A double whammy: Two touted Georgians spurn the Bulldogs
Xzavier Dickson dealt a blow to the Bulldogs by choosing Bama. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
Say what you will about the unseemly process of football recruiting, but the young men at the heart of it are expert trend-spotters. They know which program is Hot and which is Not Hot. On Wednesday two ballyhooed Georgians used the Under Armour All-America Game as the venue to announce they’d be making runs for the border, and there you have it.
The Georgia Bulldogs = Not Hot.
Xzavier Dickson of Griffin is bound for Alabama. Quan Bray of LaGrange is taking his talents to Auburn. According to ESPN.com, both rank among the nation’s 25 best prospects. We should also mention that ESPN.com has Georgia’s 2011 recruiting class rated No. 8 nationally. We should also mention that Rivals.com has the Bulldogs 23rd, while Scout.com puts them 20th.
Yes, rankings can and will change. (And yes, recruits have been known to reconsider. Ask Da’Rick Rogers, currently enrolled at Georgia … er, Tennessee.) But seeing Georgia ranked outside anyone’s top 10 always constitutes a shock. Rivals rated the Bulldogs’ signing class among the 10 best every year from 2002 to 2009; last year the Bulldogs were 15th according to Rivals, 21st according to Scout, 12th according to ESPN.
Even in lesser seasons on the field, Georgia under Mark Richt has always been able to point to its recruiting. Now, with lesser seasons running together, the program that controlled its state controls it no more. The buzz about this program has been downgraded to a murmur, and the murmur concerns the future of its head coach. Which grows more tenuous by the moment.
Four SEC schools have qualified for the BCS title game since 2005, Georgia not among them. Seven league members have qualified for the SEC championship game since 2005, Georgia not among them. This program of vast resources has been rendered second-rate.
The Bulldogs lost 19 times in Richt’s first 95 games as coach; they’ve lost 15 times over the past 35. Recruits know this better than anyone. Recruits can sense a program on the descent, even if it’s the flagship school in their state. Thus does the cycle of football spin onward: Win and you’re the place to be; stop winning and you’re the place to flee.
This isn’t to say Georgia can’t and won’t land an uncommitted player or two to bolster this class — Jay Rome of Valdosta and Isaiah Crowell of Columbus are still in play — but Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald offers this nugget: The Bulldogs’ last known public commitment was rendered on Aug. 22.
Put another way, not one recruit has been moved to pledge himself to the Bulldogs since the football season began. Talk about Not Hot.
By Mark Bradley
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571 comments Add your comment
Hugh Howard
January 7th, 2011
10:42 am
You seem to enjoy UGA having problems. I don’t suppose these recruits spurned GA Tech also. GA will pull out of this and with Richt at the helm.
Mike Bobo 17 INT
January 7th, 2011
10:55 am
These top recruits bolting for the border speaks volumes about how tanked the UGA program is, and has been for 30 years. Everyone in Athens gets excited about recruiting, but then they land the talent, they have no idea what to do with it.
All you hear from Athens is about recruiting and next year, year after year, after year…..
4 ncs are better than 1
January 7th, 2011
2:30 pm
And for all of you idiot dawg fans out there who thought you lost that recruit to a coin flip, get a clue. He was just playing with ya. You lost him because you SUCK!!!
4 ncs are better than 1
January 7th, 2011
2:47 pm
What do you call a coach, and I use that term very loosely, that kicks a field goal when it’s 4th and inches on your opponent’s one yard line on the first drive of the game??? And the opponent is Central Florida??? SPINELESS!
Headley Lamar
January 7th, 2011
4:17 pm
4 ncs are better than 1
Actually UGA has won 5 National Championships to Techs 4. That is if we counted them the same way,
5 (1927,1942,1946,1968,1980)\
And its hard to compete with Auburn and Alabama when there payroll is so much higher.
FBI has a say in it all too
January 7th, 2011
4:54 pm
FBi is continuing to build massive files on Scam and his pastor daddy. Once they build the CRIMINAL CASE ( not NCAA’s jursidiction) they will announce it. Heads will roll at AU and then, the NCAA comes back in to interpet their Bureau’s criminal findings. Dog race tracks, thugs and college football players do not mix. For clarification see Pete Rose.
AU will be put on double secret triple probation and will not have a football team until 2015.
Roll Tide
Dawg Tired
January 7th, 2011
4:58 pm
Never trust a coin flip.
Dawg Tired
January 7th, 2011
5:00 pm
Just got to start paying more.
Hairy Dawg
January 7th, 2011
7:06 pm
We gots to make players pay for unloyal to state of GA and Dawgs. We run state and that means players that go else should not getting support unless stinkys that losing for Bama and Auburn. Thus players that stinkys go others teams and Dawgs get good players that play with SEC speed. Cromwell is real deal and coming to Dawgs unlike Dickenson and Bray that weren’t good enough SEC talents to be part of Dawg nation dominants.
JDAWG
January 7th, 2011
7:30 pm
http://isportsweb.com/2011/01/06/georgia-bulldogs-recruiting-update/
UGA Recruiter
January 7th, 2011
9:36 pm
All right you bunch of know-it-all-smarty-pantses, you try recruiting if you think it’s so easy. We’ve done pretty good here at UGA.
My only real regret is not landing Cam Newton. That boy would have made one helluva fine tight end…
Big Ugly
January 8th, 2011
8:24 am
Let’s see in 2009 UGA beat Texas A&M in a crappy bowl. A year later UGA looses a worse bowl to a pee-wee team while A&M regroups and makes the Cotton Bowl. The difference, COACHING!
Now our weak a$$ coaching staff is getting blown away in the recruiting battle.
AD is set on keeping Richt for 2011 season. Maybe after we get stomped by BSU Richt will be shown the door. At least we will have the rest of the 2011 season to search for a great coach.
emmysmom
January 8th, 2011
9:38 am
Kill the messenger.
Hairy Dawg
January 8th, 2011
10:14 am
Coach Richt don’t need to see the door. Adams is problem from choking recruits with pointy header rules that Bammer, Awful Burn, Gaytors, excetera don’t have. Coach Richt is Christian and shouldnt be disrespected when he lead us to dominants but Adams stopping him. Once Coach Richt is let recruiting like rest of league then we get the talent stockpile from Hargrabes for winning. With talents we take over SEC and win BCS by unloading whooping can on all coming againts us. We should be table running for couple years if Adams opens recruiting. Then Coach Richt Christain attract SEC talent players that wants expose themselves to NFL with moms that demand teaching kids to walk in Lords path.
Hairy Dawg
January 8th, 2011
10:15 am
Hargraves
Georgia DAWG in K Town
January 8th, 2011
10:43 am
It really is sad when you go from the top to being a team that the SEC needs to pad the others football schedule by our inability to score and defend. Heck we can not even manage to keep our players out of jail its becoming more than a shake of the head and hoping for a better season. A field goal on the one yard line shows a man not willing to take a chance.
stendek
January 8th, 2011
12:51 pm
I must respond to misguided apologists. Losses are part of sports. They happen. I have been sports enthusiast/reporter for half a century. Please bear with me. Mark Richt can no longer motivate players. This has never been more evident than over the last two seasons. The true downward spiral began prior to Oklahoma State disaster. Opponent disrespected Bulldogs by stating victory by outrageous margin. Any decent head coach would have been able to motivate team out of its head. Unmotivated Bulldogs of MR embarrassed themselves in Oklahoma. That embarrassment has stretched over the last two seasons at least. Know when Bulldogs actually played like Bulldogs all of us know and love? Think about it. Against Hawaii. Seems like centuries ago. If MR wants to be another Billy Graham I wish him nothing but the best. I want a Bear Bryant at Bulldog football helm not an evangelist. Bulldogs now win close against untalented teams but get blown out by upper echelon squads. Okay for a technical school or junior college but not for a proud institution like the one in Athens. There is no optimism in Bulldog Nation any more. Fans, whether they admit it or not, do not EXPECT the Bulldogs to win. I certainly do not. Tennessee Tech. Probably. Vandy. Maybe. Any upper tier SEC team. Forget it. This should be unacceptable to those in charge in Athens. It is not. That is what frustrates me more than anything else. Stick with the status quo. For more defeats like ones to Colorado and (insert team here). Truly sad. STENDEK
NOBODYYOUKNOW
January 8th, 2011
1:59 pm
No big dog fan here, but I really feel bad for CMR. If he pulls a winning season next year out of all this negative BS he’s a genius and you people will love him again. He always talks positive and has a good attitude. I hope a PRAY he can do it.
$cam_Newton
January 8th, 2011
2:44 pm
Auburn pays well
Alum Fran Tarkenton on 680 The Fan: UGA 'is in big trouble' | Mark Bradley
January 11th, 2011
5:43 pm
[...] last week’s announcements that two top in-state prospects plan to sign with Alabama and Auburn, Tarkenton said: ” We’re going to lose the elite players this year. We haven’t in [...]
junkyarddawg
January 12th, 2011
11:03 am
When we started the season with 4 losses and everyone started calling for CMR’s head I said that the 2 that needed to go were S & C Coach Van and Recruiting Coordinator Garner. We’ll the 1st one has come true, now if CMR will pull the trigger on Garner he can turn this thing around. Garner is the one responsible for identifying and gaining commitments from football players. What he has been bringing in is a strong recruiting class for the Athens Clarke Adult Detention Center. Enough!
CMR hit the recruiting trail and go find men of character who want to be Bulldogs, not just “players” who are looking for the best route to the NFL. We don’t need players who are going to toss a coin to decide who they will play for; chances are they’ll be flipping a coin about whether to stay or go pro, whether to go to class or not, whether to commit the crime or not, or whether or not to give 100% everytime they strap on the headgear!
The other coach that MUST go is OL/ Running Game Coord Stacey Searles. He did less with more talent that any coach in the SEC. Preseason the OL was considered a strength, what they looked like against UCF was a mediocre HS line.
And while you still have the pen in your hand, signing Dowtin’s dismissal add Caleb to that list and free the team of that cancer.