Missouri product Dominic Lovett a perfect fit with No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs

Without question, the DVR will be recording the proceedings on CBS back at the Fenton house.

“I’ll be tuned in somehow,” Fenton said Monday morning. “It’s a bummer I won’t be able to watch it live but I’m definitely excited about seeing how it turns out.”

No. 1 Georgia versus No. 14 Missouri on Saturday is an intriguing matchup on its own for everything it means to the SEC East race and the College Football Playoffs. But there’s a fascinating story behind that story and Fenton is right in the middle of it.

Fenton has the good fortunate of having coached both Missouri’s Luther Burden and Georgia’s Dominic Lovett. In fact, he still coaches them. The leading wide receivers for the respective teams in the marquee matchup still come back to East St. Louis when they can in the offseason and train with Fenton. And Fenton is a big reason each one of them ended up playing there.

He did not, however, have the good fortune of coaching both wideouts at the same time. A year ahead of Burden, Lovett graduated from East St. Louis the year before Burden arrived there as a transfer. Hailing from the same neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, both came across the river to play at for the powerhouse Illinois football program.

“ESL” also is known as a powerhouse both for winning and for gaining notice for its star players. That certainly happened for both Lovett and Burden, who each ended up signing with and playing for the state university Missouri Tigers.

But that’s where things got very interesting about a year ago. Excited to play together as close friends both before and after Burden inked with the Tigers as a 5-star prospect last season, Lovett decided to enter the transfer portal last December and ended up inking with the Georgia Bulldogs just a couple of weeks later. Meanwhile, Burden, a star player who many Mizzou fans feared might do the same, chose to remain in Columbia.

And that, as it turns out, has been a great decision for both players.

Lovett was interested in finding a place where he could compete for championships, which he clearly has at Georgia. He also hoped to improve his NFL prospects. In that regard, one would have to say check and check in terms of filling those boxes. Only the recently-sidelined tight end Brock Bowers has more catches than Lovett’s 35 (for 365 yards and a touchdown). The 5-foot-10, 187-pound junior quickly became an integral part of the Bulldogs’ offensive attack, which features quarterback Carson Beck spreading the ball around among 12 regular targets. No UGA wideout has played more snaps this season than Lovett

“A great kid,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “What a quality young man he is. He works really hard. He’s busted his butt since he’s been here, been very humble and bought into what we’ve asked him to do in being selfless.”

Conversely, when Lovett left for Georgia, that opened up the slot position at Missouri. Burden moved there from flanker and has flourished ever since. The 5-11, 208-pound sophomore leads the SEC in receptions with 61 and is second in the league with 905 yards receiving. Like last year, he’s also the Tigers’ punt returner.

“Size, speed, he looks like a running back,” Smart said of Burden. “I mean, he’s explosive, fast. He’s different. They put him in the slot, they move him around and do a great job using his skill set.”

Georgia wanted to utilize that skill set, too. In fact, the Bulldogs were a major player in Burden’s recruitment. For a time, a lot of the recruiting sites “crystal ball” predictions had Burden coming to Georgia. But he committed to the Missouri in late October of 2021 and signed with the Tigers that December.

The word on the street was that Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) had a lot to do with Burden’s decision. Nothing can be confirmed, of course, but coach Eliah Drinkwitz has vowed not to be outbid when it comes arranging NIL deals for the top recruits in what Missouri considers its primary recruiting footprint. That encompasses St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.

It also includes Lees Summit, Missouri. That’s where 5-star defensive end William Nwaneri hails from. He recently committed to Drinkwitz and the Tigers, choosing the home-state team over Georgia.

“They’ve got some really good players in their state,” Smart said “Eliah does a really good job of taking that circle say in, say, a five-hour radius. Because of where they are geographically, they don’t cross with a lot of the SEC schools like maybe we do with each other.”

The Tigers have plucked some pretty good players from Georgia and Florida as well. Attracting great players, as always, has been the single most important development in Missouri’s turnaround.

But the Tigers lost a good one in Lovett as well. Behind the scenes, there are several people with knowledge of the situation who say NIL might have had at least a little something to do with Lovett coming to Georgia, as well.

Coming from the same area of Greater St. Louis – really, the same neighborhood – Lovett’s camp knows what Burden has going on in the mysterious arena of NIL compensation and vice-versa.

But Fenton, who knows these two star receivers better than anybody not directly related to them, insists that wasn’t the case for Lovett.

“That’s probably too cold of a way to look at it,” Fenton said. “If Dom was going to go to the highest bidder he would have stayed at home. If he wanted more money, he could’ve have stayed at home or gone to Tennessee or Oregon. I know that for sure.”

Indeed, Lovett’s suitors after he went into the portal included those programs as well as Texas and others that are known for their well-heeled alumni. Georgia fits into that category, too.

The difference, though, is what they’ve been doing on the field these last few seasons. The Bulldogs (8-0, 5-0 SEC) are on a record 25-game winning streak and will be seeking their 36th consecutive regular-season victory when the Tigers come to town on Saturday.

Simply put, UGA could give Lovett something he couldn’t get anywhere else.

“It’s all hindsight now,” Fenton said. “For Dom, it’s about the culture. It’s like here at East St. Louis; we’ve built a winning culture and a great competitive environment and Georgia is the same way. He recognized that as soon as he got there.”

It’s doubtful that Smart will trot out Lovett in front of the media this week with all the attention and stakes that that will be on the line this Saturday. What’s clear eight games into his incarnation as a Georgia Bulldog is that whatever the game plan will be against Missouri, Lovett will be an integral part of it.

However, Lovett has spoken to the Bulldogs’ press corps several times this year. That included last week as they were getting ready to play Florida. Being the wily veteran and leader that he is, Lovett wasn’t about to wax eloquent about playing his home-state team in the NEXT game. But neither did he ignore the question all together.

“We’ll just kind of leave that game where it’s at and focus on Florida,” he said.

Then Lovett grinned and leaned ever so slightly into the microphone. “But, to answer your question, I am excited to play Mizzou.”

So, is everybody -- in Georgia, in Missouri and all over the country, for that matter. The winner of Saturday’s game is going to leave Sanford Stadium with control of the SEC East.

But for two East St. Louis kids and the guy who coached them, there’s even more on the line.

“I know for Dom it’s going to be a bittersweet moment,” Fenton said. “I expect very big things from both of those guys because they’re very competitive. In the offseason, we all work together; there’s some brotherly love there. But it’s a primetime game and, at the end of the day, those two guys are going to want to win and put on a show.”

Unfortunately for Fenton, he may have to wait a while to see how it all unfolds.