Georgia Bulldogs and Kirby Smart add important coach to help fix exactly what they need to ahead of 2026 college football season
Georgia adds David Whitlow, a coach with plenty of WR coaching experience, to help with quarterbacks
The Georgia Bulldogs are a program that doesn’t always make the big splashy moves in the offseason because they simply don’t need them. Kirby Smart has built a monster of a college football program, and most every change needed is often a small one to make sure the Bulldogs are still moving forward, but not revolutionizing their philosophy.
That’s exactly what coach Smart and his staff have done again this week with their latest hire. David Whitlow might not be a household name, but he’s a fast-rising young coach that should help Georgia get better in an area that definitely must improve ahead of the 2026 season.
Georgia Bulldogs hire David Whitlow to coach quarterbacks and exactly what they need
The Georgia Bulldogs hired coach Whitlow as their assistant quarterbacks coach this week. Whitlow was most recently with the Kennesaw State football program, who impressively went 10-4 this past year in just their second season at the FBS level.
Whitlow, and a number of other staff with the Kennesaw State Owls, have quickly become highly coveted coaching targets for all the major programs around the country thank to the meteoric rise to success.
Whitlow spent the last two seasons as the wide receivers coach with Kennesaw, but before that he was coaching wide receivers at West Georgia, interned with the Atlanta Falcons, coached wide receivers as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss, and before that did the same thing at Auburn. His specialty has been wide receiver development for his entire career.
Yes, he will certainly be tasked with first helping Gunner Stockton and Georgia’s young quarterback room continue growing so that the Bulldogs maintain success at the most important position on the field. However, Whitlow will almost assuredly be spending plenty of time helping with the wide receivers when he can too — a critical position where Georgia has struggled in development in recent years.
Now that Zachariah Branch (the only WR with more than 27 catches in 2025 for the Bulldogs) and a few other veteran wide receivers are gone from last year’s Georgia squad, Kirby Smart desperately needs some new faces to step up in 2026. Whitlow, on top of helping with the quarterbacks, should certainly be able to help there.
Who will Whitlow be helping most when he does step outside of his quarterback assistant duties? And who should Georgia fans expect to step up at wide receiver in 2026?
Georgia added Isiah Canion from Georgia Tech to compete for the WR1 spot for the Bulldogs. Canion led all Georgia Tech starters in yards per reception and touchdowns in 2025. He could do that again at Georgia. Outside of Canion, Georgia returns just one wide receiver who saw more than 100 snaps on offense last year: London Humphreys. Humphreys should step up as an every snap starter thanks to his run blocking and underrated speed. Beyond Canion and Humphreys, Talyn Taylor, Sacovie White-Helton, CJ Wiley, and a handful of inexperienced receivers will be pushing for significant snaps. Not ideal.
Georgia’s quarterback room should be fine. Whitlow’s guidance and contributions there will be easy with a veteran like Gunner Stockton leading that room. However, the entire offensive staff might have the toughest job that Georgia has had in many years when it comes to getting their wide receiver room right. Whitlow’s five years of experience with that position exclusively should come in handy.
We’ll be back with more Georgia Bulldogs coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news.
