Nate McCollom to UNC

[MacJacket]

There is no way to sugarcoat losing a player as good as Nate. Fortunately, I think we have some quality players that can fill the role and I'm curious if Dopson gets some reps in the slot to start. His game has a lot of similarities to McCollum's (punt/kick returner, blazing speed, good hands, etc.).

 

[slugboy]

We couldn’t match UNC’s $$$?

I don’t know how much NIL is the determining factor. I’m sure whatever he was set up with didn’t hurt.

UNC had the most TDs of any ACC offense for the season. They were the most in passing yards, and the second most in passing yards/game. They were above average in rushing, but they pass the ball a lot. In 2022, they had a top 25 passing-heavy offense. Nate is a wide receiver getting ready for the draft. He wants as many gaudy stats as he can get.

We should be better this year than last, and I’d have preferred him here—and I think it would have looked good for his draft prospects here, too.

 

[bobongo]

Or maybe the draft stock improves because the competition level improves. Like it or not, a player who performs well in the SEC will be regarded higher than one that performs well in the ACC or Pac 12.

Maybe so. But in Gibbs' case his supporting cast was a lot better, especially on OL. 5.2 per carry behind Tech's line is more impressive to me than 6.3 ypc behind Alabama's. And I don't think their schedule was tougher, either.

 

[Ibeeballin]

Folks are acting as if Nate wasn’t All-ACC this past season

 

[FightWinDrink]

120+ fbs teams not on our schedule and he chose one of the 11 that is

 

[forensicbuzz]

this has to be trolling at this point. i genuinely have no idea who the best player on the offense is if you apply this logic.

dontae went large stretches of the season without getting touches so it can’t be him by your logic. in fact our RBs seemed to just be hot hand guys and none of them really emerged as the clear cut 1 and i don’t think any of them stood out on the national stage.

sims and gibson were inconsistent at best and had some very poor performances mixed in. pyron did not have enough opportunities so it’s pretty hard to say he was the best with your logic.

the te room obviously doesn’t enter this discussion and our o line plagued us most of the year with its inconsistency. although they looked better by the end of the year

purely hypothetical if everyone from the 2022 offense were to declare for the draft the only two that may get a look would be sims and nate. i am probably the biggest sims believer in here and i would take nate above him 10/10 times

so if not nate then please tell me who the best player on this offense was

LOL! So, anyone who disagrees with you and isn't convinced by your argument becomes a troll. Got it. I"ll just not engage with you. In my opinion, you can't say someone who averages 5 touches a game is your best offensive player. No one asked you to agree with me.

Who's the best player? I already commented on that. I'd say that based on our final 2 games, when we had decent play calling, Gibson probably was. Without Gibson's performance, we lose to UNC and are blown out by uga. Without Nate that might or might not have happened.

I'm not sure why you're getting hung up on this. Nate's gone. He was probably our most effective receiver. He will be missed. But, he isn't irreplaceable, the same way Brown wasn't irreplaceable. Jenkins had as many touchdowns and almost half Nate's total yards in less than 1/3 of his receptions. Next man up. (this is not a criticism of Nate. I really like him and will miss his game)

 

[forensicbuzz]

That makes me wonder if we are going to have strength up the middle next year. On defensexwe loose the best dl lineman and 2 best lb in years. The center has played many snaps but seems average. How high is our Center rated ( PFF) when compared to other centers?

We dont have enough proven ol, dl, lb, qb, etc to make a top player stay or transfer in. Next year we could play tough but not win.
Maybe next year we can show folks we are devolping talent.

I don't think we have any idea of what we really have. I think the new coaching staff, with 9 months to work with these guys, may present a wholly different team next year. I'm looking forward to what they're going to do and am cautiously optimistic we'll be able to build on the last 8 games of this past season.

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

Folks are acting as if Nate wasn’t All-ACC this past season

He wasn't, though. He was honorable mention. So was Hassan Hall.

 

[TromboneJacket]

Nate may have been our best receiver, but I think losing him would hurt a lot less if we had Jenkins and Carter coming back. My hope is that Chase Lane can be a solid receiver for us and that Blackburn, Boyd, and Rutherford all thrive under Crawford’s tutelage. Heck, Blackstrain was a 4-star, so maybe he breaks out under better coaching too.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Folks are acting as if Nate wasn’t All-ACC this past season

That's not me. I think Nate was our best WR and will be missed. That being said, Even transcendent WRs rarely take over games. Calvin's final game is proof of that.

 

[Ibeeballin]

He wasn't, though. He was honorable mention. So was Hassan Hall.

You do realize that is still recognized?

 

[Techster]

Ahmerean Brown
Kyric McGowin
Nate McCollum

All different Slot receivers that played under different QBs and OCs the last 4 years. All were productive.

Any time you lose a productive piece of your football team it hurts. Regardless, GT seems to find someone to replace them. If we're going to run the offense that I think we'll run (Air Raid variant with a big run component), our Slot WRs are going to have some big numbers. Hate losing Nate, but someone will step up.

 

[GTBandit22]

Looking at the schedules, we won’t see him again unless it’s the accc.
Need Haynes and Rutherford to step up in the slot.

 

[RhoChi]

I think with Blackstrain and Blackburn hopefully maturing and getting better over the offseason with the additions of Haynes as well as having Malik still around, I think our WR room will weather this. Does it suck? Yeah. But tbh our WR room is one of the few I think we can afford attrition from

 

[UgaBlows]

With how long it took him to announce the transfer it “feels“ like he gave GT a chance to match the unc nil money and we wouldn’t or couldn’t. I‘ll def miss him here but I also believe slot receiver is one of the easier positions on offense to replace with another quality guy as evidenced by Brown-McGowan-McCollum. Fwiw I think Nate will do very well in UNC’s offense but it’s not gonna help his draft status, scouts will find the talent and evaluate it at either school.

 

[MWBATL]

My guess is that it’s more about improving his draft stock than NIL money

 

[Lee]

We will miss his production some, but I think the biggest pain to losing him will be his game experience. I think he made a smart decision on his part. I'm sure the NIL didn't hurt, but I agree with others that this decision was based more on the offense he's going into and the guy who is going to be throwing him the ball. I think he actually will benefit more from a draft standpoint than Gibbs. I think Gibbs left to go try and win a championship and make some money along the way. Nate will have a chance to improve his status in my opinion because he will get many more opportunities. The role he is filling almost caught 100 passes and went for over 1000 yards.

That being said, I think we will be okay. I've been impressed with Rutherford every time I've seen him play. He honestly seems more shifty and explosive than McCullom. I think Nate is more put together physically, but believe Rutherford can fill in nicely. Blackburn seemed to be able to get the most separation of any WR not named Nate last year and will hopefully be fully healthy going into the year as well.

We will have guys to catch passes. Whether we are successful on O next year will still depend on how the OL plays. Hopefully they continue to gel as they mature.

 

[MWBATL]

All of this continues the demonstration that college football is a professional prep league for the NFL. The longer we hold onto the “student-athlete “ romance, the further behind we’ll fall

 

[GoldZ]

All of this continues the demonstration that college football is a professional prep league for the NFL. The longer we hold onto the “student-athlete “ romance, the further behind we’ll fall

Then change the name to NFL Lite then, because it's not "College". Record books need to start over as of 2019 (prior to the rape of CFB by Covid and NIL/TP).

 

[GaTech4ever]

I'd say once the playcalling was fixed it might have actually been Benson.

Luke Benson?? Our Tight End?? He caught four passes for 38 yards after Collins was fired. And one catch for nine yards in the final three games.

I’m truly confused with your statement and am assuming you meant another player. Because Benson wasn’t targeted the final two games and only played 40 out of 211 offensive snaps over the final three games.