For those of you who felt, like me, that Mark Richt’s stretch of chronic undersigning was the biggest mistake of his head coaching career, I’ve got some numeric evidence for you to review. But first, a little context:
Between 2007-11, SEC teams averaged 25.4 players per signing class. Auburn (30.2 signees a year), Ole Miss (28), Mississippi State (28), Alabama (27.2) and LSU (26.8) were the biggest oversigners.
Since the signing cap with loopholes began in 2012, SEC schools are averaging 24.2 players per class.
So where does Georgia fit in? Not at that end of the pool.
SEC Average Signing Class Numbers | |||
Team | Average Class 2007-11 | Average Class 2012-16 | Difference |
Auburn | 30.2 | 24.2 | -6.0 |
Ole Miss | 28.0 | 24.0 | -4.0 |
Mississippi State | 28.0 | 23.6 | -4.4 |
Alabama | 27.2 | 25.8 | -1.4 |
LSU | 26.8 | 24.4 | -2.4 |
Arkansas | 26.6 | 23.8 | -2.8 |
Kentucky | 26.0 | 25.6 | -0.4 |
South Carolina | 25.6 | 24.4 | -1.2 |
Florida | 24.2 | 24.4 | +0.2 |
Tennessee | 24.2 | 25.4 | +1.2 |
Missouri* | 24.2 | 22.4 | -1.8 |
Texas A&M* | 23.8 | 24.2 | +0.4 |
Georgia | 20.8 | 24.6 | +3.8 |
Vanderbilt | 20.2 | 22.0 | +1.8 |
That’s right – from 2007 through 2011, the only conference team that averaged fewer signees than Georgia did was Vanderbilt. During that period, Auburn signed about ten more kids a year. That’s almost beyond absurd, and it should have taken someone other than Jeremy Pruitt rolling in a couple of years ago to scream bloody murder about it.
The good news is that Georgia sports the largest increase in period over period signings. But that’s just a start on filling up a deep hole that was voluntarily dug. (Don’t forget that even with the uptick over the last five years, the 2013 class has largely vaporized.) Kirby Smart still has some filling left to do.