Credit to Richt: A big recruiting yield at a big moment for UGA
Coming off its first losing season since 1996, Georgia is poised to sign the most illustrious recruiting class Mark Richt has assembled, which is saying something when you consider two 2006 signees were among the top dozen taken in the 2009 NFL draft. Obvious question: Who saw this coming?
Said Chad Simmons, the Southeast recruiting analyst for Scout.com/FoxSports: “I am a little surprised … but I’m not that surprised.”
If we’ve learned anything this past month, it’s that the Georgia program might be in a weakened state but that the Georgia name remains a powerful thing. Four different SEC programs have accounted for the past five BCS titles, and yet Georgia, at least on Signing Day 2011, seems positioned to stand with any of them.
Said Simmons: “I don’t think wins and losses make a difference. There’s a chance Georgia, which was 6-7, will outrecruit Auburn, which won the national championship.”
Said Jeff Dantzler, the astute Athens radio man: “This is the most important recruiting class coach Richt has ever had, and it’s one of the most important in Georgia history. And it’s not just because of talent — it’s because of the psyche of our people.”
We pause to insert the disclaimer: Recruiting isn’t an exact science; if it were, Georgia wouldn’t have been 6-7. But such was the discord in and around the program — fans in a tizzy, media (blush) in high dudgeon, the strength coach being re-assigned — that a diminished recruiting class figured to be the next falling domino. But no.
Scout.com ranks Georgia’s class the nation’s seventh-best, and Simmons said there’s a chance the Bulldogs could clamber into the top five. Still in play: The running back Isaiah Crowell of Carver-Columbus, the defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan of Asheville, N.C. and the massive defensive tackle John Jenkins of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
Simmons: “If all the chips fall their way, this would definitely be the top class Richt has had. It would throw over the [2006] one with Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno and Reshad Jones.”
Let’s recall: The calendar year began badly. Having lost the Liberty Bowl to Central Florida on New Year’s Eve, Georgia watched Xzavier Dickson of Griffin and Quan Bray of LaGrange use the Jan. 5 Under Armour All-America Game to announce for Alabama and Auburn, respectively. That prompted even more hand-wringing among Bulldog Nation — and much tut-tutting, it must be said, from this observer — but Richt and Co. have since gotten almost everybody worth getting. How?
“It’s a tribute to these coaches for not giving up, for selling Georgia as still being Georgia,” Simmons said. “They want these guys to be difference-makers, the guy who’ll turn it around.”
We say again: With Richt, recruiting has never been the overriding concern. At issue is how well assembled resources have been marshaled. Which leads to this: Should Georgia land Crowell and Jenkins to go with Ray Drew (defensive end, Thomasville) and Damian Swann (defensive back, Grady High) and Jay Rome (tight end, Valdosta), could the Bulldogs win the SEC East next fall?
Simmons: “These next few days [Crowell is announcing Wednesday, Jenkins not until Saturday] will be big for Georgia. Those are guys who can play for Georgia next year. They’re big pieces in this class. Jenkins is the 6-foot-4, 340-pound nose guard that [defensive coordinator] Todd Grantham needs for his 3-4 defense.”
Let’s see. Big interior lineman from a junior college: Didn’t Auburn just win it all with one of those? (The name was Nick Fairley, in case any Bulldog fans have forgotten.) And a hotshot freshman runner: Didn’t the arrival of Marcus Lattimore lift South Carolina to a breakthrough SEC East crown? Said Simmons: “Crowell can be that same type of player for Georgia.”
We pause here for breath, and also to remember: Georgia went 6-7 and didn’t beat a team with a winning record. But such is the promise inherent in recruiting, and no school knows better than this one. In 1979 the Bulldogs were 6-5. They signed Herschel Walker (running back, Wrightsville) on Easter Sunday 1980; on New Year’s Day 1981, they became national champs.
By Mark Bradley
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523 comments Add your comment
dawgster
January 31st, 2011
1:05 pm
@CHARLOTTE DAWG…also to add what some others have commented on Geathers…he evidently played too high at times and also i think he still wasn’t in the shape he needed to be in to go along with having to learn the position to go along with a new coaching staff…but its just my opinion…go dawgs
We (UF) OWN UGA
January 31st, 2011
1:06 pm
So Mark, I guess you’re back to wearing the red & black colored glasses and ignoring the facts?
Starting in 2002, here are UGA’s recruiting rankings per rivals.com:
UGA:
2002-#3
2003-#6
2004-#6
2005-#10
2006-#4
2007-#9
2008-#7
2009-#6
2010-#15
2011-#7 (currently)
Hmmm. Based on the facts presented above, it looks like the following classes are rated higher than the mythical gimmick known as the “Dream Team.”
2002-#3
2003-#6
2004-#6
2006-#4
2008-#7(same as current rank)
2009-#6
So Mark, what makes this class with a gimmick name so special? Or are you still mad your beloved Bulldogs can never live up to the hype? I’m still laughing my you know what off when you picked UGA to win the NC in 2008. How did that work out for you? Remind me who won again? I’ll give you a hint, they have absolutely owned UGA for the past 20 years…..LOL
Starring Kam Fong as Chin Ho
January 31st, 2011
1:07 pm
@ dawgster, HT is all hat and no cattle. He will not admit it when is proven wrong. He just likes to read his own comments on the blogs.
cptzzggyy
January 31st, 2011
1:07 pm
Is the word ‘dudgeon’ ever used without being preceded by the adjective ‘high’?
JoeDawg
January 31st, 2011
1:08 pm
“I dunno – I hope this class helps turn things around, but I’m worried about how many Cam Newtons end up as defensive ends at UGA…”
Cam Newtons? We don’t have that kind of money.
UGA89
January 31st, 2011
1:09 pm
A big recruiting yield at UGA = no news
Over the last three years GT’s recruiting classes have ranked in the 40’s, while UGA’s have been much, much higher –yet:
Since 2008:
GT = 26-14
UGA = 24-15
GT has a conference title and a BCS bowl, UGA has neither. And both teams lost to inferior opponents in their bowl games, who’s recruiting classes were not near the calibur of Tech or Georgia. oh, and both teams finished 6-7.
Recruiting ranking as so overrated and a waste of everyone’s time.
CHARLOTTE DAWG
January 31st, 2011
1:09 pm
I appreciate everyone’s feedback but the attached says otherwise.
http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/geathers_kwame00.html
yes, they often inflate stats but not by that much. Geathers is a very big man and could have been effective last year i guess with better conditioning and technique. The attached shows the perfect stats for a D1 nose tackle.
So I’m wondering what the problem was.
DawginLex
January 31st, 2011
1:11 pm
UGA89,
Tech plays in the A SHE SHE
Like comparing GHSA to GISA
jarvis
January 31st, 2011
1:12 pm
Top 12 dozen? While impressive, being taken in the top 144 picks hardly deserves first paragraph notoriety.
dawgster
January 31st, 2011
1:12 pm
@Herschel Talker…ok i’ll hold you to that…also, your comments about a coach not turning it around…i could give you several coaches that indeed turned their program around after seemilngly forgetting how to coach…Joe Pateno…not saying Coach Richt is as good as Paterno, but Penn St had really taken a backseat from the elite programs for several years..but a few good recruiting classes and they have been relevent again…go dawgs
Stockdog
January 31st, 2011
1:13 pm
This has been a crazy month. Hopefully the dawgs will get everybody that they covet. However, as Jeff Schultz stated in an article after the Liberty Bowl. Richt had a month to get his team together to beat UCF and couldn’t. He had more talent than O’Leary and couldn’t use an entire month to get his act together. So, why should we think that adding players will be any different. He had better players than most of the teams that Richt faced this year and still lost. Rivals had a great article last week detailing how recruiting a great class doesn’t translate into wins. VaTech is the best example of mediocre classes exceeding their rank. We can only hope this is true with GA. Forbes detailed how much money each school spends on football. GA was beaten by every school that spent more than the dawgs, even though we make more money than everybody except Alabama. We just don’t spend those profits on the team, i.e. indoor practice facility. I am not convinced that a great recruiting class will save my second favorite coach (Vince Dooley #1). Either way, I will be in Sanford Stadium cheering them on.
jarvis
January 31st, 2011
1:13 pm
Great point Lex.
UCONN won their Conference and got to play in a big boy bowl this year as well.
Steve
January 31st, 2011
1:14 pm
Doesn’t UGA typically pull in a “top ten” recruiting class under Richt?
I’m not sure how this year’s class is any different, but for $9.95/month I’m sure someone from Rivals.com, Scout.com or ESPN.com will let me know.
And, to be clear, I’m a UGA alum/fan. I’d just prefer to have the wins in the Fall rather than February.
Herschel Talker
January 31st, 2011
1:14 pm
Starring Kam Fong as Chin Ho:
You are a tool. You have come on here the last 3 years talking about how great Richt is while he has run our program into the gutter. You are a hypocrite and a buffoon. Grow a brain, you imbecile.
HT
Escaped from Email Purgatory
January 31st, 2011
1:15 pm
That SI cover brings tears to me eyes. Hush-ell runs roughshod over the Gators and everybody else in the SEC for that matter.
Took the last minute pass from Belue to Scott to keep the championship season alive.
Great memories. Thanks Bradley.
Good for CMR, too. There’s probably not a bigger blowhard critic than me when it comes to Richt’s somnambulant coaching the last three years. But this recruiting class is right on time.
how2fish
January 31st, 2011
1:15 pm
MRBIGUNS just uttering the idea that the media loves CMR just proves your a moron…dismissed !
JoeFan
January 31st, 2011
1:16 pm
CMR has had several top shelf classes and none of them has lived up to the hype. What leads anyone to believe that this will be any different? Probably a third of them will see the field on a consistent basis, another third will likely wander the sideline most of their careers and the other third will be part of a trivia game as in what became of….. It ultimately boils down to coaching and that is the real question at UGA.
KBP
January 31st, 2011
1:18 pm
Stockdog,
Georgia players had bigger names than UCF. I think most people underestimated UCF’s talent because they play in C-USA, but they had legitimate SEC type talent on both sides of the ball.
FLA DAWG
January 31st, 2011
1:18 pm
I must admit that this is already a bigtime recruiting class and would / will be stellar if one, two or three of the rest come onboard. But as you accurately point out it is what Richt does with his recruits which is the primary problem at UGA.
Herschel was coached by Dooley. Dooley knew what to do in practice and on gameday.
Richt has proven he does not.
collegeballfan
January 31st, 2011
1:19 pm
Here is the problem with jawing about high school players that may, just may, turn out to be excellent college players.
UGA 5 Star recruits (per Scout.com):
2010 – Alex Ogletree
2009 – Marlon Brown, Branden Smith, Aaron Murray, Orson Charles
2008 – A J Green, DeAnglo Tyson, Richard Samuel
2007 – Caleb King
2006 – Matthew Stafford, Brandon Wood, Akeem Hebron, Darius Dewberry
That is 13 5 Star recruits in 5 years.
paul
January 31st, 2011
1:19 pm
Mark, what is going on with Rodney Garner and recruiting this year. All we hear about is Richt, Bobo, and Todd G. on the recruiting this time out. Have they given up on his evaulating talent? I hope so.
DrDawg
January 31st, 2011
1:20 pm
Put the best players on the field. Guys out of high school these days are ready to play. The high school programs are as good as some colleges. The future is now. We’ve got 6-8 freshmen who could play in the fall.
Mark Bradley
January 31st, 2011
1:21 pm
paul, I’ve not heard that Rodney Garner is doing anything he hasn’t always done.
jerry
January 31st, 2011
1:22 pm
I still have the SI magazine……not for sale.
Tweets that mention Credit to Richt: A big recruiting yield at a big moment for UGA | Mark Bradley -- Topsy.com
January 31st, 2011
1:22 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Bradley, ajc sports editor, Michael Tucker, Monica Broderick, Nathan Faulkner and others. Nathan Faulkner said: RT @MarkBradleyAJC: Credit to Mark Richt: A big #UGA recruiting yield at a most important moment. http://bit.ly/fSc8y5 [...]
jarvis
January 31st, 2011
1:22 pm
I posted this on another blog today, so I apologize to anyone who read it before, but it has changed my mind a little about the “experts”.
It is an article abotu what happened to the #1 college recruits for the lat 25 years, and almost everyone of them made it to the NFL at least for a little while, and the few that didn’t all had injury problems.
It is an “Insider” article, so you may only be able to read the first couple unless you have an ESPN subscription, but you’ll get the gist.
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/insider/news/story?id=6062100&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncaa%2frecruiting%2finsider%2fnews%2fstory%3fid%3d6062100
Hankie Aron
January 31st, 2011
1:23 pm
What is your point collegeballfan
Remarkable
January 31st, 2011
1:23 pm
UG89, “GT has a conference title and a BCS bowl, UGA has neither.”
Georgia would have had conference titles every year if it played in the inferior ACC.
Mark Bradley
January 31st, 2011
1:24 pm
Oddly enough, someone stole my copy of Sports Illustrated with Herschel against Florida on the cover. I took it to a Kentucky basketball game — I was working in Lexington then — and left it at my seat at the press table. It was gone when I came back.
I actually went out and bought another. Just to keep the set complete.
Stable of Backs
January 31st, 2011
1:24 pm
2011–No Aj No Kris Durham No Justin Houston
January 31st, 2011
12:44 pm
6-7 team. Boise first game usc next
good luck with that.
Uga is going to Blow Boise out of the water, it will remind people of the 07′ Sugar Bowl, the south carolina game will be the tough one early on..
UGA- 54 Boise-17
jerry
January 31st, 2011
1:27 pm
It wasn’t me, Mark.
Junkyard Dawg
January 31st, 2011
1:27 pm
I’m not going to say UGA is going to go undefeated and win the SEC this season with the “Dream Team”. I will say this, I think UGA will be at least 4 games better than last year. This class has what we have really been lacking. If we can get Jenkins, and Crowell then these two guys can help us out. Especially on the defensive line. We really need Jenkins BADLY. He could be our version of Nick Fairley.
Ray Goof
January 31st, 2011
1:28 pm
UGA please..Richt is a loser, can’t get it done. never has never will.
DawginOH
January 31st, 2011
1:28 pm
Good to finally see some optimism from the AJC. Every team has its down years and good things are definitely in store for Georgia, perhaps sooner than we think. GO DAWGS!
Ray Goof
January 31st, 2011
1:30 pm
very few freshman have enough impact to change the sad state of UGA football….especially a 4 game swing as suggested.
Stopped Clock
January 31st, 2011
1:30 pm
You forgot the other part again and that’s coaching. Doesn’t matter how they’re ranked coming in. Without Discipline and coaching there’s no year after next for the Reverend Richt.
Fran Barkingtom
January 31st, 2011
1:32 pm
They may as well give us the championship rings now.
dawgster
January 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
@CHARLOTTE DAWG….i think you have been provided with several answers regarding Geathers, which i think they all have merit…but regardless…why don’t you tell us all what you think the problem with Geathers having difficulty with the posiition last season..keep in mind again that it was a new system with new coaches….Also he may just not be best suited for that position…just because you are big doesn’t mean you will be successful…i hope thats not your arguement that with his size he should autmatically be able to handle that…Give us some valid reasons to back up why you think he should be able to play the NT position without a learning period…go dawgs
jarvis
January 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
Uga is the name of a dog. UGA is an acronym for the University of Georgia.
Red&Black4ever
January 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
I agree, given recent history this recruiting class should be considered a huge coup. My biggest issue with CMR is his attempt to impose his morality on all of his players. Granted, some (Drew) may have been attracted to that quality but come on-do those who pull for other SEC teams REALLY think their players aren’t committing the same type on campus infractions? I think it’s obvious that at UGA, campus security is told to treat athletes just like any other student, no special treatment-while at other campuses the first call the campus security makes is to the athletic department. Btw? While everyone deserves ’second chances’, the loss of Zack Mettenberger to LSU (Bama lost out on that one though Saban tried) is going to cost us dearly. I guess is the players stats are good enough, anything can be overlooked. Seems like the SEC, just like the NCAA, has no set standard applied across the board. Yet, if Miles and Saban saw fit to bring this guy in, why couldn’t CMR reconsider? I saw the piece recently giving CMR the title of one of the best ‘character’ coaches in the NCAA-unfortunately, that isn’t what he’s being paid for.
Z-Dawg
January 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
2 Mistakes:
C’mon Mark. First of all, it’s “Damian” Swann, not Darius. 2nd, I agree with you on Knowshon, but Murray was injured halfway through his redshirt season which prevented him from seeing the field. By the time he was healthy there was only a few games left to play.
GTBob
January 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
jarvis, picking the #1 recruit is usually the easiest thing for the experts to do. It’s pretty obvious that Jadeveon Clowney is head and shoulders above all other recruits right now and is almost a guaranteed NFL player just off of his natural ability. Picking the other guys is what is more difficult.
Ray Goof
January 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
Richt, Bobo and Grantham…a perfect trio of inept coaches…never won anything, and never will
Mark Bradley
January 31st, 2011
1:35 pm
I believe you, Jerry.
dawgfacedboy
January 31st, 2011
1:37 pm
KBP- in this day and age of college football it’s not good enough just to win games. We haven’t really competed for the East since the last time we won it. We’ve only had 1 top 10 finish in that time frame so it can be argued that we competed 1 year for the East in the last 6 seasons. That simply does not get it done.
Winning 9-10 games is good but when your conference rivals are winning 12 and playing for championships year in and year out then that’s a problem.
Fingers crossed
January 31st, 2011
1:38 pm
Signing these players would be great. I just hope they stay out of the police log in the school paper.
DawgFaceBlues
January 31st, 2011
1:39 pm
Will yaw please let the Big Dawg eat?
sogadog
January 31st, 2011
1:45 pm
“THE REPORTS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED.” CMR
Chuck
January 31st, 2011
1:46 pm
Over/Under on how many years until we find out UGA is paying recruits? I say 2. You can throw pretty much every SEC team in the mix for that as well. I guess you have to play the game to win. If every SEC team is giving benefits to recruits, UGA would fall behind if they didn’t. KUDOS! Probation is worth it if you can get a national championship* out of it.
jarvis
January 31st, 2011
1:46 pm
@dawgfacedboy, Great point!
When you consider that your last three Conference champs have won 13, 14, and 14 games the last three years respectively, averaging 9.5 wins over the last decade doesn’t sound that great.