What, if anything, would losing Da’Rick Rogers mean to UGA?
Da'Rick Rogers: If he's a Vol, is Signing Day sunny for Georgia? (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
Vince Dooley, who knew a thing or two about recruiting and about winning, said of the former: “It’s the way you win in the offseason.” And if that’s the case, would Da’Rick Rogers’ apparent defection to Tennessee — esteemed colleague Chip Towers has the breaking news — constitute a loss? A 45-19 sort of loss?
On the one hand, you can’t lose what you never actually had. On the other, Rogers is considered the best player in the state and is rated No. 9 nationally by Rivals.com. He’d committed to Georgia last summer. Bulldog fans — and Bulldog coaches — had been counting on him for a while. But now it appears he’ll be a Vol instead, and if that’s the case he’ll have spurned a program that has won 90 games in nine seasons for one that changed coaches last month.
I’m headed to Athens for tomorrow’s Signing Day doings, but on SD Eve I wanted to ask you folks: If Rogers does wind up signing with Tennessee — he’s scheduled to make his announcement at 9:45 a.m. at Calhoun High — does that take the fizz off Georgia’s recruiting class? Is this a loss? A Big Loss? Or is it no loss at all?
And with that, the floor is open for what I know will be our usual erudite discussion. Thanks in advance.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
568 comments Add your comment
Technophobia
February 3rd, 2010
1:04 am
UT will be getting Justin Wilcox, the DC from Boise State and he was NOT the DC at BSU when UGa played them. He’s got a great record and is a great hire for D. Dooley. And anybody that thinks that V. Dooley should be more loyal to UGa than to his son must not have a family.
Hairy Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:06 am
Vols arrested for BB guns robbing because they is boys unlike the real men who playing tween hedges in Athens. Dawgs whips Vols and hobnail boot to break nose of Rockie Toppers.
Chucky
February 3rd, 2010
1:08 am
Its a big deal because:
1. It’s what everyone is talking about.
2. It sells newsprint.
3. UGA didn’t need to lose a big time recruit to UT.
In reality, It’s not a big deal. Why?
1. UGA has plenty of great receivers.
2. Rodgers is a kid with the spotlight on him. And, he has the right to change his mind.
3. The kid has to sign with someone? And, the changing of his young mind makes for a interesting story that sells.
Inquiring minds want to know who the heck is this kid gonna sign with? Does it really mean squat? Is it the end of UGA if this kid doesn’t sign. Will UT win a NC because the kid signs with them? Stay tuned to AJC to find out….LMAO…where is the real story?
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:09 am
yes, obviously losing Rogers would hurt Georgia; any time you miss out on a top tier talent; its hard to replace. Had we signed C. Green it wouldn’t have hurt as much, but missing out on both hurts. Rogers would have replaced AJ next year; now, no one in the wings. Being from memphis, i had high hopes for M. Brown, but it is apparent he is not and all SEC talent; like Rogers appears to be. Really disappointed to lose him and can’t help but think he is making a big mistake following a friend to school. Seems he is making a mistake and looking past what is actually best for his future; hope for his sake, he knows something about UT that I don’t. UGA seemed to be a perfect transition / fit for Rogers; oh well
here’s to Nance carpet’s going out of business.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:12 am
excuse the rambling, i am a bottle of wine deep.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:14 am
chucky, who is “plenty of talent” at WR for UGA. i think we are pretty thin minus AJ.
No one else has near the talent Rogers could bring.
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:14 am
Marlon Brown has played one season. Isn’t it a little early to write him off?
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:15 am
plenty of talent= wooten king troupe
Hairy Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:16 am
College Sports Fan wrote: “Just looking at this picture tells me what’s wrong about College sports…..the INMATES are running the ASYLUM!”
Nah! The Inmates is playing for the Rockie Toppers Vols. Just ask Nukeyse and his BB guns.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:16 am
You can’t miss out on top tier talent and win championships in the SEC much less compete on the national level. This one hurts, don’t try and play it off as if he is a “deon rogers type player”. Deon Rogers can be replaced, Da’Rick can not, he can make plays just like AJ. Imagine if AJ had not signed with us, we easily lost two more games this past year.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:18 am
Wooten is a slot reciever, troupe / king have proven they are not elite. I am holding out hope for M Brown but not sure he isn’t a product of weak high school competition. I hope i am wrong, i was singing his praises this time last year.
CJ Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:19 am
F Da’rick Rogers. He doesn’t have the heart to be a bulldawg. Punk ass kid. I hope he blows a knee out wherever he goes. We lost out on a good chance at another receiver because of this wimp. I can’t WAIT until he comes over the middle and the HITMAN layeth the smack down upon his arse!!!! Da’dick ain’t worth all this nonsense.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:21 am
I am hoping for miracles tomorrow. Da Rick is huge for UGA as he is for UT. He will hurt us for years to come if he sign with UT. Ambles on the other hand, I could care less about; Rogers is the real deal.
Jarrod
February 3rd, 2010
1:22 am
And for the record, from 2005-2007, Looking at the top five WR prospects coming out of high school each year, There has been or will be one taken in the 1st or 2nd round of the NFL draft. 05- Desean Jackson and Mohamed Massaquoi (both 2nd) 06- Percy Harvin (1st) 07- Arrelious Benn (TBA, projected 1st)
Also Mario Manningham was top 5 in 2005, taken in 3rd round
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:23 am
You think Brown is a product of weak HS? LOL did you see him in the Champ game? shut down by 5′8 corners
CJ Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:25 am
Da’Dick Rogers is NOT the player anyone expects. I said it from day one and I am saying it now. Enjoy him UT. 4 years of 13 catches and 175 yards.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:25 am
Jarrod, Great point. Top talent at WR is easily identifiable and rare. Rogers will be a vital part of whatever college he signs with (UT) and move on to a productive NFL career.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:26 am
UGA is perfect for Rogers to step in his freshman year and learn the offense; take over for Green his sophomore year and be the man his junior year at UGA. His UT future is……….. well i’m no expert but Nash isn’t going to start at UT and I can’t imagine him being nearly as productive had he signed with UGA.
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:26 am
I was not high on Rogers even when I thought UGA had him. Looked terrible against Buford and HS All star games,,,for whatever its worth
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:32 am
I agree with some of the previous comments about “package deals”, and I think we would have played this one different had we known the outcome. Nash + Rogers > Matson. It’s not like Matson or Nash are going to come close to starting early; and had UGA known it would have had the decommitments it has had, i think they would have offered Nash & Rogers. Oh well.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:32 am
granted, Rogers didn’t do much in All star games, but i have a feeling he is the real deal. I guess you never really know, but i would rather have him playing for us than one of our rivals.
Chucky
February 3rd, 2010
1:32 am
Ok you sound like you know alot more about UGA’s recievers than I do. And I’m sure you do. But, as a Dawg it sucks that a big time prospect is signing with a rival. But its not the end of the world. We will win without him. Won’t we? Yes we will. Why am I talking about this at 1:29 am? SEC football is the only sport I’d be on a chat board talking to other college football junkies with at 1:29 with…cant wait till fall…. will Rodgers beat UGA? Doubt it! Blah Blah Blah….
uga1989
February 3rd, 2010
1:32 am
Good riddance.
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:34 am
Memphis dog, that’s really dumb. If you do “package deals” you set a standard you don’t want to do. No player is bigger than the program
Hairy Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:35 am
Dawgs has got much better play makesr than this bum Rogers. He stinks flat out and was not good enough to see field at Athens. Maybe he might play 2nd team at some high school offense like Nerdie Techmites but at Vols hes just goning up there to be arrested like all orange pumkins.
Poor Vince is goning to get his family embareassed by sonny boy Derrick.
jughead
February 3rd, 2010
1:36 am
GET OVER IT! We got over Marlon Brown,so let it go! It’s not the end of the freakin’ world!
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:37 am
Yes, Marlon Brown played in a private school in Memphis in a conference that has never produced college or NFL level talent. Rogers is from a smaller school in NEGA, it is still on a much different level than Harding Academy in Memphis: trust me I see Memphis Hschool football often and MUS, Christian Brothers, Melrose, and numerous others are on a different level. Harding is irrelevant b/c they never play anyone.
Jarrod
February 3rd, 2010
1:39 am
Everybody sayin’ homeboy is going to suck it up needs to shut the **** up….Nobody said he’s going to be Amazing, but he is a 5-star recruit for a reason…That does not guarantee anything, but It does mean he has a better chance because more people think so. he may suck it up, but the signs do not point to that. Jerod Mayo, starting LB for the Patriots was a 3 star recruit. Chris Johnson, speed demon out of ECU just broke 2,000 yards for my Titans, he was a 1 star WR recruit… All it means is that his chances for success are alot higher
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:39 am
Rogers’s Facebook page: can you explain Alexander O’tree.? The very definition of a package deal.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:43 am
No school is above package deals. Half of every recruiting class is never going to see significant playing time; if you burn one scholarship to land an elite playmaker, so be it. Elite playmakers are what wins you championships, not average talent throughout.
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:43 am
At least the O’tree’s are family and Alec was commuted to UGA already
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:44 am
oops committed
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:45 am
As an avid UGA fan, I can’t understand the rational of “OH WELL, HE WAS NOT GOOD ANYWAYS”. Rogers is immensely talented and his decommitment hurts. It happens, we will move on, but please don’t dismiss the fact that Rogers was one of our top recruits.
Hairy Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:46 am
Dawgs need to package deal Rogers and a lunch sack full of horse turds to those sorry Rockie Toppers.
Texas Dawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:46 am
Sure it will “hurt,” to lose the kid, if only for image and perception. Anytime you can’t hang on to the Number One player in your home state, that says something. As for people wishing harm or ill will on Rogers, that’s simply moronic. Get a life, kids change their minds — or outright lie — all the time. Often UGA has benefited from that, this time, it looks as if we’re on the losing side. I’m more concerned, and have been for some time, about all of the in-state talent we can’t sign. I watch the ESPNU crawl every night looking for a big UGA commitment. Nothing, until tonight when I saw the two big DECOMMITS leading the way.
This year’s recruiting class isn’t all that important to the 2010 season, but what about the year after that and the year after that? What if AJ has a great junior year and leaves early for the NFL? What if neither one of our redshirt freshman QB’s is any good? (Remember, this time last year we all had no worries because we thought Joe Cox could handle it). I’m not saying UGA football is headed for disaster because we lost some great recruits this week? No, it’s the culmination of several things that should raise concern for any sound-thinking Dawg fan? I for one, thought Martinez should have been fired after the 2008 season. And there is NO WAY it should have taken CMR more than a month to replace him.
So now here we sit, less than two football seasons away from being everybody’s Number 1 team in the country and we can’t hold on to our top in-state recruits (and whether Rogers ever plays a down for UT doesn’t really matter; bottom line is, the #1 recruit in Georgia doesn’t want to be a Bulldog).
We Dawg fans can sit here and dog-cuss teenagers and their meddling parents all we want. We can blast other schools and suggest that what they do in recruiting is illegal (remember, we’re in the SEC, too, baby) until the cows come home, but I’m telling you, something is wrong in Athens when we get played by kids AND COACHES the way we did this recruiting season. For some reason, people have lost confidence in Richt and his coaching style. And Richt, his coaching staff and the kids that play for them should look themselves in the mirror when they get up later this morning and decide right then whether they want to do something about that perception or whether we’ll be sitting here 365 days from now wondering how we finished middle of the pack behind a team with a new coach, another with a coach with one foot in the grave, and another one who scared the crap out of own alum so much that he turned down nearly $1 million/year to stay in that cesspool better known as the state of Alabama.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:47 am
Alexander wasn’t offered until after the Defensive staff’s firing(long before CTG was hired), the offer was made to sure up Alec’s commitment. Just stating the facts, its was as much a “package deal” as Nash & Rogers is to UT.
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:48 am
Nash and Rogers package deal seems more slimey..does it not?
Jarrod
February 3rd, 2010
1:51 am
Where is his commitment to UT actually shown… i see only ESPN showing him with a verbal pledge… I thought he was announcing it at 9:45 am. He can still change his mind can’t he, and won’t all this be for not
Jarrod
February 3rd, 2010
1:51 am
All the others still show him split between UGA and UT
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:55 am
I have to go to bed but before i do, think of how J. Cox would have been w/out AJ Green. he made Cox look good numerous times; he was our offense when the run game was not producing by making unbelievable catches. He is simply a playmaker. Rogers is as close of a prospect to AJ as anyone UGA has targeted in the last two – three years (Brown was a top recruit i know, but never had the potential AJ or Rogers had). A top tier wide receiver can make or break an offense, just as any top tier player can; hate to see you go Rogers and will hate to see you at UT even more; i have a feeling you will be a game changer down the road.
Jeff
February 3rd, 2010
1:55 am
Da-Rick can go to UT, Slippery Rock, or Eastern Illinois for all I care… the kid has no character. I was not thrilled that he’d committed to us in the first place… i figured he would go JUCO or redshirt, anyway. (And by the way, multiple sources say the kid won’t qualify for school anyway without some serious grade massaging). I’m much more excited about the defensive players and the linemen we have coming in.
To all you “haters” (you Tennessee, Tech, and other school fans who, for whatever reason, feel the need to come comment on UGA blog topics), I ask you this: why would a school like Tennessee, or any other school, go sign a kid with so many issues? I mean, OMG, look at his freakin’ picture up there! the kid is all about the “bling” and not about the game and CERTAINLY not about heart, integrity or intelligence.
Go ask around: find out why the kid got kicked out of TWO high schools in Georgia. Ask how hard the Calhoun staff had to work to keep the guy freakin’ eligible this year. And ask the defensive coaches at Buford how much of a “talent” this guy was… he sure didn’t pose any problems for them in 2008 or 2009 did he? And go back and watch how he made zero impact in the Under Armour all-star game, when we went against guys who were on his level and NOT some scared, slow, 5-9 sophomore defensive back/punter/water boy from Dade County.
Da-Rick is a punk who is going to UT because Nash Nance’s daddy PAID him to, plain and simple. Look up the facts if you think I’m wrong, folks. He is all flash, no follow-through, all style and no substance, all hype and no heart. Good riddance… let UT keep him. Mark my words, in four years, he will either be in jail, off the team, flunked out, at a D-II school, or a middling, 30-catches-for-480-yards-and-3-TDs a year player. Nothing special.
I’ll take guys like AJ Green with their heart and commitment any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Goodbye Da-Moron, and Go Dawgs!!!
Rogers' Facebook page
February 3rd, 2010
1:55 am
I read it on my rivals account if that’s worth anything
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:57 am
Apparently, UGA coaches have told Mason & other commitments that Rogers called Richt and said he would be signing with UT tomorrow.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
1:57 am
More slimey, sure for the simple fact that UT has three other QB’s signed outside of Nash; but a don’t kid yourself and say that offering Alexander was a package deal. (i do however think xander will be a productive player for the dawgs).
Jarrod
February 3rd, 2010
2:00 am
that’s awesome, UGA might not be having the best of times either, but UT fans have been thru hell the last two seasons…This is finally some good news for a change…add the fact that we got Justin Wilcox who “may be” one of the brightest young defensive minds in the game and I’ve had a good night….
James Adams
February 3rd, 2010
2:01 am
This kid is soooooooooooooft. Ask anyone who has watched him play big/physical DB’s. I remember watching him play Buford thinking (and I paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld here) ‘And you wanna be our Number 1 wideout. I don’t think so.’
Jarrod
February 3rd, 2010
2:02 am
Yo Jefff, then why the hell was UGA recruiting him then???
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
2:03 am
Ogletrees are family; Nash & Rogers practically family(according to published reports): hard to differentiate b/n the two.
memphisdawg
February 3rd, 2010
2:05 am
i hope you guys are right about Rogers being over-rated. I do sense a bit of hostility however.
Burn
February 3rd, 2010
2:05 am
People forget how Nash Nance came to start for Calhoun- through the generous donation his father made to the school. And you say Nash Nance will never start for Tennessee??????????
Watch out because around July or August, a sizeable donation could be made to ol’ Tennessee. Unfortunately, the ‘University’ of Tennessee is a little more expensive than Cow-hoon. Mr. Nance is going to have to cough up a pretty penny for this one.