Richt, Georgia have been hurt by too many recruiting risks
Mark Richt has seen several players arrested and suspended this offseason, including former tailback Isaiah Crowell. (AP photo)
HOOVER, Ala. – Mark Richt ignored the red flags and was among the nation’s coaches who lined up around the block for Isaiah Crowell.
He already has seen seven members from his vaunted 2011 recruiting class either kicked out, flunked out or never academically qualified to begin with (“Dream Team”? Anybody?).
Arrests and suspensions likely will lead to four defensive starters missing games next season.
There is a problem again at Georgia — and it matters little that it’s a different one from the past.
Richt, to his credit, no longer responds to players’ criminal or just plain stupid actions by merely making them run stadium steps or suspending their dessert privileges. He has come a long way from enabling Odell Thurman. He suspends players. He kicks them out. He tries to make them understand that getting four or five stars stamped on your forehead by a recruiting site and the ego trip of a signing-day news conference shouldn’t be accompanied by a sense of entitlement (even if it too often does).
The problem now is that too many of the players Georgia is recruiting should be red-lined. The line of risk needs to be pulled back.
Obviously, Richt and his staff are getting a lot right. The Bulldogs are favored to win the SEC East. They’re projected to open the season as a top-10 team.
But imagine if they actually had everybody there.
“We’re not recruiting bad kids,” Richt said in a private media session with local writers Thursday at SEC Media Days. “We’re recruiting a lot of great kids. Other schools are recruiting the same guys.”
Have the negative headlines of this offseason given him reason to pay closer attention to a recruit’s personal blemishes?
“We do find out as much as we possibly can,” he said. “There are rules on how many times we can call a kid and see him in person. We try to maximize those things.”
Sorry. But losing seven of 26 kids from one recruiting class in one year screams that there’s a need for a better filter.
Richt was accurate when he said, “To say that issues aren’t happening around the country isn’t really realistic.”
But losing at least five starters (Crowell plus four on defense suspended) is significant.
Crowell, after multiple suspensions and missteps his freshman season, was bounced following his arrest on felony gun charges. Cornerback Sanders Commings is gone for two games following an arrest for domestic violence. Safety Baccari Rambo (possibly four games), cornerback Branden Smith and linebacker Alec Ogletree all reportedly tested positive for marijuana. Three other freshmen (Nick Marshall, Chris Sanders, Sanford Seay) were kicked out for their reported involvement in a campus theft.
Some of Georgia’s problems can be attributed to having a tougher drug-and-alcohol policy than other schools. But that doesn’t explain everything. The recruiting mistakes will hurt.
The we’ll-be-better-off-without-him rallying cries regarding Crowell makes for a nice locker-room speech. But it’s just not factual. He was Georgia’s best running back — by a long shot — and the Dogs’ potential issues on the offensive line don’t suggest just anybody can be productive.
This will be a team that must rely on its defense and its resolve. The Dogs’ ability to rebound from a 0-2 start with 10 consecutive wins last season said something about the character of the players who aren’t getting arrested (even if that was followed by two more losses to LSU and Michigan State). It’s a team with a solid quarterback (Aaron Murray), strong leadership and several players who bypassed the NFL draft last season to come back for another season. But the suspensions and player losses will hurt.
“There’s been more attrition the last couple of years than there has been since we’ve been at Georgia,” Richt said. “But sometimes that happens. We’ll still have plenty of guys to field a team.”
Then again, if just having enough players was the criteria, there would be celebrations in Toledo and Ole Miss. The question now is whether the Dogs’ chances for a special season have been undone before they’ve even played a game.
By Jeff Schultz
Previous SEC Media Days blogs
• Arkansas living with deserved humiliation after Petrino firing
• Muschamp getting heat but deserves some time at Florida
• Slive: SEC needs to be vigilant to avoid Penn State situation
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779 comments Add your comment
FloridaDawg
July 20th, 2012
6:26 pm
If you want to write an article about discipline problems then title it that way. But when you label it as risky recruiting when you are talking about some of the top recruits from last year then that is unfair to the coaching staff. Risky recruiting would have been if they didn’t sign that group of kids on the Dream Team and the main part was the No. 1 rated running back Crowell. I will agree that a team leader needs to step up and say enough is enough with maybe a players only meeting, I believe David Greene and Pollack did this their senior years. It’s hard for the coaches to police the players on everything they do. Maybe they need to have more of an orientation when players come on board their freshmen years like the NFL does. This year I believe Michael Vick spoke to NFL rookies on mistakes and what to watch out for. We have plenty of Alumni from UGA that can speak on making mistakes and what they have lost because of them. Examples- Odell Thurman, Quincy Carter, heck even Orson Charles screwing up a month before the draft with a DUI, how many draft spots did that cost him.
Wilson Pickett
July 20th, 2012
6:39 pm
Crowell would have never made it at Bama either. He’s has so much ghetto in him that nobody could ! It must be something in the water in Georgie since Nick can’t control some of your state guys either. Mike Bowman is now at ASU with Crowell, Ronald Carswell is in JUCO. Cris Carter’s son is trying to transfer to a barber college in Floridee and if his grades aren’t good enough he plans to enroll at the stagecoach driving college in Montana I am told.
Bama is going to kick azz again and will take no prisoners this year. Don’t get all upset and start your daily BS greyshirting, no drug testing, police on Nick’s payroll rant. Raise your standards of your own program while you watch ours!
Roll Tide
kingdaddy
July 20th, 2012
6:43 pm
5150¢
Sometimes I think Jeff and Chip and Bill have bad days too. I’m a Dawg and you’re a techie but we get along just fine. I think it has something to do with humor as far as we go.(and a little respect) plus I respect your love of family, this means everything to me. Between the two of us, we P.O. a lot of people, but we are consistant and stand for what we believe. Me , the Doggies and You the Bumble-bzzzs…I have no sympathy for trolls, none at all…
Wilson Pickett
July 20th, 2012
6:48 pm
Forgot to mention a Andy Dodd big OL from Georgia and commit to Bama de-committed today and jumped aboard the LSU train. He stated playing time at Bama was a concern going forward. Best of luck to Andy going forward at LSU.
14 Titles
July 20th, 2012
6:53 pm
richt and mcgarity need to call Nick about how to recruit players with character and avoid all these problems, arrests, suspensions, etc. Alabama players never get in trouble–Nick lays down the law.
mambo
July 20th, 2012
7:01 pm
Jeff, when you wrote that “Crowell was the best back in a long shot” shows that you don’t know what you are writing about, but that goes with working for the ajc. Crowell can’t be “the best back by a long shot” if he is suspended from the team or takes himself out of the game because he is tired or fumbles the ball on a drive or gets tackled in the backfield or misses a block that kills a drive. Please go to work on another paper in another state.
TJ
July 20th, 2012
7:20 pm
The dawg fans that make excuses for Richt are pathetic.
See Rock City
July 20th, 2012
7:36 pm
I follow UGA football, and usually pull for them against scumbag teams like Florida, Auburn and yes of course tacky Tennessee.
IMO CMR’s coaching style is to mature for the players of today, it allows way to much freedom of choice and the kids coming out of these public schools now are dumber and dumber more prone to making the unwise choice.
Coach Shula used a similar style and while Alabama was under (and most deservedly) scholarship reductions, this ultimate freedom of choice led from diminished rosters to depleted rosters.
I can draw a parable between the two rather easily, if CFB still had required freshman football then his system would be much more viable IMO.
It’s a shame that it is this way but the camp who rules with an iron fist today seems to be the more successful of the two ideologies.
my 2c
kingdaddy
July 20th, 2012
7:47 pm
See Rock
You may be right. If Coach Richt doesn’t scare these kids, then we don’t stand a chance. If he kicks anymore kids off the team, we may not have enough to play 4 quarters of SEC caliber football. Still, you want to be foolish and not study and break rules, or do you want to play football…
Sunny Cloisters
July 20th, 2012
7:51 pm
Richt did not “make a mistake” when he recruited Ealey, King, Crowell, and others too numerous to name. A mistake is when you add 1 + 1 and get 3. Richt intentionally recruited punks who he had every reason to believe were bad apples. He was so desperate to keep bringing in his bloated $10,000 a day salary that he took the risk that these punks could go for three years without going bad. He lost that bet, and now he’s trying to buffalo everyone with his BS.
Nobody is buying his horse manure.
kingdaddy
July 20th, 2012
7:55 pm
Why did every other major university recruit them including Coach Saban???
ALABAMA FOOTBALL
July 20th, 2012
8:12 pm
Love the replies by the author but can you put the original post you’re replying to in your responding post? Got a full time job!
See Rock City
July 20th, 2012
8:19 pm
Paraphrasing is for dimwitted sissies…
Bring back Jim Donnan
July 20th, 2012
8:24 pm
These punk players learn from watching the top of the UGA organization. Red panties, drag queen prostitute professors….need I say more?
claytondawg
July 20th, 2012
8:28 pm
Falcon 34 nailed it correctly. The ‘Dogs have been a team of mediocrity for quite a number of years. Will the cycle of winning begin to move GA’s way? I don’t know. It will not budge until we have a head coach and assistant coaches who want to play to WIN and not have the mundane attitude of “let’s try not to lose.”
atltiger15
July 20th, 2012
8:48 pm
KINGDADDY-
AU fan here, just stating Clemson doing work
RNB
July 20th, 2012
8:56 pm
Bottom line, either CMR wins the SEC championship or he should be let go.
5150 UOAD
July 20th, 2012
8:57 pm
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3930573656361&set=a.1106315371669.96505.1040331923&type=1&theater
kingdaddy
July 20th, 2012
9:00 pm
Dabo is working hard this year atltiger15. Clemp is building a strong class. S.C. is watching them close. All we have to do is win in 12 and our class will be one of the best. I’m not worried as much about * this year as I am wanting good athletes that want to be Dawgs bad enough to study and stay out of trouble…
sick and tired
July 20th, 2012
9:03 pm
not all but most of your top players have that THUG mentatility and entitlement mentiality. All teas have to recruit then to have a chance at finishing #1. So you idiots who have been on Ricths back get off. It’s sad but that is where college football is it justlike the NBA, and NFL.
WWDD
July 20th, 2012
9:11 pm
These punk players learn from watching the top of the UGA organization. Red panties, drag queen prostitute professors….need I say more?
Don’t forget Damon Evans!
atltiger15
July 20th, 2012
9:12 pm
getting outta control as far these athletes decision making is concerned..Recruiting is getting harder by the yr because of todays culture and the exposure their getting…The pressure on these coaches to win have put them in a bind and taking chances on some guys that have a proven record of terrible decisions while in high school..Makes you appreciate the Aaron Murrays of the world, ya know
Bring back Jim Donnan
July 20th, 2012
9:30 pm
WWDD – The red panties reference was to Evans. He had them between his legs when the cops pulled him over.
Wrinkler
July 20th, 2012
9:50 pm
Jeff,
Great article. Very thought provoking. I agree, needs to be a MUCH SHORT line in the sand when it comes to risk, where Richt DRAWS THE LINE. Why was Crowell still on the team after so many past issues, from attitude, to suspensions? No line in the sand. Crowell was a grenade waiting to ignite, only question wasn’t “If?” but “WHEN?”. Crowell was a favorite of Mark Richt’s, that’ds why he was given SO MANY MORE CHANCES than guys like Zach Mettenberger, who beat out Richt’s favorite QB Murray.
When the prodigal son chooses the wrong path, the RESPONSIBLE ADULTS have to SHOW HIM THE DOOR and let him LEARN HIS LESSONS THE HARD WAY. No 3 strikes like Crowell got.
Wrinkler
July 20th, 2012
9:54 pm
Mark Richt’s SELECTION PROCESS is FUTILE AND USELESS. Needs to find teams who have figured this out, and do what they do. How hard is that?
Is Richt really that dumb that after 11 years, Richt STILL hasn’t SOLVED THIS PROBLEM?
Does RICHT learn from the SUCCESSES of other PROGRAMS or does he think ARROGANTLY HE IS DOING HIS BEST?
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
9:58 pm
@ Falcon 34:
So you have no problem with “dirty” programs as long as they win NCs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why does that not surprise me???
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:05 pm
@ Wrinkler:
You are dumb enough to be triplets!!!!!!!!!!!!
You mention CMR should follow the leads of successful programs!!
CMR has the 3rd WINNINGEST PROGRAM in America(much better than ANY SEC coach and I assume you know who SEC coaches are) among active coaches but never let facts get in the way when expressing your unsolicited BONEHEAD comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bopper
July 20th, 2012
10:06 pm
Wrinkler,
Best post I’ve read in years!!!
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:08 pm
@ Wrinkler:
Grenades don]t ignite LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uga1984
July 20th, 2012
10:09 pm
Ill say it again… If you don’t want to know your players are doing drugs, don’t test them. I doubt very seriously if other schools perform drug tests with the frequency UGA does. Richt said it right, everyone is recruiting the same kids out of HS. Their behavior doesn’t change because they go select one school over another.
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:10 pm
@ Bopper:
Was that sarcasm or is it just that you haven’t read much in years?????????????????????????
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:15 pm
@ Atltiger 15:(9:12pm post)
You got it right BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:18 pm
@ Sick and tired(9:03pm post)
Thanks Bro for trying to add a little sanity to this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Truth
July 20th, 2012
10:25 pm
We ALL know that the real problem is that most of these “recruits” should not even be in any college of any kind.
Georgia has long ignored anything to do with academics, character, etc. (Can anyone say Jan Kemp).
Georgia football is a business, followed by rabid fans, most of whom never attended college themselves.
Thats the truth, and we all know it.
Gem
July 20th, 2012
10:26 pm
nEED TO GO TO A 1 STRIKE YOU’RE OUT POLICY.
DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU’RE THE NO 1 RANKED RB OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL.
OR CAUGHT UNDERAGE DRINKING AS A STARTING QB AT THE FSU GAME
1 STRIKE, YOU’RE OUT.
THAT WILL FIX IT.
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:27 pm
@ RNB:
Wow!!!!! We are dealing with greatbess on here it seems. You sound very original with your cleverly thought out comments (for a person with a Single Digit IQ) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you don;t sell the most burgers and fries in Gergia you should be let go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gem
July 20th, 2012
10:28 pm
Wrinkler,
A funny question I wanted someone to ask Mark Richt at SEC media days?
Have you ever read the story of the Prodgal Son? Do you agree with the father sending his son into the streets? Or have you ripped that story out of your Bible?
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:31 pm
@ Gem:
Another genius heard from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A great idea but if all schools have to adhere to the same rules(not just UGA and a couple of others) and enforce them there would be no college football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OKUGA
July 20th, 2012
10:32 pm
“SPARE THE ROD, SPOIL THE FOOTBALL PROGRAM”
Hey Coach Richt, next time a guy breaks the rules, end his UGA career right then and there.
Or CONTINUE to SPOIL THE PROGRAM.
The Bible is TRUE.
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:33 pm
@ Gem:
Please stop it. You have us all in awe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OKUGA
July 20th, 2012
10:38 pm
Proverbs 13:24
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
Can’t let guys like Crowell, get off pretty much scott free, time after time, that ain’t love man, that’s hatred.
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:39 pm
@ Sunny Cloisters:
Give it up dude!!!! Saban cried like a baby when IC signed with UGA.
With your abundance of dumbass you couldn’t find your fanny with both hands in your hip pockets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OKUGA
July 20th, 2012
10:40 pm
If Richt will start letting players go, on their first offense, the junk will stop. As long as Richt keeps looking the other way for 4 and 5 star players, Richt will continue to embarrass the program.
Redliner
July 20th, 2012
10:42 pm
Mark Richt, when it comes to discipline:
TOO LITTLE
TOO LATE!!!!!!
Redliner
July 20th, 2012
10:45 pm
Proverbs 15:10
Stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path; he who hates correction will die.
STERN isn’t in Richt’s vocabulary, look how Aaron Murray wasn’t even disciplined after he was photographed underage drinking at the FSU game.
STERN?
Redliner
July 20th, 2012
10:47 pm
“If you do what is wrong, you will be severely punished”
It’s in the Bible.
Should be UGA’s new lockerroom poster.
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
10:55 pm
@ 5150:
If you want to push it I can get Sharpton and J, Jackson to assist us in putting these beligerent so-called writers in their place.
Personally I can’t complain because I border on “Bad” quite often but am always willing to help a fellow BS artist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
11:10 pm
@ Redliner:
Just how in hell can you look at a photo and be 100% certain that person is drinking????
I date Murray’s cousin(female) and am around Murray a couple of dozen times a year and have never known him to consume alkihall. You will likely end up on the paying end of a lawsuit if my attorney can find out who you are.
Please be careful about what you profess to be a fact. Slander could be really expensive especially if it is deemed by the judicial system to be a significant impedment to Mr. Murray’s pursuit of an NFL career.
If anyone knows who redliner is I’m not asking for how we can get in touch with him but please advise him for his own good that he may want to change his blog handle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
11:15 pm
@ OKUGA:
CMR does NOT make the rules for UGA Athletes. That is done by the school and ALL CMR can do is enforce what the school provides for. It is in his contract. I read it !!!!!!!!
Sorry. I thought everybody knew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brainiac(Dawg For Life) / (CMR fan for life)
July 20th, 2012
11:20 pm
@ Coward of Bulldawg county:
Just what we need. All quiet on here…………………………………………………….NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!