/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46331374/usa-today-8207420.0.jpg)
In spring a young man's thoughts turn to love. And if said young man is a college football player, once grades come in from the spring semester, those thoughts often also turn to transferring to a school that can offer more playing time.
And thus, junior wide receiver Blake Tibbs will apparently be playing college football somewhere besides Athens next season. According to the school's release this was the ole "mutual decision" transfer, which usually comes about when a player finds himself buried on the depth chart and running out of time to make a mark on the field. Such was the case with Tibbs, who came to the Classic City as part of the class of 2012 as a 3 star wide receiver from Lithonia's Martin Luther King, Jr. High. He leaves with a disappointing 43 yards on 4 catches in his Bulldog career, with most of his action coming on special teams.
While it appeared that the departure of most of the 'Dawgs starters from 2014 might give Tibbs a shot to crack the 2015 lineup, a shoulder injury suffered early in spring practice again kept him out of action. Georgia now only has five scholarship receivers on campus, six if you count transfer Charlie Hegedus, who had a scholarship at North Carolina State before coming to Athens (That counts, right? That's gotta count). But given his injury issues it seems like Tibbs was likely going to be a last option among that group. This loss isn't helpful from a depth perspective, but in the grand scheme of things it probably doesn't really hurt that much. If you were counting on Blake Tibbs to catch 30 passes this season, you had much higher expectations than me.
Malcolm Mitchell, Isaiah McKenzie, Justin Scott-Wesley, and Shakenneth Williams are likely your first four receivers going into the summer, Tibbs was going to provide some depth behind them. Once he arrives on campus I'd expect 2015 5 star prospect Terry Godwin to join that rotation, and it's possible that New Orleans product Michael Chigbu will also see action as a true freshman. But given Mitchell and Scott-Wesley's injury issues, McKenzie's bowl game suspension, and the general inexperience of the group (not to mention the QB corps), expecting Coach Schottenheimer to run the dang ball behind a veteran offensive line continues to be the safe bet. Until later . . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!