Branch 'Ready' For The Big Moments
September 26, 2025 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
If you've seen Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch run around on the football field, like on his 47-yard touchdown catch in the fifth-ranked Bulldogs' season opener against Marshall, or his 36-yarder against Tennessee, you know how well he can move. It's probably no surprise that Branch has been a bundle of energy since he was a kid.
"I was always doing extra stuff like juke moves around the house," said Branch, who grew up in Las Vegas. "My parents would be like, 'Why are you doing that? Go sit outside somewhere and just chill out.' But I've always just had a lot of energy and been real athletic my whole life."
Branch and his older brother, Zion, a safety, transferred to Georgia from USC, with two years of eligibility remaining. In two seasons with the Trojans, Branch caught 78 passes for 823 yards and three touchdowns, and was a threat in the return game, as well, earning All-America honors and the Jet Award as a return specialist in 2023.
Three games into his Georgia career, Branch has 11 catches for a team-high 181 yards and two scores.Â
"Zachariah's been great," Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. "He's a hard worker. He practices every day, regardless of the touches he gets. He's never been a 'me' guy — he just wants to win — and he's willing to do whatever it takes to win. If that's going deep, go short, do whatever you have to do to be successful; protect the ball, get positive yardage, run behind the blocking you got, and do a great job of it."
On his two touchdown receptions this season, both on screen passes to the left that he took all the way, Branch has shown off his elite speed — and he's made the most of some excellent blocking near the line of scrimmage and downfield. Branch pointed out that fellow wideout Dillon Bell had key blocks in both scores, and tight end Lawson Luckie provided a pivotal downfield block on the 36-yarder against the Vols on Sept. 13.
"It's a credit to our blockers," Branch said of his touchdowns. "They do a great job with perimeter blocking, and I just get a chance to use my speed. The two touchdowns I have on screen passes, I don't think I did any juking, I just ran. We take a lot of pride in perimeter blocking; I'm definitely blessed to have those guys on my team that are selling out for me."
Smart echoed those thoughts, saying that Georgia's tight ends and receivers have to be capable of a lot more than making catches.
"The tight ends and receivers have been physical. We're going to always demand that guys do that first, because there are much easier yards through blocking than there are just throwing the ball vertically in our league," he said. "You have to be able to do both, but you have to be able to protect the perimeter and do things with blocking and be physical, and that's one of the traits we want to have."
At 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, Branch is one of the smaller guys on the team, but he plays like one of the big guys. As he said earlier this week in a story on Georgia having a lot of guys 6-5 or taller, "I know what I'm capable of when I'm on the field, so I don't feel like, Oh, dang, they're way bigger than me. They physically are, but my mindset is, when I go out there, I think nobody can mess with me."
They've got to catch him to mess with him, and that's not easy. It never has been.
Growing up, Branch played nearly every sport available to him: football, soccer, basketball, baseball and track. "Soccer wasn't really my thing," he said, because he was a little too physical for the youth co-ed league he was in. He said his size held him back a bit in basketball, but he was a solid baseball player, with two inside-the-park home runs, he said.
A star on the football field, and the top-rated wide receiver prospect in the country coming out of powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School, Branch was also a standout on the track. He won Nevada Southern 5A Regional titles in the 100, 200 and long jump as a sophomore. In high school, with track and baseball in the same season, he had to choose one or the other.
"I was like, track's going to help me with my speed on the football field, so I went the track route," he said.
In Georgia's overtime win at Tennessee, with the Bulldogs needing a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Gunner Stockton found wideout London Humphreys for a 28-yard score. And on the conversion attempt, Stockton hit Branch on the left side of the end zone to tie the game 38-all.
In that moment, when he had to make the play to have a chance to win, Branch said he didn't feel any pressure.
"Pressure is not really a thing. It's only in your mind, honestly. So I kind of think, if I prepare for the moment, then I don't have any pressure, because I'm as confident as I can be for when that moment comes," he said. "I know I'll be ready for it."
"We've repped that play probably like 100 times since I've been here, since the spring, so I knew if it was man coverage, and a guy ran with me, then I'll probably be the primary read. And once I saw him (the cornerback) run with me, I was like, I'm ready for this opportunity."
Branch figures to have a lot more opportunities this season, starting with Saturday's game against No. 17 Alabama at Sanford Stadium.
Staff Writer
If you've seen Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch run around on the football field, like on his 47-yard touchdown catch in the fifth-ranked Bulldogs' season opener against Marshall, or his 36-yarder against Tennessee, you know how well he can move. It's probably no surprise that Branch has been a bundle of energy since he was a kid.
"I was always doing extra stuff like juke moves around the house," said Branch, who grew up in Las Vegas. "My parents would be like, 'Why are you doing that? Go sit outside somewhere and just chill out.' But I've always just had a lot of energy and been real athletic my whole life."
Branch and his older brother, Zion, a safety, transferred to Georgia from USC, with two years of eligibility remaining. In two seasons with the Trojans, Branch caught 78 passes for 823 yards and three touchdowns, and was a threat in the return game, as well, earning All-America honors and the Jet Award as a return specialist in 2023.
Three games into his Georgia career, Branch has 11 catches for a team-high 181 yards and two scores.Â
"Zachariah's been great," Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. "He's a hard worker. He practices every day, regardless of the touches he gets. He's never been a 'me' guy — he just wants to win — and he's willing to do whatever it takes to win. If that's going deep, go short, do whatever you have to do to be successful; protect the ball, get positive yardage, run behind the blocking you got, and do a great job of it."
On his two touchdown receptions this season, both on screen passes to the left that he took all the way, Branch has shown off his elite speed — and he's made the most of some excellent blocking near the line of scrimmage and downfield. Branch pointed out that fellow wideout Dillon Bell had key blocks in both scores, and tight end Lawson Luckie provided a pivotal downfield block on the 36-yarder against the Vols on Sept. 13.
"It's a credit to our blockers," Branch said of his touchdowns. "They do a great job with perimeter blocking, and I just get a chance to use my speed. The two touchdowns I have on screen passes, I don't think I did any juking, I just ran. We take a lot of pride in perimeter blocking; I'm definitely blessed to have those guys on my team that are selling out for me."
Smart echoed those thoughts, saying that Georgia's tight ends and receivers have to be capable of a lot more than making catches.
"The tight ends and receivers have been physical. We're going to always demand that guys do that first, because there are much easier yards through blocking than there are just throwing the ball vertically in our league," he said. "You have to be able to do both, but you have to be able to protect the perimeter and do things with blocking and be physical, and that's one of the traits we want to have."
At 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, Branch is one of the smaller guys on the team, but he plays like one of the big guys. As he said earlier this week in a story on Georgia having a lot of guys 6-5 or taller, "I know what I'm capable of when I'm on the field, so I don't feel like, Oh, dang, they're way bigger than me. They physically are, but my mindset is, when I go out there, I think nobody can mess with me."
They've got to catch him to mess with him, and that's not easy. It never has been.
Growing up, Branch played nearly every sport available to him: football, soccer, basketball, baseball and track. "Soccer wasn't really my thing," he said, because he was a little too physical for the youth co-ed league he was in. He said his size held him back a bit in basketball, but he was a solid baseball player, with two inside-the-park home runs, he said.
A star on the football field, and the top-rated wide receiver prospect in the country coming out of powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School, Branch was also a standout on the track. He won Nevada Southern 5A Regional titles in the 100, 200 and long jump as a sophomore. In high school, with track and baseball in the same season, he had to choose one or the other.
"I was like, track's going to help me with my speed on the football field, so I went the track route," he said.
In Georgia's overtime win at Tennessee, with the Bulldogs needing a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Gunner Stockton found wideout London Humphreys for a 28-yard score. And on the conversion attempt, Stockton hit Branch on the left side of the end zone to tie the game 38-all.
In that moment, when he had to make the play to have a chance to win, Branch said he didn't feel any pressure.
"Pressure is not really a thing. It's only in your mind, honestly. So I kind of think, if I prepare for the moment, then I don't have any pressure, because I'm as confident as I can be for when that moment comes," he said. "I know I'll be ready for it."
"We've repped that play probably like 100 times since I've been here, since the spring, so I knew if it was man coverage, and a guy ran with me, then I'll probably be the primary read. And once I saw him (the cornerback) run with me, I was like, I'm ready for this opportunity."
Branch figures to have a lot more opportunities this season, starting with Saturday's game against No. 17 Alabama at Sanford Stadium.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.
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