About this year’s recruiting class, Chip Towers believes at this point in preseason practice that “at least 80 percent will play and possibly more”. Here’s how he breaks down their individual chances:
Georgia’s 2016 signees listed with their chances of playing this season.
- OL Chris Barnes, 6-3, 294: Unlikely
- DL Michail Carter, 6-3, 317: Likely
- OT Tyler Catalina, 6-6, 325: Potential starter
- DL Tyler Clark, 6-4, 309: Maybe
- DB Chad Clay, 6-1, 170: Dismissed, transferred to Butler CC
- OL Ben Cleveland, 6-6, 345: Likely
- QB Jacob Eason, 6-5, 242: Potential starter
- CB Mecole Hardman, 5-11, 180: Likely
- TB Brian Herrien, 6-0, 205: Maybe
- TB Elijah Holyfield, 5-11, 209: Likely
- OL Solomon Kinley, 6-4, 350: Unlikely
- LB Jaleel Laguins, 6-2, 220: Unlikely
- P Marshall Long, 6-2, 223: Likely
- OLB Chauncey Manac, 6-3, 255: Maybe
- DE David Marshall, 6-3, 270: Likely
- CB Tyrique McGhee, 5-10, 177: Likely
- WR Riley Ridley, 6-2, 195: Potential starter
- DL Julian Rochester, 6-5, 327: Potential starter
- WR Tyler Simmons, 6-0, 194: Likely
- WR Javon Wims, 6-4, 220: Maybe
- TE Charlie Woerner, 6-5, 249: Likely
(He left Nauta off his list, but mentions in his post that the tight end is likely to play.)
Some of that reflects the quality of the class — Smart signed three five-star players in that bunch — but some of that clearly reflects need. For example, there isn’t a single defensive lineman on that list who’s already being counted out.
About those linemen,
“Julian Rochester, Michail Carter, those guys are big-time athletes, elite players. Those are big dudes. David Marshall, very put-together,” said Rusty Mansell, a recruiting analyst for 247Sports. “You’re probably not going to hear as much about them week one, two or three. But when games five, six or seven roll around. Those guys are going to be playing meaningful minutes.”
In that aspect, at least, it’s a shame that Georgia’s 2016 schedule is front-loaded. I can see why it’s logical to expect some struggling in the first five games, as the coaches deal with depth and inexperience issues, but it’s exciting to think where this team may be in the last month of the season, once they progress up the learning curve. If they can get through the first five games still in the division hunt, November could prove to be a really fun month.
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That game at Mizzou is getting more and more important the more I think about it. I really don’t consider the UNC and Ole Miss games that important – yeah, you want to get off to a good start and you don’t want to think we’ve lost ground to the likes of Ole Miss – because we can win the east without winning those games. But the Mizzou game is vital to that and it’s in that window of 4-5 games where it’s reasonable to think we’re going to be finding ourselves with the new staff, players, and all.
It’s just a shame that Chubb’s last year is so unstable. It seems like that’s how it goes: we have a world beater here or a great player there but never all together at once.
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The group we really need production from are the sophomores and redshirt freshman from the 2015 class. That is where the strength or weakness of the roster lies. We’re looking good with Thompson, Godwin, McGraw, Hawkins and Patrick. We’ve got several who need to establish themselves as sec-calibre: Briscoe, Barnett, Walker, Roquan, Chigbu, Stanley, Harris, Choates, and Ledbetter after he returns. It’s make-it or break-it time for Young, Pat Allen, Juwan Taylor, Crowder, Roundtree, Hardin, and Madden.
Right now I see about 5 of those players as starters – that’s not such a hot signing class. If 9 become starters and 5 more become solid contributors, I’d say it was a pretty good class.
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Maurice Smith would be in the same category as Catalina, so if you include him that’s another new face that could help us out.
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It amazes me that the 2013 class was signed on the heels of the best season we’d had since 2007. To sign so many players and to have the amount of attrition plus the lack of contribution from this class is a great example of the crap shoot that recruiting is even for the staff that we had at that time who were by and large good to great recruiters.
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Chip Towers punted on Eason…”Potential starter”..lol. Every kid on the team is a potential starter. Give us odds, Chip…as in 25% chance he’ll start or 70%….something we can hold you accountable for and grade you on.
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This is just another POS guess work that, instead of being interesting, looks like it’s just thrown against a wall to see what sticks. Picking out of a hat blindfolded could do better. When will these guys begin to give their inside-info reasoning with a blurb about the player’s qualities to say why they say so?
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This is just all made up and flatulent.
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