Georgia did not end up landing 5-star wide receiver Luther Burden. He committed to Missouri on Tuesday night, with the Tigers’ proximity to his family being the deciding factor.

Related: 5-star WR Luther Burden III has made his college decision

Without Burden, the Bulldogs still have three wide receiver commitments in the 2022 recruiting cycle. There’s 4-star prospect De’Nylon Morrissette, 3-star Dillon Bell and 3-star Cole Speer. As it stands, it is not as star-studded as the 2019 or 2020 recruiting cycles. The Bulldogs brought in the likes of George Pickens, Dominick Blaylock and Jermaine Burton.

There might be some concern about the lack of recruiting success at the wide receiver position in this cycle, especially given Georgia brought in just two 3-star prospects at the position in the 2021 cycle.

But the job wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton has done in recent seasons should alleviate any of the hand-wringing after missing out on Burden.

“He does a tremendous job,” Smart said of Hankton. “Number one, I think evaluation is the key. Because some of those guys haven’t been the most high-profile, top-ranked receiver, but they’ve gotten better since arriving.”

You can really look at what Hankton has done with Ladd McConkey and Adonai Mitchell this season. The former was not even a top-1000 recruit in the 2020 cycle. Mitchell meanwhile didn’t play high school football last fall and was the No. 385 player in the 2021 cycle.

Both players have become very productive early in their Georgia careers. Far earlier than their recruiting rankings would’ve indicated. McConkey leads all Georgia wide receivers in catches (17) and yards (295). He turned in a breakout performance against Auburn two weeks ago.

Mitchell has hauled in 14 receptions for 210 yards and a touchdown as well.

Injuries have cleared a path for McConkey and Mitchell to play. But it says something about Hankton, offensive coordinator Todd Monken and Smart that they’ve been able to succeed.

“I think our system, being conducive to freshmen being elite, it’s not like it takes you forever to come in and learn the system,” Smart said. “So we have been able to come in and have some success with younger receivers.”

Mitchell isn’t quite on pace to eclipse the numbers Pickens put up as a freshman, but he’s trending better than Blaylock and Burton.

Georgia expected big things from Pickens, Blaylock, Burton and others this fall, but injuries have prevented that from being the case. Mitchell and McConkey have benefitted from being some of the only receivers to be available in every game.

Perhaps the miss of Burden wouldn’t sting as much if the Bulldogs had a better idea of what they had in sophomores like Burton, Blaylock, Arian Smith and Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint.

“Cortez does a great job of teaching, developing, working with those guys,” Smart said. “We made sure those guys got a lot of reps in the spring and, in A.D.’s case, also in fall camp. All that work with the 3s and 2s, which some of those guys were, paid off.”

Georgia could still very well go out and land an impact wide receiver in this recruiting class. There’s also a feeling that at some point this year the Bulldogs will get healthier at wide receiver.

Related: Georgia injury update: JT Daniels’ ‘pitch count’ up, George Pickens improving, key defender returns

For now, it can rely on knowing that Hankton has been able to find and develop wide receivers who can contribute early, regardless of their recruiting ranking.

Where Georgia football, Cortez Hankton go next after Luther Burden commits to Missouri

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