Malcolm Mitchell arrived at Georgia with an inability to read fluently, and his time as a Bulldogs receiver was hampered by ankle, hamstring and knee injuries.
On Saturday afternoon, Mitchell's perseverance was rewarded when he was selected in the fourth round by the New England Patriots. The Patriots have made six Super Bowl appearances under current coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, winning four of them.
"It's exciting, and it's an opportunity you can only hope and pray for," Mitchell said on a conference call with Boston-area reporters. "I thank the organization for believing in me, but now it's up to me to go up there and work as hard as I can to show that they made a good decision."
Mitchell was the first Southeastern Conference player selected Saturday and went 112th overall. He was followed within the next 15 selections by three other SEC receivers: Auburn's Ricardo Louis, South Carolina's Pharoh Cooper and Florida's Demarcus Robinson.
As a fifth-year senior last season, Mitchell had 58 catches for 865 yards and five touchdowns. The 6-foot, 198-pounder from Valdosta had 174 receptions for 2,350 yards and 16 touchdowns in his career.
Mitchell started his sophomore season in 2012 as a cornerback, and he had his 2013 season scratched in the opener at Clemson by a torn anterior cruciate ligament. His last two years with the Bulldogs may wind up being remembered more for his reading and writing, which included the authoring of a children's book titled "The Magician's Hat," which was released last summer.
In Saturday's conference call, Mitchell was asked if he was concerned about the difficulty of New England's system given that he once struggled to read.
"To be completely honest, I'm pretty confident in my ability to learn," he replied. "When I visited with the Patriots, we went over several different things for the system, and for them to pick me up lets me know that they have confidence in me."
Mitchell, who performed a telecommunications internship in Boston last May with the Markley Group, will be reunited with former Bulldogs center David Andrews. Mitchell and Andrews were two of the most productive 2011 "Dream Team" signees.
Offensive tackle John Theus, the most heralded signee in Georgia's 2012 class, was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the fifth round Saturday as the 145th overall pick.
A third Georgia player, running back Keith Marshall, was selected late in the seventh round as the 242nd pick. Marshall rushed for 759 yards and 6.5 yards per carry as a freshman in 2012 but suffered a torn ACL at Tennessee in 2013 that knocked him out for the rest of that season and essentially 2014 as well.
"He came in with Todd Gurley and was actually more highly recruited than Gurley," ESPN analyst Todd McShay said. "He started out OK but then had that horrific injury and never really bounced back from it. If you watch the tape from this past season, he just didn't trust his knee."
Marshall ran the 40-yard dash in 4.31 seconds at the NFL combine in February, which was the fastest of any participant in Indianapolis.
The Bulldogs had several players sign free-agent contracts following the draft, including kicker Marshall Morgan (Buffal0), fullback Quayvon Hicks (Tennessee), snapper Nathan Theus (Denver), defensive linemen Chris Mayes (Atlanta), Sterling Bailey (Indianapolis) and Josh Dawson (Atlanta), and inside linebacker Jake Ganus (Minnesota).
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.