Wouldn’t have guessed this off the top of my head:
Georgia coach Mark Richt, not Saban, has produced the most impactful NFL talent over the last five years. According to Nationalfootballpost.com, Bulldog products have made 205 starts in the NFL since 2009. That’s the most of any team in the nation and 17 more than second-place Alabama. Southern Cal (179), Florida (162) and Wisconsin (160) and LSU (160) also are sending their fair share to the pros.
I hope they’re pushing that tidbit hard on the recruiting trail.
Seems like one or two stable starters could substantially affect that data, such as Stafford and Moreno.
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But, we’ll take it. I don’t think recruits are going to have a significantly critical eye towards such a cool stat.
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Exactly. This is double-cool.
I saw it, and thought, “Gosh, I hope they’re pushing this hard in recruiting”. Then saw your quote.
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Indeed. Perhaps also adds validity to the Saban-players-are-all-used-up-by-the-time-they-hit-the-league theory. Regarding the UGA ranking, I’m not surprised they rank highly. The ranking will befuddle both those who question Richt’s overall recruiting body of work as well as apologists attribute his lack of titles to a David vs Goliath talent disparity.
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Insert snarky Spurier comment about talent and championships.
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It’s not just them it’s Geno Atkins, AJ Green, Thomas Davis, et al. We have had the players, what we haven’t had was the luck.
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No, we’ve always had great individual players, what we’ve never had is an administration or coaching staff capable of consistently producing championship caliber teams.
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+1,000.
This is far more an indictment of Richt and his inability to maximize talent than a compliment. Perhaps this will change now that Sheriff Pruitt is in town and Circus Clown Grantham is gone, but that remains to be seen.
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Pretty hard to argue with this, although I’m hesitant to see Pruitt as our savior
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Yeah, I don’t see it that way at all. I see Pruitt as a welcomed ‘missing piece’.
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There are a couple of different ways to look at that stat, you know.
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You can go back much farther than 5 years and get similar results. Maybe not #1, but not far from it. Dawgs have had a terrific minor league system for a long, long, long time.
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Great statistic….but I’d be curious to know how those numbers translate to draft status. Guys like Marlon Brown, Dannelle Ellerby etc. Physically gifted guys that never played to full potential at UGA….undrafted free agents that ball out in the NFL. Plenty of others as well that I just shake my head at how productive they’ve been once they reach the league. Geno Atkins wasn’t taken until the 4th round another example
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I don’t think that stat is correct – 205 starts over 5 years???
22 players per team x 16 games per team x 32 teams x 5 seasons = 56,320 3 players starting every game for 5 years would be 240 starts. I’d bet Staff, AJ, Champ, Seymour and TD have 205 starts alone over the last 5 years.
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Actually looked at the article. It looks at 2013 starts only. UGA players had 283 starts total on 2013 and 205 came from players that entered the NFL in 2009 or later. That total led the league. As many fail to realize, being a good or even great college player does not make one a good or great pro player. See Tebow. The opposite is true as well – see the many HOFers who were drafted in the 4th round or later and never sniffed a college all-America team.
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Think of how many championships these guys would’ve won if it weren’t for The Georgia Way.
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Probably still zero.
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I think it speaks to the character of the guys Richt keeps around. You can be a supreme physical talent, but you gotta have some brains to stick around the league.
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