For those of you who indulged in hand wringing over all those slots that went unfilled with signees in Georgia’s most recent recruiting class, take heart from recruitnik Kipp Adams’ assessment of how the 2013 group is shaping up:
“… With eight commitments so far, Georgia has already pieced together an outstanding collection of talent, and what really gives them a chance to be special is that seven of the eight commitments currently plan to enroll early.” [Emphasis added.]
Hmm… maybe there was some method to Richt’s madness.
Get The Picture 
It was Bobo’s fault.
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If this does come to fruition and these 7 players enroll early, it helps explain the strategy. However, we still left 2 spots open b/c we only signed 16 on signing day. And that is on top of the 3 or 4 walk-ons that are carrying over their scholarships.
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2013 is supposed to be one of the best state of Georgia classes in a long time. I think this was conscious on UGA’s part and you will see a lot of early enrollment.
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Great post – I was thinking the same thing this morning. GATA staff.
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Wait, you mean a man that has been the head coach of a major Division 1 football program for more than a decade and who is the owner of two conference championship rings and four division titles in the nation’s toughest conference knows more about what his program is doing recruiting and roster management-wise than message board jockeys? Surely you jest.
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Not possible. Those guys are experts, I tell you.
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ROFL. +1.
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Only 3 count back toward last year though correct? Meaning a total max class of 28?
Currently we have 75 on scholarship (excluding 4 walkons), and we will lose at least 15 next year to graduation/draft (excludes walk-ons but includes J. Jones and Ogletree). See http://uga.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=878&CID=387116.
Richt can work with this, but he hasn’t left a lot of room for error. A couple of disciplinary issues, recruiting failures, transfers, etc. mean we’re running with unused schollies again next year. There should be 10 more guys developing in our program to fill in on special teams and practicing their game for the future.
For comparison’s sake, here’s what USCw is doing under a 10-scholarship penalty: http://usc.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=995&CID=1101304.
But I’m sure you guys have it right. “All part of the plan.”
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I think you can back enroll five.
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Interesting – I did a little research and found everything from the 3 number I mentioned, the five you did and unlimited.
Regardless, I still don’t like the lost year of contributions and development for 10 guys, but if we can (and do!) get enroll 30+, my concern in this department goes down greatly. Anyone out there have a definitive answer?
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ATH – Good posts, solid points. I find it funny (and sad) that so many of our fans are extremists within the fan base: the hair-on-fire-Bobo-haters versus the do-no-wrong-Disney-joy-sunshiners. It’s just like American politics.
What’s wrong with recognizing the good and the bad, praising the good, and criticizing the bad? I guess that’s too hard.
I thought Solomon’s article (citing five as the number for backcounting) on this topic was pretty helpful, even though it’s posted on al.com:
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/01/sec_learning_to_live_with_new.html
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Thanks for the kind words Bevo. I definitely fall within that “middle” re: Richt and politics – and sometimes I just enjoy being contrarian.
Saw that article, but I couldn’t tell if he was just using 5 as an example for unlimited. Looking at the few ncaa code sections I could find make me think that as well, but I’m not sure where all the 3 and 5-player “limits” in cyberspace come from.
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Gentry Estes of 247Sports says he does not know of a specific limit on EEs and backcounting numbers imposed by the SEC or the NCAA. He explained that the SEC cap of 25 or the general cap of 28 is the only rule in play.
http://georgia.247sports.com/Board/19/Gentry-28-scholly-limit-8264836/1
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You left out the”ugly” Bevo.
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Good call.
Revised:
What’s wrong with recognizing the good and the bad, praising the good, criticizing the bad, and sleeping with the ugly?
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Can someone help me understand the math here? We signed 19 guys 3 were EEs so only 16 count towards 2012 leaving 9 spots. Is Richt planning on early enrolling 9 guys then signing 25 for a class of 34? Because that is the only way I can see early enrollees as a valid justification for signing such a small class. In addition I thought i read somewhere that early enrollees are capped at 5 a year. No? I’m having a hard time seeing how signing such a small 2012 class makes any sense at all, if someone could explain the logic or math behind the decision to sign 19 I would love to know. Because from this vantage point it looks like we are undersigning almost every year and putting ouirselves at a tremendous disadvantage that only gets compounded every year if unabated.
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Bobo’s fault.
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Everything’s fine.
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Your math could get more difficult when you consider which athletes to enroll early and could be trained in time to take starting or backup positions on next year’s team in an effort to offset graduation losses. Who will you enroll if they all are eligible and the number of Earlys are limited? Oh, God! The angst!! And what if one of them gets injured for that critical backup that Richt didn’t take in consideration right now? We are just hanging on pins and needles , chewing our nails and pounding sand up our ass so fast we can’t conjecture enough bad planning by such inept staff that we are going to go over a cliff! The sky is falling and no one listens to my mathematical discoveries that will somehow impact the team adversely such that we will have to blame Richt! The dossier of bad math keeps building.
A cry in the dark for a helpful soul good at inane math! Where are the realistic math helpers like Audit Dawg- when are you going to help these poor, wretched,unrequited lost-sales puffery souls awash in their angst of not knowing because they are not the HC at UGA?
Enough already.
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Good lord. Get a grip and stop trying to play “guardian of the board”.
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The EEs and having a lot of open slots lets the Dawgs offer more players than I remember in quite a while, That combined with a very good senior class in his home state could bring Richt a number one class. Sign 32 to 35 players and you are right up there with Bama, without any over signing. GREAT!
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That isn’t even the half of it. Most of these new 2013 great athletes represent the best athletes in the adjoining competing states of the East Div. He hasn’t really started harvesting the obvious in-state athletes yet! First things first for a great Coach and Recruiter of great athletes. Some of you want dominance? Well here it comes, boys. Planned and executed beautifully with no help from the mewing maw. That’s really going to piss off the anti-Richt-ers!!
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Look at the bright side. We could basically cheat our balls off an lose 6 ships a year ….. And never even notice.
#gallowshumor
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Careful, you’re liable to get a stern reprimand from Cojones talking like that. He patrols this board and makes sure that the perception is that Dawg fans think Mark Richt can do no wrong!
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I will defend Cojones on this, given the number of haters over the past several years, including the present, having those who feel CMR’s accomplishments have gotten over shadowed is fair game. I don’t think anyone minds balanced posts that express concerns in a civil way, but many just attack continually. This being primarily a UGA site, why are you surprised that many do not wish to see it become another DawgVent where any positive comments are trashed. Balance is the key, enthusiasm is pretty much the norm on fan sites. If you want to see unbridled hero worship visit the Bama, Oklahoma, SC, sites.
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