A calmly rational explanation of why Georgia doesn’t sign every eligible kid in the state:
“I want players that our coaches want, because that’s a relationship that’s very important,” said Richt, who said he typically sees more family loyalty to the university from rural areas in the state compared to the Atlanta area where players may have migrated from other parts of the country. “Most of the guys in Georgia (on other teams), we went after but just didn’t get them. We can only sign something like 20 (players) a year or something like that, and there are something like 150 players coming out of the state every year so we can’t get all of them.”
Not that it’s going to sway a single fan who gripes about every four-star Georgia recruit’s signing with another program as evidence of epic fail in Georgia recruiting. Math is hard for some people.
Maybe it’s because I’m not from Atlanta but I tend to gravitate toward the recruits we sign that are from cities like Columbus, Macon, Augusta, Albany, and others from small town south Georgia.
You definitely get a stronger sense of community, state pride, and loyalty that you never really see from the Metro area. Its refreshing.
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UGA will always have difficulty in ATL because every negative incident in Athens is blown up by ATL media. Alabama media prays that they don’t have to criticize Tuscaloosa or The Plains. Big difference there. What are the odds of a UGA recruit ultimately getting arrested in Athens as opposed to a Bama or Auburn recruit getting arrested on or near those campuses?
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“Calmly rational”? Right, like THAT’S gonna resonate with our fan base.
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Don’t cloud the issue with facts.
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Alabama signs 120, why can’t we?
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Because Auburn takes most of ours?
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Because Alabama is good at math, or something like that.
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I’ve never wanted all the players in Georgia – that’s not the issue. The issue is, of the top 10 to 20 players in Georgia that we want, which is most of them, we should get way more than our fair share, probably the majority, being the home team.
But I think it might be changing anyway, and we may start getting more of the Top 5, Top 10, the really elite guys that are game-changers. This year could be the start of something new in recruiting.
~~~
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i agree here.
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Yes, the criticism is that we are often not in contention for the state’s best athletes, not that we should sign more kids in general.
I chalk some of that up to wanting kids who fit the culture, sometimes top prospects are not in positions of need, etc. But we could ramp it up, to be sure.
On the flip side, we do seem to be recruiting Fla, NC, and SC pretty well. Would be great to have more homegrown, but ultimately I prefer having kids who are excited to be here and fit CMR’s standards.
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+1
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Math is hard for some people… or something like that.
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I find that there are three kinds of people in this world when it comes to math: those who get it and those who don’t.
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Reggie Ball says 4 out of 3 people have trouble with math.
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But but but Auburn is ranked #2 so far with mostly GA players!
To Ivey’s point, I would like for us to snag a few more top GA guys, most especially, please please please, more top O-linemen. Really. Can we start doing that?
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Alabama’s great because they get the best. Whether a guy wants to feel like family I could care less. Herschel wanted to go to Southern Cal. Let that one sink in for a few minutes.
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Dooley thought he might make a better LB than RB. Let that one sink in.
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Vince was thinking Tebow before Tebow.
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Leaving him at running back probably saved George Rogers, Bo Jackson’s and a handful of QB’s lives.
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Alabama also doesn’t mind sign 5 classes every 4 years. They are fine with it. About half the teams in the SEC are fine with it. Thankfully UGA is not of them.
Now sure, Saban can coach, but could Bama be doing what they do without the ability to heavily cull their recruiting mistakes?
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I can’t remember exactly what it was called but didn’t Lewis Grizzard write an article “Thank God for Mrs. Walker” or something?
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Red Dawg’s under illegal legs!
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How many Mr. South Carolina Football have we taken? I’m sure North Carolina would like to keep a few wide receivers and running backs in state as well. And Tennessee keeps all it’s best talent in state. Where was Stafford and Murray from?
just sayin’
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I want the top 15 from GA and then the other 5 to 10 from across the country as long as they are the top 1 or 2 at their position. Dang it I want my Cake and the best cake from around the country no matter where its being cooked.
Sometimes you are going to get someone better from out of state and sometimes you will NEVER get the instate kid for one reason or another not that it doesn’t aggravate me but that is the way it is.
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By the way Senator, this is a College Football Blog…Calmly Rational has no business here.
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I hate to be Debbie Downer but I have to call attention this…
“We can only sign something like 20 (players) a year or something like that”
I hope nobody is honestly mystified as to how we end up with only 65-75 scholarship players on the roster at times.
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Math is hard
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It’d be nice to be on the radar of the #1 recruit or pos. player in the country when he’s from Georgia at least once in a while. (Crow not withstanding)
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Sure, there are only about 120 D-IA football players coming out of Georgia each year. And, yes, UGA gets its share of them. But on the whole the very best of those 120 players leave the state. Bama, Auburn, UT and now South Carolina get rich at Georgia’s expense every year. Southern Cal? Big 10 teams? Notre Dame? They all raid this state. Do we get some good players from out of state? Absolutely. All you have to do is look at Murray, AJ Green and Gurley to know that. But if you look closely you will also see the top guys in Georgia leaving the state every year, too. Bama kicks Georgia’s ass in recruiting in Georgia annually. Auburn’s right there behind them, too. Why? It’s not just as simple as they out recruit us. It’s the whole B-M thing: Lack of institutional support (IPF anyone?), a disciplinary system that can only be described as insane, scheduling games to maximize $$ rather than to maximize chances of winning (I’m not talking cupcakes-I’m talking season openers on other teams’ home field, etc.). When things go bad everybody wants to fire the HC. Maybe it’s not the HC’s fault, at least not only his fault. Maybe it’s the President, the AD and that whole group of hangers-on at B-M. Let’s get rid of THEM and let’s see what good can happen. Rant over.
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I agree with this, I simply can’t understand why we haven’t been able to recruit the OL at a higher level???
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