I’ll say it again: one thing I love about Smart’s new approach at Georgia is how aggressive he is about beefing up the walk-on program.
Smart is targeting the best available players in the state not only to bring on board on scholarship but to get the best ones remaining as walk-ons.
“I’ve always thought Georgia should have the best walk-on program in the country,” he said. “Why not? You’ve got the HOPE (scholarship). You’ve got great high school football. Every kid in the state dreams of coming to Georgia. So why shouldn’t you have the best walk-on program in the country? Because a lot of those kids develop to be special teams players, to be starters.”
Can’t argue with that one bit.
Get The Picture 
It’s awesome and I am glad that he is placing the emphasis on it.
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Innovative..Smart!
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Details. I love attention to details. Felt that has been a big missing piece for a while and this level of detail, to scout and bring in diamonds in the rough sounds good to me. Even if they only become good scout teamers that’s a bonus.
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Anybody have insight as to the walkon program at Bama?
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Way better than ours
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A walk-on might be 6-7 and 340, but, if he is, his 40 time would probably be read with a sundial.
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Depends on how far he has to run? I’d say 3-4′. What say you all?
And you can train him with a carrot? No-brainer. Just put him in the trace…uh…uniform! Oh, …and cut 8 cows from the herd when he gets here.
Science question: How far out will a 6’7″ tree weighing 340lbs fall and at what velocity will the upper half attain? (answer: If he falls forward of his tippy-toes in a size 17 shoe [adding 1.5′ to the distance] and blocks above his head while falling, it would be about 9′). Good God! If we teach him to leap forward…….! and take a step!? Derek, please pass the vapors bottle.
Of course, it goes unsaid that we have to train him not to block sideways.
And put a charismatic divorcee that looks like Goldie Hawn in as his coach.
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Love the idea that it’s important that your 90th guy be able to play. It may be aspirational, but it’s worth trying. Never understood why we didn’t make the HOPE work for us either. I thought there was some reason why it couldn’t? Is there some significant disconnect between being eligible to play and eligible to remain on HOPE?
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I dimly recall reading once that walk-ons complicate the already complicated formula the bean counters use in figuring out Title IX compliance, namely the “equality of opportunities” category (or whatever they call it). In other words, if there are X percent women at a school, then the bean counters would expect about X percent of the athletes to be women. Football skews the numbers due to the raw number of players on a roster, and the expense of equipment/facilities/etc. There is no comparable sport numbers wise, or expense wise, for women, so minor men’s sports get whacked, or walk on programs get whacked.
I could be wrong, and I’m certainly not a Title IX expert. But something to that effect came to mind.
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I mean Go Dawgs, but being a walk-on at UGA instead of going to U-Penn? Kid, get your priorities straight.
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Yeah I too think turning down Penn for UGA is a mistake. Ivies open a lot of doors especiallyif you play the athlete angle right.
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Would it open enough doors to pay off six figures of student debt though? I thought they didn’t offer full ride scholarships.
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Yes. Yes it would.
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It’s my understanding that the family will save more than $300K in expenses tied to college education. Nothing to sneer at.
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True. And after looking at their website to confirm, that is absolutely absurd. And for most things if you make excellent grades at a school like UGA you’ll have a lot(*) of the same grad school doors open to you after the fact.
*But there are lots of other doors that pretty much only open for the Ivy League and Service Academy people.
So depending on what he wants in life it very well could be a great decision. I just… an Ivy League education? how do you pass that up? Different strokes for different folks I guess.
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I don’t mean to sneer at an Ivy League education, but who wants to live in Philadelphia for 4 years, or play in the Ivy League? Athens is the Garden of Eden compared to Philadelphia, girl wise, cool wise, and other wise. UGA isn’t an Ivy, of course, but not everyone wants to be a hedge fund manager in New York, Philadelphia or Chicago, or a risk arbitrage guy, or bounced around the northeast at the whim of some corporate master. It may be a heresy to say this, but the chance of making big corporate money ain’t everything, especially if you ring up 300 grand in college loans. Quality of life is a valid consideration, too. If you are dying to be an Ivy Leaguer, and can get in, props to you. Some of us are happy where the tea is sweet and cold, the BBQ is pork, and the girls are plentiful and gorgeous. The football is pretty bad ass, too.
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Offer to pay his tuition to Penn and I’m sure he and his parents will agree with you.
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He could go on a Trump scolly at Penn. Then he would have all his alum connections with him. Is he of voting age? That would be another plus.
If we provide two Kobe Beef masseurs and classes in Sumo, would that be a recruitment violation? Ok. then can we have them on accidental pocket dial?
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If I’m not mistaken, and Heaven knows that’s not outside the realm of possibility, this kid is coming to UGA on the HOPE as a walk-on, or his parents were going to have to shell out some $20,000 a year at Penn.
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Oops, should have refreshed my browser.
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From much of what I’ve read and heard, Rob Sale could very well go down as the worst hire of the entire Richt tenure.
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Tony Pierce?
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Lakatos? I don’t get the hating on sale. The offensive line looked bad because it was five on 9 most of the time because lambert couldn’t get the safeties out of the box. Most (all) lines are going to have trouble with that. I don’t care if you’ve got the Cowboys line of the early 1990’s if the defense can put 9 in the box emmitt isn’t going very far.
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CMR had some success with walk-ons. But that was the usual haphazard approach – if something good happens, yippee. If not, ho hum.
CKS is targeting players who have potential. Actively recruiting them with the intent they improve and contribute. Your talking about 20 roster spots filled with guys who would be playing college ball somewhere, if not UGA.
The advantages of a marriage between the Hope scholly & kids who’d love to attend their state flagship school seem so obvious it’s hard to believe this wasn’t implemented a decade or more ago.
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Like they say, the devil’s in the details. Or at least the attention to details.
How is Kirby finding these guys? Oh, wait: he’s got all that quality control staff to help find, screen and evaluate these guys. Who knows? Maybe none will play meaningful minutes. Maybe all will. But it’s a huge addition to depth and the team with virtually no risk, plus it’s an opportunity for some guys who didn’t get love from the rivals type services.
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