While we’re on the subject of recruiting, you might want to check out a couple of posts over at Heisman Pundit. The first ranks the best and worst programs of the decade, filtered through Sagarin’s rantings, national championships, top 10 finishes, wins over ranked teams and BCS performance. The second ranks programs based on the talent they’ve acquired (using data from Rivals) and compares it to what they’ve achieved over the decade.
Based on what I see there, I’ve got a question for those arguing that Mark Richt deserves to be enthroned on a hot seat: how did Pete Carroll escape your critical eyes, based on the results from the past few seasons? Southern Cal’s 2008 team, which still has one class left to enter the NFL draft, ranks higher in NFL draft points than Georgia’s 2000 and 2002 squads. That’s remarkable for a program that hasn’t sniffed a BCS title game in four seasons.
Get The Picture 
2005: 19 signed & only 12 made it on campus. Just now recovering from that & all of the players who left early. The Dawgs are at full strength now for the first time in several years, despite the fact that Moreno, Curran, & Jones could still be eligible if they had decided to play out their eligibility.
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As far as Carrol Is concerned, I always though he was done-in by losing 1-2 top level assistants to head coaching jobs each offseason. We will see how urban meyer adapts this year. My guess is that there is a considerable drop off, especially on defense.
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Carol was a bullshatting fraud and got out while the getting was good, he will suck balls in Seattle and land somewhere else and run that school through the wringer!
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No surprise: Dawgs highest ranked team in both lists without a MNC in the decade.
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My Bad FSU’s title was in 99 wasn’t it.
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Again Senator, please don’t continue to defend this to all of the fools out there that say CMR is in hot water? He is not and you need not to waste your intellect and penmanship on that crap!
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UGA ranked 5th, 6th, and 8th, in the three “college” categories and was clearly one of the Top 10 teams of the decade, specifically the nine CMR was on board. It further shows no credence for the “hot seat” comments the media and a few pot-stirring non-fans have made. Are things perfect in Athens, or could a few more games gone our way? Of course, but any balanced observer would have to say UGA has been a program to be respected regardless of the mindless ramblings of detractors. You can distort, spin, or manipulate facts and data to slant the perspective if you wish but the bottomline totals are impressive.
And UGA fans should feel particularly good with the outlook for the next two seasons based on the talent we have on board, and this recruiting class shows a strong possibility this will continue. Anyone can grumble about our warts and blemishes, but this is a great time to be a Dawg!
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Easy…it is called a National Title
I am not sure how hard it was to come up with that easy answer
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Easy for those who believe in fairy tales I guess. Just checked the NCAA site again, no championship ever earned in the history of CFB D-1. Wish we could get there, but looks like we are at least a decade away with all the new contracts. I would like to add another SEC title to tie for second though, still the most prestigious title available, and there are even some who dispute that. But the owner of that title is indisputable because it is earned by playing the game, not the “games”. Sad, the greatest sport leaves us hanging in unwinnable arguements every winter.
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As the author of the material over on HP, I will offer my unsolicited analysis of Richt based on the numbers. Richt took over an extremely talented team in 2001, yet a program that had MASSIVELY underperformed in 1998 and 1999. Georgia was one the biggest underperformers in 1998 and 1999
After 1 transition year of solid performance, Richt had 2 elite seasons both in terms of performance and performance relative to talent in 2002 and 2003. 2004 began a trend of declining performance followed by a substantial drop off in talent in 2005 and 2006 (NFL talent points went from 245pts (#3) in 2002 to 98 pts (#22 in 2005). Georgia did well in the recruiting rankings (never outside the top 10), but was not converting that recruiting talent into NFL talent and was not turning it into performance. 2004-2006…Richt was not getting much out of his talent and talent was declining.
All that changed in 2007 where talent levels rebounded into the top 10, performance was elite and performance relative to talent was back in the top 5. In 2008, the talent continued to be elite, but performance again began to drop off (injury related most likely) and 2009 was the worst year on the field in the Richt era.
So in summary Richt has proven that he can get a lot out of his talent and produce on the field. 3 of his 9 seasons have been elite and 4th was on the cusp. Really only one bad year (2009). That does not deserve the hot seat, particularly when Richt has shown he can bounce back from mediocre years and move back to the elite.
The numbers would suggest that Richt’s biggest weakness is recruiting real talent that produces in CFB. His Rivals rankings are great, but those kids are not turning into high NFL picks. The NFL draft is the best measure of college football talent (which is all I care about…college football). Based on the 2002-2007 recruiting classes and the 2005-2010 drafts, Georgia ranks 45th in terms of converting Rivals talent into NFL talent. This shows up dramatically when one looks at the fact that Richt took over a team that had over 200 NFL talent points consistently and has yet to get back to 150 with his recruiting.
Richt is solid and deserves some time…JMO. I will send the site admin some data on Georgia to give this post some context.
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Good stuff there. Thanks.
Look forward to your follow up.
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sent you email with the info
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