Making the Grade for UGA, Georgia Tech recruits

 

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson (AJC)

Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson (AJC)

It’s one thing to sign a heralded recruiting class. It’s another to see if they all make it through college admissions to football practice in the summer.

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson feels really good about his 21 recruits, led by Flowery Branch’s Izaan Cross. ”As long as everybody finishes with the grades they have now, I think everybody is good,” Johnson said last week. “As long as they maintain in school what they have and get there. It’s a sliding scale with test scores and GPAs, as far as NCAA qualifiers go. If everybody we have stays with what they have, then we should be OK.” 

UGA wrapped up its 2009 class with recruit No. 20, tight end Orson Charles of Tampa. At least six Georgia recruits have told reporters over the last few months that they were “close to meeting college entrance requirements,” with the biggest names being ECI teammates Washaun Ealey and Dexter Moody, along with defensive end Montez Robinson of Avon, Ind. 

Georgia coach Mark Richt talked about his team’s academic standing on signing day. “Technically, no one is qualified until they graduate from high school. When we sign these young men, we have every intention of them making it.”

Record-breaking RB Washuan Ealey says he's close

Record-breaking RB Washaun Ealey says he's close (AJC)

“Every once in a while, a guy has to go the prep-school route … but I don’t foresee that [with any of our recruits] right now. We feel like everyone has an outstanding shot of qualifying and being with us next year.”

With national team rankings for the 2009 recruiting classes, Rivals has Georgia at No. 6 and Georgia Tech at No. 49. With Scout, Georgia is ranked No. 4 and Georgia Tech is at No. 32.

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83 comments Add your comment

Thomas

March 13th, 2009
8:22 am

Q: Are you idiots really arguing over who has the smarter football players?

A: Yes.

Mr. Skynyrd

March 13th, 2009
7:36 am

Ramble On, that was funny, I don’t care who you are.

DB Cooper is right.

Each school has had plenty of football players that aren’t representative of the schools in general. Let’s not forget Quincy and Odell. But Tech’s had their share too.

They’re both pretty good schools, it just depends on what you’re majoring in.

Maddog

March 13th, 2009
7:32 am

terry

So you continue to want to take shots at UGA based on SAT scores? As stated in my original post, Tech football players average 79 points higher than UGA’s. It doesn’t compare like years, but I’ll accept the 79 point spread as being indicative of the current class.

Let me pose a question to you. If you had two children and one scored 79 points higher on their SAT, would you be willing to post on a blog that the child with higher SAT score is “smarter” than you other child? Based on their SAT scores, for crying out loud? Would you publicly insult your other child because of this?

I have 4 children, but I’ll draw a comparison between the two closest in age. They are less than 2 years apart and both are boys. While both are straight A students, one child consistently scores a higher numerical grade (98 average -highest in class- versus 94 average last year) while the other consistently scores higher on standardized tests (ITBS, CRCTs, etc). So in your world, which child is smarter? Is the other one dumb?

These people you seem to disdain and mock are humans first, athletes second. I believe you need to fine tune your focus on life.

tdawg

March 13th, 2009
7:29 am

tech fans are calling uga players thugs but there player was busted for selling drugs a couple of years ago.

DBCOOPER

March 13th, 2009
3:22 am

Good post Maddog

Sad little men sit in their Grandmothers basement and blog about their obvious confusion about “Bigtime” college football and academics. If you want to talk school quality or academic issues involving your school of preference? That’s fine. But don’t attempt to include athletic or football programs into the discussion. Each school Tech and Georgia have made the decision to compete in the world of national 1A football. IF either wants to compete nationally they will recruit players that have shown the ability to compete at a that level. Most (not all) of these players may be marginal students. This is not unique to Georgia schools.

If academics was the only pressures on 1A coaches, people like Lloyd Carr would still be coaching at Michigan. He was replaced by a coach from a school that has a much different academic record. So which do you think won out? Hundreds of other examples of the same are out there.

If we want to talk football rivalry that’s one thing. But to confuse college football and academics is crazy. Wise up people.

Michael Carvell

March 13th, 2009
1:50 am

Maddog: I always make sure to read your comments, along with many others in here. It will be interesting to see how some of the veteran Georgia Tech posters respond to your post above. As always, thanks Maddog and everybody for sharing your thoughts.

k martin

March 13th, 2009
1:33 am

i looked at the UGA media guide for 2008… not as impressive I will objectively say – of the 100 or so listed, at least 20 of the players listed “Housing” as their major. Many of those were the hargraves transfers. lots of pre-business majors, only 2 engineers listed. so – interpret as you wish

larry

March 13th, 2009
1:21 am

so maddog,

your math suggests that the UGA average student has a 1188 SAT and the average GT football player is 1028? pretty close!

k martin

March 13th, 2009
1:16 am

in the 2008 GT media guide, I could only find about 15 jackets who were not majoring in Management – out of probably 75 players. They didn’t give a major for freshmen.

most of the 15 were aerospace, electrical, or civil engineering. So roughly 20% of the team was not management

Georgia guy

March 12th, 2009
11:51 pm

hey “acc an hargrave coach” who were those 5 0r 6 guys? In the 2007 recuiting class all qualified, 2008 only one did not. so who are the 5 or 6 guys and why do you feel you have to make stuff up? Most of your team is playing for you because 1. Georgia did not offer. 2. It was close to home. 3. No other D1 school wanted then. It is not for the academics, it is to play football.