Per Roquan Smith’s high school coach,
“The UGA coaches were fine with Roquan not signing an NLI — actually one of the coaches said that if their son is good enough, they’re not going to let him sign an NLI either,” Macon County coach Larry Harold told the AJC.
“I’m not going to say which UGA coach it was. You’re going to have to ask them. He was like ‘Coach, if my son is good enough and is in the same position as Roquan, I’m not going to let him sign an NLI. I understand exactly why you’re doing this.’
Sounds like this may be escalating more quickly than we might have expected. From a meme to a sales pitch, in one year?
Get The Picture 
And it now seems that Georgia is at Ground Zero for this development. It’s going to be interesting, for sure.
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How much more difficult is this going to make roster management, especially for somebody like Saban?
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My thought exactly, except how it affects Mark Richt. Suppose he has 5 guys waiting until the last minute and not signing LOI’s. His track record suggests that he’d risk losing all 5 (and suffering again through too small of a class) rather than offer gray-shirts to fill those spots. You’d think he would work hard to avoid being in that position altogether.
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I think it would work to his advantage. If Saban is going to be a hard ass and insist on NLI’s, which I would expect, Richt would look better in comparison by actually putting his money where his mouth is when he claims to be interested in the welfare of the players.
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Sort of like the TV case in the 80s, how long will it be before the NCAA starts coming after us for potentially knocking down another barrier in their empire over college athletics?
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Don’t worry. Rogers Redding has Penn Wagers on the mother.
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What is the NCAA going to “be coming for us” for us doing? Smith is the one that did not sign the NLOI and he is not the first to enroll without doing so.
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I guess I wasn’t using my sarcasm font very well.
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Oh, okay, My bad. Sorry I read it wrong.
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I have certainly learned a good bit about the pros and cons of signing a letter of intent over the last few days.
And it will be interesting, I suppose, to see if next year’s crop of higher ranked recruits (higher ranked by the schools which are recruiting them) takes any notice.
I hope somebody will make me feel better about the fear that, in light of this, the recruiting services’ player rankings, as bogus as most of them are, will now become even more important.
It is also interesting to note that Roquan Smith was not a “five-star” but a “four-star” recruit, yet his addition to Georgia’s class will have a significant impact on Georgia’s “ranking”.
The main thing I hope comes out of the Roquan Smith Saga is that coaches who recruit these kids need to be honest with them.
Maybe this is the most important implication of Smith’s journey to Athens.
The Newbergians seem to believe Tennessee has been out-recruiting us of late. I am worried.
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The main thing I hope comes out of the Roquan Smith Saga is that coaches who recruit these kids need to be honest with them.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, Scorp.
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It isn’t just “if they take notice’ but how much leverage they have. Playing this high-stakes Russian Roulette until late into the summer will depend on how highly they are sought after, and how close certain schools are to being full, especially at their position. Save to say it is for just a few more than the Top 1% of the Top 1%. Note the UGA coach was quoted as saying “if my son is good enough, and is in the same position…”
And we don’t know how the NCAA or certain conferences will deal with this through new regulations. 2016 will definitely be different for recruiting but this isn’t for everyone…..and I don’t want it to be. Some balance for the athletes’ side of the ledger is fair but I don’t want chaos that close to the start of Fall camp.
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I was thinking the same thing, and also thinking “ok, they will now find more devious ways to do it, but how ?”
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The main thing I hope comes out of the Roquan Smith Saga is that coaches who recruit these kids need to be honest with them.
Good thought, to be sure, and this situation makes the case for recruiting honesty in a potentially bigger way than usual. But there is little to convince me that anything of the sort will ever happen in CFB. The better hope is that Roquan Smith helps anchor a defense that wins three straight SEC championships during his stay.
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I don’t think this will be the great deal that everybody believes it will be. Who believes the recruitment of Smith is over? As I understand it, until he enrolls he is still fair game. If other schools have recruits that ultimately won’t qualify what keeps them from coming after Smith? What prevents it if other schools still have open slots? He’s gonna’ have to hold firm and I fear that will be tough for him.
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Agreed.
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Why? His original finalists were UCLA and Georgia. He said his heart was at Georgia on signing day. He has a slot now as opposed to determining if someone else could make a spot for him. Unless we do something in the off-season, the kid is going to be wearing the G this fall. I would be very surprised if he’s not in Athens.
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According to him and his coach, his recruiting calls will not be answered. He doesn’t want anymore bother between now and enrollment after his HS graduation. They also state that he is 100% Bulldog now, not 55% “in his heart” anymore. It’s time their word should be taken since they have held exactly to what was said they would do after not signing with UCLA – with finality in all their words.
I’ll take their word for it. We all will have less angst by trusting people who show they are to be trusted. I trust these people of honor over any one of those who have shown none in recruiting. A player that plays us along and flips the day before or on SD is where the untrusting enmity should be directed. You could carry that further and worry about those who have signed a NLI then flipped to us on signing day if you want to worry, but that is really piling the worry worms high.
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I just hope he can play, keep his grades and stay out of trouble. The only reason he is only 4 starsis size – he’s a little small as LBs go – but he has some things you can’t coach like closing speed and I guarantee you if he plays well CJP finds the right spot for him.
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When I think of LBs considered “a little small”, that makes me think of Rennie Curran.
Rennie worked out damn well for us.
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He may be a little small now. That’s in a Class A weight program with no nutrition program, etc. the kid looks like he could put on 25 pounds of muscle and not lose a step. Rennie was a really good player, but he didn’t have the stars/rating RS has. Curran worked hard, honed his craft and is a classic overachiever.
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Great point about nutrition. A lot of small towns are food deserts. It is hard to eat properly if the town’s offerings are stores stocked primarily with canned and processed foods and fast food restaurants. If UGA’s nutritionalist can instill lifetime healthy eating habits he will be much stronger and he will be more inclined to eat a plant based, whole foods lifestyle for the rest of his life.
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“…CJP finds the right spot for him.”
“Star” maybe?
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The whole bit about a UGA coaching saying “If my son is good enough…I’m not going to let him sign an NLI” is quite overblown for several reasons. First, who knows if any such thing was actually said? Secondly, if it was said, it doesn’t mean a whole lot because, thirdly, such a statement would fall into the same statistical category as saying “If I get hit by lightning twice in the next week…”.
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Would think UGA, Boston College, and maybe Notre Dame are the only colleges that will go for this as they would let the kids go anyways.
Everybody else is, er, well they are everybody else.
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