Keeping ’em home

Over at Dawg Post, Dean Legge reacts to the commitment of Darius Slayton:

Today’s commitment from Slayton, who multiple insiders have maintained for some time is one of the “absolute must-get guys out there”, pushed Georgia past Alabama for the top spot. That’s a monumental move on a couple of different levels.

First, pushing to the number one spot means that a program has done the recruiting work over the last few years to position themselves to be number one.

Second, it means a program has won big recruiting battles.

As good as Alabama has been, and they are elite in recruiting, Georgia has more than held its own this recruiting cycle with the Tide. All indications are that Terry Godwin will sign with Georgia, and former Bama commit Jonathan Ledbetter will as well. The Dawgs lost Rico McGraw to the Tide, and Columbus native Mekhi Brown still appears headed to Tuscaloosa.

The biggest driver in Georgia’s surge to the top has been in-state success. For the record, I don’t think you, specifically, have to keep all of your in-state prospects. Often players really don’t fit best at Georgia (see RB Oregon commit Taj Griffin from McEachern). After all, some of the best players over the last few years at Georgia have been from out of state (Todd Gurley and Aaron Murray come to mind).

Nonetheless, of the top ten players in the state of Georgia, the Bulldogs very well could sign six of the top ten (Thompson, Godwin, R. Smith, Slayton, Ledbetter and D. Walker). That’s a recruiting rate that’s, quite frankly, never been accomplished in Athens. None in the top ten are expected to wind up at Florida, Alabama or Auburn.

Obviously, you can think of the same caveats that come to my mind.  It’s a long way to February.  And even if you sign them, that doesn’t mean you keep them, as the incredible shrinking class of 2013 demonstrates.

But that the staff is finally pushing back against the in state encroachment on the recruiting front we’ve all fretted about since Saban showed up in Tuscaloosa is welcome news.  No way Richt is ever going to erect a fence around the state – the geographic advantage Auburn has around the Columbus area and the same thing FSU enjoys in parts of south Georgia argue against that ever happening – but the home team should be able to take in a steady stream of the best high school talent the state offers, especially since Georgia Tech doesn’t.  It’s a crucial development and it’s important for the Georgia program to make sure it’s not merely a one-year bump.

The one surprising thing about the article is that there is no mention of Jeremy Pruitt.  It’s hard to believe his arrival and the uptick at recruiting are mere coincidences.

74 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football, Recruiting

74 responses to “Keeping ’em home

  1. Rick

    I don’t think it’s been fully appreciated how mediocre recruiting has been since 2006. Richt is a solid recruiter, not a great one, and our average rank in conference recruiting has been right between 4th and 5th according to rivals. This is the SEC, so even middle of the pack that means we’re getting great players and can certainly be competitive in terms of talent.

    But wouldn’t it be nice to be between 2nd and 3rd? We’ll never be #1 as long as Saban is in Tuscaloosa (and I think scout is wrong having us #1 right now), but boy I would love to see the team that results from a few years of top-3 (in the SEC, not nationally) classes. With McClendon, Bobo and Pruitt I think we’ve got the staff to get that done. Add in the fact that Bobo and Pruitt seem to be very solid coordinators, and it’s hard to be too pessimistic about the future no matter what you think of Richt.

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    • Haywood Jablome

      Being anywhere ranked from #7 to #9 in recruiting nationally in the time frame you mentioned is mediocre but people throw up their arms in disgust when the Doomsday Dawgs label the Dawgs the same for their lower ranked on-field performance.

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      • Rick

        Comparing recruiting rankings to final rankings is difficult on the national level because scheduling strength is so hard to account for (an SEC team with 3 or more losses can be a top 10 team but will never sniff the top 10).

        A far more accurate assessment would be to compare recruiting ranking in conference with final ranking in conference, since schedule strength is much more consistent across teams.

        Do we rank, on average, lower than 4th or 5th in conference record at the end of the year? Richt’s career .700 in conference winning percentage makes that seem unlikely. Heck, we have the best record in the division about half the time, so I would guess we average closer to #3 under Richt.

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      • Rick

        FWIW – Richt’s average final redcruiting ranking in conference for last 8 years:

        4.5

        Average position in SEC standings at end of year for same period:

        3.4

        That may be tops in the conference in terms of outperforming wrt the talent (though a little unfair to Saban, since it’s hard to improve upon an average recruiting ranking of 1.0).

        Again, would be excited to see a team with an average recruiting ranking around 2 or 3.

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    • PTC DAWG

      I still say you can’t tell the difference in a top rated player in East Bumpkus Alabama from the one in West Bumpkus Georgia. There is no reading for a “want to” factor. Throw in the difference between High School and College, and it becomes damn near impossible.

      If you are in or around the top 10 in recruiting rankings every year, and are going after the same guys most everyone else is, you are doing just fine.

      Coach’em up and keep’em in school. That is the bigger key IMHO.

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      • sUGArdaddy

        Eh…there’s s big difference, man. We’ve got a backfield loaded with 4 and 5 star tailbacks. One played at a Double-A school in NC and another played at a 4A school out in west GA. But the recruiting services found them. They don’t get them wrong much. All 5 stars aren’t studs, but the more you get, the more likely you are to get studs.

        Can you tell a difference between our RBs and DBs? That’s the difference between great recruiting and okay recruiting.

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        • mcclendon is a better position coach. That’s why Gurley and chubb are awesome: coaching.

          I’m being sarcastic obviously. If we had gurleys at every position we’d be playing tomorrow. You might screw Gurley up but I doubt b-Mac goes around talking about what a great coach he is because Gurley. Actual coaching is negligible as a factor when compared to talent. As far as desire, you can instill some of that but I dont think anybody could convince me to try and tackle todd gurley. You either have that desire or you don’t.

          I don’t know what it is about people but we always want to push leaders out there as being the one to put our faith in (coaches, presidents, preachers, popes, Kings, whatever) when we know in life that almost everything is about the individual person. I suppose its the illusion of control. “I can’t put my faith in some 18 year old because they would be stupid, but a 50 year old coach can control all outcomes.” The truth of the matter is that the roster matters a lot more than the coaching staff. If you think about it isn’t it better to credit Herschel and buck and lindsey and a those guys who busted their asses everyday to get that trophy than to give Erk and Vince all the credit? I’d bet both of them would tell you that the players are the ones we should give the credit to. They earned it. Blame works pretty much the same way.

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          • Buc'd

            Have you ever coached? You’ve just about nailed it. Best scheme in the world (coaching) doesn’t mean much if there’s not much talent. Talent trumps all.

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  2. watcher16

    Two biggest comments that stuck out to me:

    “Fact: Only one program has won a national championship in the last decade without first being ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the final recruiting rankings on Scout.com just before that program’s national title run. That was Auburn’s 2010 team”

    “Georgia’s current roster, according to scout.com, is the 5th best in the SEC”

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    • Derek

      but I thought we had ALL the talent????

      The truth of the matter is that finishing in the top 10 in recruiting rankings is not enough in this conference. 8th Nationally (about where we’ve been over the last several years) is usually 5th or 6th in the conference. 5th or 6th in the conference leaves you hanging on the back end of the top 25, if that. You need top 4 classes to be a consistent division winner and top 3 classes if you want to win conference titles and compete for the big enchilada. Its all about getting the talent. Coaching helps on the margins, but talent is where its at. The team with the best players wins almost every time. Teams like tech can level the playing field with unconventional approaches, but if you want to be the pro-style, NFL factory like we do, you’ve got to have the horses. Also the need for talent is greater now because:

      • there is so much more offensive diversity than there was 30 years ago you need natural ability to counter the various approaches. When everyone used to run the ball and play the same basic defense you could get somewhere by being meaner and tougher and hitting harder. Now you have to be faster and stronger. The JJ Green couldn’t find a spot tells a lot. Very good football instincts and toughness. Very little in the way of measurables.
      • 20 hours a week limits what a coach can do
      • 3 years and done means you’ve got to constantly re-stock talent because your best players aren’t sticking around

      Saban is not sitting around trying to coach up 25 guys who’ve dreamed about playing at Bryant Denny their whole lives. He wants talent. Lots of talent. If you don’t have it, he’ll decide you are hurt and need a medical redshirt.

      We have a decent shot at 2 No 1 classes in a row. CMR is right: the future is bright.

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  3. Dawg Fan

    Richt is a great recruiter but lousy coach. I’d love to see him take on a General Manager type role, and leave game prep and game coaching to others.

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    • sUGArdaddy

      Can I ask you something? Who isn’t a lousy Coach? Serious question.

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      • Mayor

        No snark here sUGAr, but basically every coach in the SEC West. I exclude Bert because he’s an imposter. Les makes in-game errors but overcomes his mistakes most of the time. But Saban, Mullen, Freeze and Sumlin basically don’t make in-game coaching mistakes, at least not in the games I’ve seen and I watch a lot of SEC games. Spurrier doesn’t make in-game coaching mistakes. And from what I’ve seen, Gary Pinkel doesn’t either. That doesn’t mean that their teams can’t be beat (see 34-0). But none of them kick away games by doing something stupid at the end.

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        • Dawgoholic

          Mayor – what football are you watching?? Saban’s made plenty of mistakes for one. FG against Auburn in 13 is exhibit A. Single covering Mikey wasn’t a good move either. If you watched those guys like you watch UGA, you’d find plenty of fault with them too. Also, I’d bet 80% of the folks complaining about the “pooch”, which was a bad decision in my opinion, would be complaining had we kicked it deep and Tech gotten a long return.

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          • Cosmic Dawg

            I wish you guys would stop saying we’d be complaining about any kind of kick if it had a bad outcome. The fact is, the long kick was the safer choice, and we might have (fairly) groused if they didn’t cover it, but we would NOT be complaining about “long kicks” in general.

            . Since nobody is complaining about an event that didn’t happen, is it fair to ask you judge our annoyance based on what we are actually talking about?

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            • Dawgoholic

              Maybe you’re one of the 20% that wouldn’t have complained about the long kick. The fact is that there are a lot of decisions that could have varied outcomes. When the coach’s decision works, he’s brilliant & when it doesn’t he’s an idiot. It’s really just football. Had we run it four times in a row against Carolina and not scored people would have complained that Bobo should have thrown it at least once. Any time you lose a close game, you can point to a decision made as the reason for the win/loss. A much more valid reason to be upset with Richt would be the fact that we were in close games with Tech and South Carolina, teams not nearly as talented as UGA. Most of the people complaining would have said little or nothing had we won those games.

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        • Noonan

          Les Miles has been at LSU for 10 years. He has two SEC titles. He won the MNC during a season in which he lost to Kentucky and Arkansas. He has a lower overall winning percentage than Richt and is 2-3 head-to-head vs. Richt. He lost three games last year and four this year.

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        • sUGArdaddy

          The idea that Freeze or Mullen are better than Richt is a joke. I’m not sure Malzahn is either. He needed a miracle to beat us once and got curb-stomped this year. Saban, sure. Miles? Eh…I don’t think so. Sumlin? Please. Across the country, you can make some good arguments for Saban, Spurrier, Stoops, Meyer, and…I’m out. I think you’re hard pressed to find sure-fire guys beyond them better than Richt.

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    • Rob G

      Fact is a daily contributor over at BI was one of the military men that presented Slayton with his Army All-American jersey and got a chance to talk with Slayton’s Dad, bottom line was if CMR was not the Coach Darius would be going to UT, Like it or not you get rid of Richt as the coach and we will be enjoying the same success as UT after they fired Fullmer….for 6 damn years now

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  4. DawgPhan

    Ahh…this thread already has it all.

    CMR is a solid recruiter, CMR is a great recuiter. random internet commenter disagreeing with his teams high ranking in recruiting.

    anyway, this class is shaping up to be a really awesome class. If the 2016 class is also awesome and doesnt drop to 19 players then we will really be cooking with gas.

    Future is bright.

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  5. Krautdawg

    Congrats to the staff on putting together a highly-ranked class. And just imagine what will happen once the IPF is raised in a furious seven-month spurt of activity!!!

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  6. Skeptic Dawg

    None of this recruiting mubo jumbo will amount to a hill of beans. Richt will continue to lose 25% of his games (3-4 L’s every year) with the #1, #4 or # 15 ranked recruiting class in the country. It’s just what he does. Doing less with more is the true “Georgia Way”. Having top-notch talent in the program will be beneficial for Richt’s replacement.

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    • There are times when I get the feeling that it doesn’t matter what the subject of a post might be, because you’re just going to recycle the same observation…

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      • Skeptic Dawg

        The observation more than fits given the topic. There is no reach, nor opinion. The pre-season happy talk is a tad early for me, but I realize that others are anxious begin the 2015 hope and dream.

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      • Ginny

        I was thinking the same thing Senator. Can’t even write a positive post without someone turning it into a “Richt sucks” piece.

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        • I’d like to bring a motion to the floor. I move we require Skeptic change his name or avatar to Eeyore.

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          • Mayor

            Actually, I just call him “Septic” already. 🙂

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            • Skeptic Dawg

              Mayor, I am hurt! I thought we were closer than that. 😢

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              • Cosmic Dawg

                Try and remember the way you were feeling after the 2012 SECCG. Your post was like a Christmas miracle. You got all soft on us… :).

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              • Macallanlover

                Oh, da mayor is very close to you…after any loss. His mood swings with any direction the wind blows, but he mostly loves to pile onto our coach and program with you. You are truly a miserable person consistently, he just loves to hang with the miserable folks when it is popular. He mostly loves you 25% of the time, any time we lose, but craves being included with you haters most. You can tell with his voluminous posts when everyone is in the negative mindset. Take him with you the next time you guys crawl out of the UGA fan area and plan your next attacks.

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      • Irishdawg

        It’s the same song every day, in the same flat, tinny key.

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    • Rob G

      Skeptic if you dislike CMR so much why don’t you root for someone else, I’m sure Alabama, LSU, or someone would love your endless negative comments

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      • Skeptic Dawg

        Rob, I will forever love the University of Georgia and the Dawgs. There are no options. I am of the opinion that Richt has reached his full potential as UGA HC. The program itself has yet to scratch the surface of its full potential. This program, with all of the built in advantages Georgia football has to offer, has grown stagnant under Richt. The university, program and fans are deserving of better. You may disagree, and that is fine. The Dawgs will continue to field a football team once Richt leaves, just as football was played prior to his arrival.

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        • Rob G

          I blame “The Georgia Way” is it not school policy to suspend players on their first offense in most cases, whereas most everybody else does not. Handicap 1, The fact that UGA spends less money for it’s football program than most of the SEC is not Richt’s fault, Handicap 2. The fact that McGarity is dragging his feet on an IPF, which only helps in recruiting, but still it shows a lack of trying to do everything he can as an Administrator to make this Team better. I would rather not be bringing up the rear on IPF just me. If anyone should be fired it should be McGarity and let’s get someone in here that will make the necessary decisions to allow this team to reach it’s potential. I don’t often comment here but everytime I read one of your posts it’s negative….I just don’t get it, maybe 1 day you can learn to enjoy the entertainment the Bulldogs provide.

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          • Mayor

            Other than the lambasting Septic at the end (he has a right to his opinion just like everybody else who posts here) I agree with every other thing you said Rob. Maybe you ought to post more.

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        • glenn

          exactly where was the program, pre Richt, in your opinion?

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          • Rob G

            not sure if that is for me or for skeptic, but IMO it was a lot worse off

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          • Skeptic Dawg

            Glenn, from a performance/result standpoint the program is currently in the same spot pre-Richt – 8-4 under Donnan. From an expectation standpoint the program is much better off due to Richt’s success from 2001-2005. He truly energized the fan base and program early on. No one will argue that. Unfortunately, Georgia is much closer (as in the same) to the Donnan era than the early Richt era. The issue is 2006 – present. The program has reverted back to pre-Richt results and expectations. The reasons have been listed by many on this very site over the past few days. Hence my desire for change. Not everyone wants change, which is fine. We can agree to disagree.

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            • Noonan

              Did you watch the 2012 SEC championship game? TDidDid that game bring to mind the Donnan era?

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              • Dawgfan Will

                Not only did he watch it, he proclaimed his faith renewed in Richt. It lasted until, what, the end of the Clemson game last season?

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  7. anon

    This quote pretty much says it all doesn’t it…. “As good as Alabama has been, and they are elite in recruiting, Georgia has more than held its own this recruiting cycle with the Tide”. Where do we hang our Recruiting Championship Banners at UGA? Are they in the Richts office?

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    • JP

      It does indeed say it all…you just seem to have missed the point. “THIS RECRUITING CYCLE” being the operative phrase. As in, we haven’t does this in recruiting before. As in, something different is happening.

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  8. Granthams replacement

    Keeping them home is getting better but keeping them in athens for 3-4 years is another matter. In less than a year 7 DBs have left and this class has to backfill 2 classes worth of depth.

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    • Mayor

      Rob’s point above was that we are suspending, kicking off the team or having players leave voluntarily, our best players because of this INSANE disciplinary policy Georgia has in place that is NOT required by the SEC or NCAA and which nobody else does. I mean, really, testing players for marijuana in their systems the first day after spring break? Come on!! Let’s test the FACULTY for marijuana in their systems the first day after spring break and see how many of them pass.

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  9. Charlottedawg

    Talent is a pre-requisite to competing for championships. You might not win just because you signed a good class(es) but you’re guaranteed not to play for a national championship (heck an sec championship) if you haven’t recruited at an elite level. Georgia may sign top 10 classes but a) that’s good for middle of the pack in the sec and b) we can’t keep them on campus. Don’t look now but the dream team has produced zero first rounders and only one draft pick. If we want to play with the big boys we need to stockpile more talent than we’ve been doing.

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  10. eli

    lot of players admission want let us sign.

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  11. stuckinred

    Georgia has a new chief financial officer to oversee the finances of its athletic department with a $99.85 million budget.
    Andy Platt, who spent the past three years at Rice University, will hold the title senior associate athletic director/CFO. He began working at Georgia on Wednesday.

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  12. This comment from the article was really weird to me: “Georgia’s current roster, according to scout.com, is the 5th best in the SEC – that’s hardly the best in the country. Those same folks ignore the fact that Georgia started one four-star prospect, two three-star prospects and a walk-on in the secondary most of the year. That’s not a formula for a program’s long-term success. That’s recruiting failure in my mind. Georgia didn’t have that problem at running back this season.”

    Um… JHC was a 5-star. Matthews was 4 or 5 depending. We kicked everyone off the team, and unless Ledge is making the classic “you’ve got to recruit character kids” argument, then I don’t get it. He should know better than that.

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    • sUGArdaddy

      What don’t you get? That was our starting 4 back there. The other two kids are off the team.

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      • Sanford222view

        The part where the writer said, “That’s a recruiting failure in my mind.” We did recruit talent in the secondary. They just weren’t able to stay in the program. Spence’s point is it isn’t an issue with recruiting.

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        • sUGArdaddy

          Well, though we can’t control whether someone ends up being a knucklehead, that is part of it, too. A recruiting win is when Gurley goes down and you have a 5-start Chubb to replace him, or what Corch has had up in Columbus this year at QB.

          In 2013, that was not the case at the RB position. We need deeper and better talent all around. There are two memes that are simply astronomically incorrect in Atlanta media and, therefore, our lunatic fringe:

          A) Richt won better with Donnan’s talent and ‘Georgia has always had talent.’ While Donnan left a few first rounders on the team, we were woefully under-talented when Richt got here, especially on defense. We also were not signing elite QB talent.

          B) That Georiga has better talent and does less with it. What Legge writes is dead on. Our recruiting has been good, not great. Hence, we’ve been good, not great. There is a big, big, ginormous different between signing three classes in a row ranked in the top 10 and three in a row ranked 10th, 12th, and 7th nationally. We were missing on the big targets, and we seem to be hitting on more of those. It’s the difference last year on NOT getting Lorenzo Carter or Michel.

          I’m fairly good friends with a H.S. coach at an elite 6A program. We had offered a kid there super early (by our standards) over the summer, and I said, “I think Pruitt is changing the way we recruit.” He responded, “Uh, it’s not changing, it’s changed.” I think Pruitt wants to build a dynasty here to prove he can do it. Losing to Tech sucked. We made some bonehead decisions and some of our best kids made some crucial mistakes. But the future is bright.

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          • Mayor

            sUGAr, that story you told above about the HS HC confirms something I’ve felt for months–Pruitt is the de facto HC at Georgia, at least when it comes to recruiting and PR. IMHO, Pruitt is the reason why there has been an attitude change on the team. Except for the FU game, I thought the team played hard in every game–even when they lost.

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            • Well, if not the de facto HC then presumably the New Face of Recruiting. The Bagman, it would appear, clearly had worn our his welcome and his methods were being exploited.

              How secretive do you think are the nuances that govern recruiting? These insider tales would be very interesting to learn.

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            • sUGArdaddy

              Maybe Mark Richt is a smart guy and has empowered a top notch employee to transform the organization. That’s kind of what great leaders do. Not being snarky. It’s just not by accident. Richt brought Pruitt in for just this.

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              • Mayor

                sUGAr, Richt was going to keep Grantham. When Grantham left to go to Louisville for more $$ Pruitt fell into CMR’s lap. There was no great leadership strategy here. I will give CMR that he is such a good guy that Pruitt wanted to work for him, though. And CMR does appear to allow Pruitt the freedom to be creative at what he does well.

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                • Macallanlover

                  Really? Richt wanted to keep CTG? You actually know that? Would love to see a source and exact quote for that. Now if you mean that Richt was told Grantham was staying by McFrugal and did what any employee manager would do at that point, I get it. But It is wrong from your statement. Once McFrugal decided to not pay the salary of a fired CTG, CMR had no choice but to play it just as it came out. I did notice that neither fought to keep him or match the offer….very telling.

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  13. HondaDawg

    I would be happier if UGA focused on keeping their recruiting classes intact for the duration of their eligibility. Statistically, the attrition rate is about 50% for all recruiting classes in the last 10 years at UGA. Meaning half wont make it to their sophomore year much less their junior or senior. The attrition number approaches 0-20% for Offensive lineman in some of those years. But, the number that really kills the team is the actual contribution rate for players that actually play meaningful snaps. That percentage is down to the 30% range among all recruiting classes. So if UGA is only keeping around 10-15 eligible players in any given class, then you quickly see how quickly your talent base gets depleted. 2014 was the first year in a long while where UGA had serviceable depth at OL. The problem ? it wasn’t elite talent. If UGA can turn the corner and build some elite depth in the trenches (D included), then you will see some National Championship rings because skill position recruiting is on par with the BAMAs of the world. At a minimum they should sign 4-6 guys on OL and 2-3 DTs EVERY YEAR. Until that happens, there will be no championship.

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    • Honda, very good point, but guess what? If you only have 10-15 players per class who pan out, you end up with about 50 contributors – about the same as the typical NFL team. Guys do stupid things and get kicked out, they don’t take care of things in the classroom and flunk out, and some decide they want a new start somewhere else. The issue is that we haven’t oversigned like the teams in the West.

      On the o-line, the fact is that the recruiting services typically don’t have a high regard for the in-state talent at the position because there are very few 4+ star players that are home grown. Out-of-state o-line recruiting is extremely difficult because those guys typically want to play for State U. Therefore, UGA ends up rolling the dice on a bunch of 3-star type of players. Here’s the data:
      2010 – Jawuan James (UT)
      2011 – No blue chips
      2012 – Vadal Alexander (LSU – he was a Katrina refugee from Louisiana), Joe Harris (USCe), Brandon Greene (Alabama)
      2013 – Brandon Kublanow (UGA), Andy Dodd (LSU)
      2014 – Dyshon Sims (UGA)
      2015 – Mitch Hyatt (Clemson), Marquel Harrell (Auburn), Kaleb Kim (Auburn), Venzell Boulware (UT), Dallas Warmack (Bama – brother played at Bama as well), Chuma Edoga (USC – possible flip), Nick Wilson (Stanford)

      2015 is a definite outlier on offensive line talent, but the point has traditionally been that the state doesn’t produce o-line talent in bunches.

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  14. A10Penny

    The progress in recruiting is very encouraging, and we should enjoy it! However, let’s hope for sustained success on this front. Remember a couple years ago when we only had about 70 scholarship players, and 2011 when Harton and Thomas were our 2nd and 3rd leading rushers? Well, now we have number problems again because of all the attrition.

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  15. Last year, the same people who are complaining now that recruiting means nothing were crowing about how the best players are leaving the state because of CMR. I guess you can’t ever make some people happy.

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  16. W Cobb Dawg

    Tony Ball deserves a shout out – he’s doing a terrific job restocking the WR cupboard. And Jeremy Pruitt is a recruiting machine! McClendon too.

    But something has to be done about the attrition. No joke intended, but its the equivalent of half the team being lost in a plane crash every couple years. It reflects poorly on the program and shows a lack of control.

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    • A10Penny

      We’ve kept the most important ones, which is a good sign. I do hate losing Langley and JJ Green, but they weren’t big contributors this season for a reason. JHC and Trigger were great talents, but had significant negative traits. Back counting is saving our bacon, though as we try to mitigate the damage of starting with low numbers a couple years ago and now dealing with the attrition.

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  17. CannonDawg

    250 words with Mr. Not College Football:

    Let’s fire Richt and every swingin’ Richard in B-M. Let’s start over with the idea that we want some damned WINNING FOOTBALL.

    Let’s just chuck all this sanctimonious horse dung and understand that we’re in the S.E. friggin’ C. Let’s cheat like a sumbitch (AU style) and offer not a shred of shame about it. Let’s get a trooper over here and recruit talented players like FSU and have the Athens PD cover our backside when they make an “errors in judgment”? And make sure our coach can defend with a straight face those off the field issues, citing the “development of the young man” as an excuse to forgive anything short of shooting up a movie theater.

    We could choose to do that, couldn’t we? Lower the admission standards by arguing that we’ll raise them only when we start recruiting football players out of Taiwan or India. Offer our recruits a little more scratch than the other guy. And If our guy wants to sign a few autographs for a little walking around money, make sure he understand the plan is deny, deny, deny. And no pictures. Build ourselves an IPF that dwarfs Stegeman Coliseum. Hire Barry Switzer as a consultant. Hire Denny Crane as our counsel.

    The timing’s perfect. The NCAA is on life support, so we can push the envelope.

    And what if we win big? What if we win it all? More than once?

    Wouldn’t that be cool?

    What are we waiting for?

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  18. Roterhals

    Let’s call em the “dream team 2” and hand out recruiting awards to the coaches for securing verbal commitments in a state with an absolute embarrassment of riches in high school talent.

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  19. Mostly I like the raw number of recruits.26 is a number we have not seen in a long time. Given that we do have,and will continue to have,attrition issues it seems that we are one of the few teams that can and probably should over-sign on a consistent basis. I am impressed and so I’m going to get my shades ready for the bright future this class might indicate is on the way. Sorry my DisneyDawgedness is showing. Get us a A.J. Green type receiver and punch our tickets to the four.

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  20. Scorpio Jones, III

    One thing I would quibble with in Legge’s piece is that Georgia getting six of the top 10 kids is said to be unusual.

    Maybe the “top 10” he refers to is his own, but it seems to me I can remember several years where Georgia signed six of the top ten kids in the state…at least the top ten of somebody’s list.

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