I’m not big on doing recruiting posts here, for a variety of reasons, but there’s something striking about the 2010 classes being assembled at Georgia and elsewhere that’s worth a comment.
With T. J. Stripling’s commitment today, Georgia has eighteen verbals in the upcoming class, which is currently ranked second nationally by Scout. Seven of those eighteen are from the state of Florida. That’s a significant portion in my book.
Interestingly, if you look at those Scout national recruiting rankings, Florida currently stands seventh, but more importantly, Miami ranks a mediocre (by Da U’s standards, anyway) twenty first (with an average recruit ranking of less than three stars, for what that’s worth) and FSU brings up the rear of that group at number twenty six (one step ahead of Georgia Tech, for some context). Now I know it’s a long way to February, and I know about FSU’s reputation for bringing home the recruiting bacon in the last few days, but still, that’s a pretty flaccid showing.
As I’ve noted before, what Miami and FSU do in recruiting matters to us in a very selfish way – the more they grab, the more Urban Meyer has to work to make up for that. And Florida having to work harder for its recruits can’t be anything other than a positive for Georgia. As has been said in a far better way than I ever could,
Miami: From a Bulldog perspective, if you looked at the state of Florida as though it were Afghanistan (and I do), the Gators, obviously, are the Taliban, while Miami is whatever warlord is running things in the Northeast. The Hurricanes don’t occupy anything remotely resembling moral high ground, but they are useful. As with Alabama, a healthy Miami helps Georgia; in Da U’s case, it’s because the ‘Canes recruit against the Gators in the Sunshine State’s hottest hotbeads for high school talent, although they don’t play the Gators that often…
So what can you do if you’re Mark Richt and you’re aware that your alma mater and your coaching home for better than a decade aren’t holding up their end of the deal? Well, maybe, just maybe, you decide to step things up and take matters into your own hands.
Now I have no idea if any of that’s really the case here. However, note that Georgia got two five star kids and one four star kid out of the Sunshine State in the last class. So if there’s a trend, it’s accelerating. Maybe it won’t last, or maybe the talent in state for the 2011 class is great enough to cut back on how many kids they sign from Florida at that point. Who knows? All I can say is that from where I sit right now, I’m damned happy about the results, both for who’s coming to Athens and also for diluting the remaining talent pool in Florida, no matter how the coaches have gotten there.
Get The Picture 
Obviously, you never know until the get into school and then onto the field, but the class does look special. And it looks like the Dogs are trying to put the D back in DEFENSE.
By my accounts, we are a DT and an LB short of a full defense, but we also have 3 extra DEs, an extra S and maybe one other extra defensive player.
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Our recruiting in Florida has been absolutely amazing since we brought on John Lilly.
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It would be nice to land Jeff Luc out of Fla. He reminds me of Rennie with his size & ability. He can cover sideline to sideline in a hurry, & meet the ball carrier with bad intentions. I believe with all the DE’s we’ve recruited that some will become LB/DE hybrids. In the 90’s Fla. St. used to have a lot of these type of hybrid players they would recruit as DE’s & then put some weight on a few of them & have them put thier hand in the dirt. The best of the lot made some damn good LB’s. Seemed to work well for them as I believe. Everyone remembers the Seminoles offense from those days, but Mickey Andrews had an almost scary defense. Everyone was very fast. I think this is what CMR is trying to do. If not he should really think about it.
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digidy dawg is right, we do have a lot of DE’s that could possibly play LB/DE hybrid type player. TJ Strippling for example, he’s 6’6″, 215lbs, DE that runs a 4.55 40 yd dash. I think he could possibly play a MLB on some plays then, bring in someone else and put TJ up on the line. I know some might think he’s too tall to play a linebacker…no he’s not. He’s perfect to play MLB, he’s got speed and power. Two very important things in the SEC, when you’re going up against the best RB’s in the nation. I see TJ as a David Pollack type. David play DE/LB in college then went on to play a LB for the Bengals when he got drafted. But if we get Jeff Luc, (which im praying to God we do) then we could just keep TJ on the line. That goes for TJ and possibly BJ Butler. He’s runs a 4.7, which isnt the quickest LB/DE, but have you seen this kid? He would intimidate me just looking at him. But what I’m trying to say through this long message is, most of the DE’s UGA is picking up could possibly play a hybrid defensive player in college.
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Senator,
A long overdue thanks for the repeated links to that post. You’ve managed to get far more mileage out of that blog than I ever did. Simply due to your support, I’m obligated to de-mothball that sucker at some point, although God knows when that’ll be.
To your points, I think we’re seeing couple of trend lines intersect: John Lilly’s Florida ties paying off, a particularly strong class of 2010 in Florida and a critical mass of spread teams on our schedule mandating a speed-heavy defense.
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I’m keeping the faith, man. I still post the link to your blog in my blogroll.
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The other beauty in all this is how many players, from FL and GA, have narrowed their options to to UGA and UF and then picked us. So many people praise Meyer and Saban and act like Richt and Co. are second tier recruiters. But so far this years that’s simply not true. We’re consistently beating the Gators and Tide for four and five star guys.
Great to see. I hate to play this game, but it’s hard not to start looking at the 2011 and 2012 schedules with Murray and these guys coming in.
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I completely agree. Looking past a season is something I usually don’t do, but when your looking at the stability of the program & the seeds that CMR & company have sown it looks great.
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I cant’ help but wonder how much influence the previous NFL draft is having on this recruiting class. I’m not trying to discredit any of the coaches recruiting ability but I have to think that’s a big selling point to a lot of recruits.
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No doubt. I think that carries a lot of weight with a kid if Mike Bobo or Mark Richt walks into the kid’s living room and says “by the way, we just had the #1 overall pick in the NFL Draft that signed a contract worth $41.7M guaranteed. That’s just one of the perks that goes along with being a Georgia Bulldog.”
That would be a big selling point for me.
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Everyone is dancing around the reason (IMO) for all the DE/LB hybrid types but no is really saying it. (Well, Tommy kinda did). I think we are seeing the execution of a specific strategy designed to counter the spread offenses. A. More speed in general (duh) and B. Specific strength and speed at the SAM/DE spot. I don’t know if the seeds were spread this spring due to our shortage and the use of our SAM’s as DE’s or if the design was there first. Either way, that’s clearly the direction CMR and CWM are headed.
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I think you’re leaving out an important piece of information here, and that is Miami recruits very heavily out of South Florida, and UF has traditionally had trouble getting recruits out of this part of the state, particularly from Miami-Dade county. Therefore there’s less overlap between these two schools than one might think. If you look at the Gators 2009 roster (http://www.gatorzone.com/football/bios.php) you’ll see very few players from South Florida (really the Miami-Ft Lauderdale area), and none of them, with the exception of Major Wright, are notable stars.
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