burton, as well as the early-season injuries to AD Mitchell and Arian Smith in the receiver room, McConkey’s been forced to take on an even bigger role in 2022.
“Whatcha gonna do now? Whatcha gonna do?,” Bennett said was his message to McConkey after the mistakes. “It doesn’t matter. It’s already happened. We’ve got a good defense that can go out there and hopefully stop them. If they don’t then what are we gonna do?”
“There’s nobody that feels worse than Ladd, right? But we need Ladd. We need Ladd if we want to go where we want to go. Ladd’s a big part of our offense, he’s a big weapon for us,” Smart added. “He’s dealing with a foot injury, so he’s not able to practice the same volume. So, when you don’t practice whatever your reps is – 50 reps or whatever – and he gets 15-20, he doesn’t get as much ball security work. He doesn’t get hit as much. So, we’ve got to do a good job making sure he can practice and we’re not asking him to do too much.”
Georgia is back in action this week and on the road traveling to Missouri. The game against the Tigers kicks off a stretch of seven straight SEC games for the Bulldogs between now and the final week of the regular season when they’ll take on Georgia Tech. Kickoff time Saturday from Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Mo. is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
