Rewind: UGA football recruiting gets kick in pants it needed
THE MONDAY MORNING REWIND:
Or in this case, what happened while I was away on vacation. . . .
Here’s one thing you can be assured of in this business: When you’re out on vacation, news will happen. Usually a lot of news.
So, of course, that was the case when I took off for the beach last week. I left immediately after the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla. I wrote that the SEC presidents went against the football coaches and voted to reduce the annual signee limit to 25, drove home, took my bags out of one car and put them in another and hit the road for the right coast early the next morning. So unplugged was I that it took me several days to realize that Mike Hamilton was out as AD at Tennessee.
I returned to civilization this past Saturday afternoon and I have gradually tried to get myself back up to speed on all things Georgia, etc. (nice to see the Braves get on a roll, huh?!) So please indulge me as I conduct a brief review of the UGA happenings while I was away and be sure to let me know if I’ve missed anything (as if you need prompting). And be sure to let me know some of the topics you’d like to see me cover in the coming days and weeks. As you know, there are only 82 days until the Bulldogs’ opening game against Boise State in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic.
Pierce County FB Quayvon Hicks, here working out at the Mark Richt Camp this past weekend, was a good get for the Bulldogs. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin/bsanderlin@ajc.com)
Recruiting gets kick in pants
Georgia’s football recruiting got a badly needed kick in the pants over the weekend. The Bulldogs added four new commitments to their Class of 2012 from Friday until Sunday, including two from major in-state prospects. According to most analysts Jenkins County defensive tackle Jonathan Taylor is one of the best if not THE best prospect in the state. He committed on Sunday and, as they always promised, so did his outside linebacker teammate and best buddy James DeLoach.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s future for kicking specialists was solidified as punter Colin Barber of Cartersville committed. Place-kicker Marshall Morgan of Miami has long been on board, meaning that the Bulldogs have identified their replacements for Drew Butler and Blair Walsh, presently the most formidable kicking combination in America. Lest we forget, Georgia also just brought in on scholarship long snapper Nathan Theus, who will be set to succeed rising junior Ty Frix. So the Dogs’ commitment to special teams is clear. And these newbies can only hope to fare as well.
Personally, I believe the commitment of Pierce County’s Quayvon Hicks is very significant. Though most identified him as an elite defensive end prospect, UGA tabbed and recruited him purely as a fullback, which is a position it sorely needed to address. By all accounts this kid brings serious offensive skills and athleticism to the table and he has the size to match up with the league’s ever-troublesome OLBs and DEs. A really good get, IMHO.
The occasion of most of this recruiting activity was the result of the annual Mark Richt Camp held in Athens this past weekend. There has been considerable stress and paranoia expressed by the fan base over the lack of commitments beforehand. But the reality is this: This is expected to be a relatively small class for the Bulldogs; this is right about where they were last year; with rules and attitudes changing like have recently, recruiting is going to become much more deliberate, which has always been Georgia’s M.O.; and, like it or not, there is the tinge of uncertainty wavering over the program regarding the coaching staff, which will cause some of the most elite prospects to take a wait-and-see approach to UGA’s season.
If Georgia has a positive season — which many are starting to predict — expect a boffo recruiting class once again. Here’s the class as it stands so far:
GEORGIA 2011 COMMITMENTS
- P Colin Barber (6-2, 185), Cartersville
- WR C.J. Curry (6-2, 203), Flowery Branch
- OLB James Deloach (6-3, 260), Jenkins Co.
- DE Jalen Fields (6-4, 254), Georgia Military College
- OLB Leonard Floyd (6-4, 215), Dodge County
- FB Quayvon Hicks (6-2, 245), Pierce County
- K Marshall Morgan (6-3, 195), Miami
- WR Lonnie Outlaw (6-7, 210), Georgia Military College
- TE Ty Smith (6-3, 230), Colquitt County
- DT Jonathan Taylor (6-4, 315), Jenkins County
Men’s golf, baseball go down
It’s old news to most of you by now, but the baseball and men’s golf teams saw their season’s end in NCAA postseason tournaments.
Coach Chris Haack’s hackers fell to one of the most incredible and unlikely dominant teams of all time, Augusta State, 3-2 in the national championship match-play finals. But it was an incredible run for the Bulldogs, who had an impressive roster of its own but had failed to put it all together until Nationals. Now it will be rebuilding time for Haack as they bid farewell to four of their most accomplished seniors of all time: Rob Bennett, Harris English, Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford.
Coach David Perno’s Diamond Dogs finally went down to Oregon State in the championship game of the Corvallis Regional. As I’ve stated before, I believe Perno might have done his best work in getting Georgia back into the NCAA tournament. You have to look past the unspectacular final record of 33-32. Despite playing the nation’s toughest schedule and all the adversity they faced with the Johnathan Taylor injury, the Bulldogs managed to execute a 17-game improvement from the previous season. With a senior-laden squad coming back, look for even bigger things next year.
Henley = #winning
Speaking of Henley, he has continued his winning ways since his college career ended. The Monday following the national championship match, Henley managed to make it back to Ball Ground, Ga., and grab one of three spots for the U.S. Open qualifying at Hawks Ridge Golf Club. So he’ll be teeing it up with former Dogs Bubba Watson and Christo Greyling at Congressional Country Club this Thursday in Bethesda, Md. In the meantime, Henley this past weekend helped the the United States win the Palmer Cup up in Greenwich, Conn. Henley, of course, won a Nationwide Tour event as an amateur earlier this year. Before it’s over he may end up as UGA’s most decorated golfer ever.
JT gets ‘the call’
I’m hopeful you all got to see where the Texas Rangers absolutely buried the class meter by selecting Georgia’s Taylor in the Major League Baseball draft. There was plenty written about it here and elsewhere but there is a pretty cool video interview that UGA conducted that’s now posted on the school’s official website, georgiadogs.com. I highly recommend you check it out.
That’s all for now. Let me know what you think and what you want. I’m here to serve!
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126 comments Add your comment
DawginLex
June 14th, 2011
11:10 am
sc fan
There is a website called http://www.edsbs.com. It stands for Every Day Should Be Saturday. They started a prize called the Fulmer Cup and it gives points for college football players that have run-ins with the law. Felonies get big points and that is why Auburn has 80 points for 2011 and has already broken the Fulmer Cup record
DawginLex
June 14th, 2011
11:11 am
Insider,
Is there any hope for depth on the O-line?
VADAWG
June 14th, 2011
11:21 am
WOW!!!! Was looking for at least 3 excellent O Linemen ………….. Not even one?????
KYDAWG
June 14th, 2011
11:40 am
Feelin really good about the season. Go Dawgs!!!!!
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 14th, 2011
1:35 pm
Snoop Dog,
Gosh who would have thought that would be possible. Actually, Georgia produces enough kids to produce 3-4 all star teams. Whether or not, all of them are able to work positively as a team at the next level is debatable. I guess if UGA could sign 45-100 players each year from the state, they might recruit successfully, according to you. Georgia produces between 180-200 kids each year that go to college on athletic scholarships. Florida also produces quite a few as well. Louisiana produces some but they are mostly loyal to LSU. The rest of the SEC doesn’t have the population to produce as many as GA and FL. so they are going to recruit from these states. The star rating systems don’t mean squat if the kid doesn’t have determination or work ethic to succeed at the college level. UGA get’s it’s fair share every year.
You let your blind hate of CMR and his staff, cloud your vision and force you to make irresponsible remarks without researching what you are commenting on. I think you said one time you were a fan of UGA, but that is hard to believe since you have never once posted anything positive about them or the coaching staff. I think you must be a closet fan of some other school actually, maybe Tech?
fan of the champs
June 14th, 2011
1:52 pm
In Ain’t Rocket Science,
I know the SEC has recently gone through cycles; however, Auburn and Alabama have stepped their game up in ways schools of the east (except FL) just haven’t…For example, Auburn now pays their assistant staff over $4 million…they were not doing this when they were “down” a few years a ago (between undefeated seasons). The fact is the entire program has changed (as Alabama’s already has), and at the moment, leaving teams like UGA behind.
fan of the champs
June 14th, 2011
1:54 pm
HOWEVER. I think when UGA finally boots out Mark and gets Kirby Smart they too may revamp their program and have an undefeated season of their own!
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 14th, 2011
2:10 pm
I don’t think Kirby Smart will see UGA as a head coach. If CMR is let go, the AD will look for head coaching experience in a replacement. Paying assistants buckets of money, is not stepping up your program. It is insuring they they stay at the school. I think you will see a UGA team better at the fundamentals, more disciplined and in better shape this year. I think except for experience, UGA will be night and day different from last year. They aren’t going to bge an easy game for anybody is my belief.
GO DAWGS
fan of the champs
June 14th, 2011
2:55 pm
The dawgs are never an easy game! Lets be honest, MOST of their losses last year could have easily gone the other way. I have nothing against UGA, as I am actually a UGA student myself if you can believe it, and I agree with you that they will be a totally different team this year (probably 1st in east), all I was trying to say I guess is that the teams of the east do not seem quite as invested as those in the west…
Blackoutanyone?
June 14th, 2011
3:49 pm
UGA Insider… you dream. Bama returns 10 starters on defense and will have 4 players of those go in the first or second round of the NFL draft next year. Hightower, Barron, Kirkpatrick and Upshaw. UGA is improving but I think that statement you made was a stretch at best. Additionally… while no one will debate Ray Drew’s raw talent.. it’s very hard for a true freshman DL to start in the SEC from day one. I’d expect to see him play but if you think he is a difference maker from day one… as I said before you dream. ROLL TIDE!!
FLA DAWG
June 14th, 2011
4:40 pm
No doubt we have the horses that could win races………………but what about the trainers!?
We still have Richt and Bobo. I hope these fine players can overcome that obstacle.
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 14th, 2011
4:53 pm
Fan of the Champs,
Be careful how you use the word invested on these blogs. Some of the bloggers on here get a little testy if money is brought up, and they will assume invested means paid out to an individual as compensation for services performed.
K Conley
June 15th, 2011
12:30 am
@ Blackoutanyone, while I agree with your comments on Drew and that true freshman playing alot is asking a bit much, I don’t think the defensive talent is very far off. The key to this is Geathers and Jenkins. If they are able to man that nose as it has to be, trust me when I tell you that Deangelo Tyson and Abry Jones are very talented football players on either side of the big guy. Cornelius Washington has elite talent and gets to man that Justin Houston spot. I’m sure you know who Alec Ogletree is and so will all of the running backs in the conference by the end of the year. The talent is there. We haven’t done as good of a job in the past of coaching our defensive group as Bama has, but the talent is there without even discussing the freshmen. I’m not saying I agree with the above comments about being on par, but I am saying that it is not far-fetched.
K Conley
June 15th, 2011
12:40 am
@ Tide Roll, You keep going on about this offensive line crap, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Any moron that knows anything about football can see that our defense at UGA has been, without a doubt, the culprit in our lack of success for the last 2 years. In this world of spread offenses and skill guys running all over the field, the O-Line means less than ever. Look at the two teams in the National Championship game last year. The epitome of what is going on in today’s game. And don’t tell me that the O-Line of Auburn won that title. That kid playing QB for Auburn would have won a NC for about 30 different college teams if he were their QB even if his line were the sisters of the poor. You have an agenda against UGA, nothing more, nothing less. Yeah, it was the great offensive line that won the Gators their titles. Had nothing to do with that big bull of a QB huh? Vince Young at Texas, I suppose that title was because of the line. The cheating USC group was the line as well I suppose. Name me one offensive lineman from the Oregon team. Can’t do it can you? You sir, are a joke.
DawginLex
June 15th, 2011
8:17 am
Feeling good today … Mama and sister Tami just bawt trailers next to mine … now my family can all gather together to watch the DAWGS on TV in my dubble-wide. Life couldn’t get any better! Gooooooo DAWGS!! Sic’em … Woof, Woof [pause to lick b@lls] Woof!!!
Line of scrimagge
June 15th, 2011
10:28 am
MSU last year demonstrated that you can play rugged, big boy SEC ball with rugged, big boy lines of scrimmage. With CMR, my big thing with him is that we never, ever seem to really focus on O linemen.
Usually, we get the wounded brother of some under producing guy already on campus or some kid with a blown out knee or weird shoulder injuries and/or back issues. Geeeeeeeeeeeeez. Am I wrong??
LSU and Alabama, Tennessee, ( historically) and AU and now MSU and Florida usually develop very good, deep O lines. Over the many decades, UGA would turn out at least two or three guys that were either AA or A SEC or NFL bound. Not lately.
GO Dogs.
Big Dawg
June 15th, 2011
11:29 am
To my fellow Dawgs— while I commend the coaching staff on these pick-ups. It is not time to celebrate as they have not signed any big offensive linemen which is a CRITICAL need. Since they have up to 8 more scholarships to hand out. A prudent Head Coach would target those to your most critical need which in this case is Offensive Linemen.
I personally like and respect Coach Richt because he is a Christian and a decent man, but it sometimes is a little bewildering on his obsession with skill players and neglect of those players who truly make or break a winning program. Games and Titles are won (most of the time) in the trenches and the team that controls the line of scrimmage generally wins the game. Yes it is important to have skill players but not as important to have the big ugglies. Anyway I hope we have a very good to great season this coming year.
Go Dawgs
Dave Cutler
June 15th, 2011
11:42 am
I love it….an uniformed alabama fan is trying to knock on the intelligence of UGA students, recruits and alumni. Read a paper you moron…you might just find out that UGA ranks higher than UA in almost every scholastic category rated.
—————————-
Yeah, because of the HOPE scholarship. Don’t pretend UGA is some wonderful institution of higher intelligence. It is about like the other SEC schools. The only reason it is harder to get into now is because for the past 20 years any idiot in the state that achieved a 3.0 got to go for free. In a state of 13 million people they had to raise the requirements. People forget prior to HOPE you could get into UGA with a 2.5 Now they want to pretend to be academic legends. Hilarious. If you go to UGA, you will get a good education, just like you would if you went to FL, TENN, AUB, ALA, ARK, OLE MISS…whatever…SEC is all about the same.
Dave Cutler
June 15th, 2011
11:48 am
K Conley….no, you are a joke. Football is a team sport. Cam Newton was great but Auburn’s offensive and defensive lines won them the title. But no you are right. I agree. I was really impressed when Cam Newton held Oregon to 19 points, or when Cam Newton constructed the goal line stand against Oregon. Or how about when Cam would throw the ball, enter his receivers body and also catch the ball. That was awesome. How about the other 2000 yards from other running backs on the team Mccalebb and Dyer? Again, football is a team sport and the offensive line on Auburn last year pushed people around all year. They were paramount in victories. As for UGA, your problem isn’t your talent or offensive line, or defensive line, it is that there is no chemistry in that locker room and it comes from your coach. The fact that you guys lost to CF is a prime example. You have to have respect from your players and Richt doesnt have that right now. That’s why you have cry baby running backs on your team.
K Conley
June 15th, 2011
2:30 pm
@ Dave Cutler… you’re the joke. The overwhelming reason teams win titles throughout the last 20 years in college football are great D and either an extremely intelligent QB or a Monster at that position (ala Vince Young, Tim Tebow, Cam Newton). Rarely does the team with the great RB win the title anymore. It’s not 1975-1985 anymore. Mark Ingram and Reggie Bush would be the 2 exceptions in the last 20 years. Although the Bama D was quite obviously the reason for that title, as they could have won with any RB on that team. I’m not saying offensive line is completely insignificant, but Tide Roll is on this blog every day with his same racist agenda. And you throw your knuckle-headed ass in to my argument with him. So, let’s play the game. I contend that if Newton had played QB for about 30 other teams, they would have won the title. Do you disagree? And your point about the Auburn D holding Oregon to 19 points has zero to do with my point about offensive linemen. The argument that lines “push people around” anymore is so stupid. I guess South Carolina was pushing people around, and then when Lattimore went down, they stopped pushing. UGA’s line was ordinary during Knowshon’s time in Athens, but he was the only back we had during his rs sophomore campaign that seemed to find holes. Bo Jackson and Herschel could have run behind 5 girls. It’s the skill guys and the D that make all the difference in today’s game. If not, then why is Boise consistently beating teams with much more size and strength than they? I think we know the answer.
dawg in ga
June 15th, 2011
3:04 pm
auburn will be stripped of the national championship yall broke ever rule there is im just ashamed yall are in the sec yall are no better than reggie bush and southern cal nd his father is no man of god he used his son
tide roll
June 15th, 2011
3:34 pm
Richt to Bobo: What do you say we move Richard Samuel ( at that time a 17 yr. old stud running back with unlimited potential), and go with King? Bobo to Richt: Uh, ok.
tide roll
June 15th, 2011
3:38 pm
Samuel needs to transfer out of that nut house, sit a year, and play two as a 6′2″ 230 tailback for Butch Davis at UNC, Then on to the NFL.
tide roll
June 15th, 2011
3:46 pm
Also Coach Bobo, be sure to recruit Cam Newton as a tight end. He’s no quarterback in OUR SYSTEM, No way.
tide roll
June 15th, 2011
3:48 pm
Jeepers, it’s got to be tough being a bulldog!!
old time dog
June 19th, 2011
12:24 pm
What exactly is a tide roll? I can tell it has a big mouth and little intelligence but does it possess any good points? Just read any tide roll posts and it is awfully difficult to assume it has anymore going for it than a GT fan or graduate.