This year’s Georgia class is certainly something worth getting excited about, but when you read this David Wunderlich piece comparing the talent of Alabama, FSU and Ohio State, you realize Kirby Smart still has a long way to go.
I mean, this is friggin’ impressive/depressing, depending on your point of view.
Looking more at the top end, I counted how many players each team had rated at 0.9400 and above. That will tell me how many players the programs have in the 5-star and top half of the 4-star range. Alabama wins, of course, with 45 such guys — more than half of its 84 scholarship players. Ohio State has 35, and Florida State has 28. These truly are three of the most talented teams in the country, yet Alabama outpaces the other two with startling ease in some ways. [Emphasis added.]
This goes to show how much Saban and Urban Meyer are sitting on top of the game right now. Florida State is a consensus College Football Playoff contender and the expected champion of what was arguably the game’s best conference last year. It has a roster that nearly every other FBS program would gladly trade for its own. Yet Alabama and Ohio State have noticeable talent advantages over it.
When you recall what David had to say about Georgia’s roster, in comparison, it’s hard to avoid the depressing option. You could make the argument that Alabama’s second team is talented enough on its own to make a run to win the SEC East.
Kirby’s got to keep grinding, that’s all.
Get The Picture 
Win the East, Dawgs, and let the chips fall where they may in Atlanta. Short term, we probably can’t beat Alabama unless Jalen Hurts regresses seriously at QB or the Tide struggles under a new offensive coordinator. Long term, the question is whether we can out-Alabama the Crimson Tide.
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That’s really the question for everyone in the country, who can play with Bama? Until something changes, an SEC team other than Alabama will be an exception to the norm.
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An SEC team in the playoffs. Oops.
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GC, my comment about the long-term is more about whether our choice in program direction can work out. Can another SEC team beat Alabama by becoming Alabama II or is another formula the path to becoming king of the hill (see Clemson or tOSU)? We decided that the former is the right path. We shall see.
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I did not think it that deeply, EE, good question and point.
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If UGA can win all its other games and lose only to the Tide in the SECCG I can live with that. Can’t you?
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Absolutely – I would take it right now.
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How does Corch recruit so well? He’s such a repulsive prick.
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It’s called being a winner, people will excuse / straight up ignore whatever character deficiencies if someone is successful enough. This is especially true in ultra competitive fields where results are very black and white, which college football certainly is.
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If you look back at the greatest CFB coaches in history — from Rockne, Bryant, Wilkinson, McKay, Saban, Johnson, and others, you’ll notice a common trend…they were mean SOB’s who all ran their programs with an iron grip. The only so-called nice guy “players coach” type I can think of who is among the greats is Bobby Bowden, but even he was ruthless behind the scenes yet quickly could turn on the charm when the media showed up (you might recall him saying his greatest concern with CMR taking the UGA job was that he simply was too nice.)
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I know what you’re saying, but it’s possible to be a very tough coach without being a totally repulsive, complete turn off, self absorbed jerk.
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I’ve heard and read that behind the scenes Meyer actually is a good dude with at least a modicum of compassion. Sure, he’s very tough, but again that goes for pretty much any very successful coach.
From what I’ve heard from my friend who is the head S&C guy at a major program, Meyer is tough to work for but is a good guy on a personal level. Saban, meanwhile, is way over the top — he’s someone you’ll want to put your 2-3 years in with and move on.
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That’s possible. But here’s the man who:
— Told another recruit they were only recruiting Tim Tebow as a linebacker.
— Threw his headset when his prize player threw an interception.
— Called a timeout at the exact moment he knew it would cause a moot field goal attempt.
— Said an overdone celebration would “forever remain in the mind of Urban Meyer.”
— Called needless timeouts with his team leading by about 4 touchdowns.
— Said a team that shut out his team in a playoff game wasn’t really that good.
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The celebration did stick in his craw…..no doubt…our Red Colored Glasses are confusing us with that one.
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I think that you are confusing causation and correlation. Being a dick has nothing to do with winning. Attention to detail and effort win. If being a dick was a indicator of success there would be a lot more successful coaches out there because a lot of them have figured out the being a dick thing.
You also have coaches like Dabo, Bob Stoops, and Pete Carroll who seem to have great relationships with their players and coaches and who do a lot of winning.
John Wooden was also a pretty good coach and he didnt have anything nice to say about the type of coaches that you listed.
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Not at all. There are and have been utter jerks who were miserable failures as HC’s (like, say, Beckman at Illinois), just as there have been nice guy types who also have failed (Dinardo at LSU, for ex). So of course simply being a dick by itself has nothing to do with winning.
However, again if you look at coaching legends over the past, say, 75 years, a common trend among the greats were that they were mean SOB’s who ran a very tight ship (BTW, Dooley certainly was a member of this group too). As for Dabo, well, I certainly wouldn’t place him anywhere near the greats; same for Stoops who won a MNC in his 2nd year with the former HC’s players and endured a rather frustrating 5-7 years with the OU fan base. Wooden? Are you kidding? Insanely tough and blatantly broke NCAA rules while turning a blind eye to Sam Gilbert. Before Sam Gilbert — 15 years of mediocrity. After Sam’s “involvement” — 10 titles in something like 12 years.
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That was one of the most profound things I have ever read, Phan, and true.
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Who here has ever spent any quality amount of time with Meyer? I think he just beat our ass so bad that we all think we hate him..there is that…but he can’t be a total jerk as many say and do as well as he does with kids/parents etc…
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The bottom line is that we really cannot afford to have an off-year in recruiting. It’s obvious we have to continue to improve the talent level and increase quality depth across the board. Winning on the field will help that tremendously and give us the selling advantage to recruits that you can come to UGA and win championships. You have to have talent to win and you have to win to build talent. It’s kind of a Catch 22 but we have to get to that point. And that now falls on the Class of 2018 to keep momentum building in recruiting.
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While impressive, the way to look at those numbers are to realize those rating figures aren’t science, they are subjective. And those opinions are applied to an unfinished product with more development and polish to be applied. Don’t get me wrong, there is statistical correlation to support that loaded teams are more likely to enjoy success and you cannot ignore the number of talented kids stacked up on those rosters, but the differences between a .86 seventeen year old and one rated a .94 aren’t a given. And there is always that mysterious bump when an athlete gets an offer from certain schools.
I am not depressed at all, just want our staff to develop their men and prepare/motivate them each week. The best team doesn’t always win, look at Clemson’s MNC last year, or even UGA against Nicholls, Vandy, and GT. In a one game showdown, good talent can beat great talent, one of the primary reasons I enjoy Saturdays in the fall.
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“just want our staff to develop their men and prepare/motivate them each week”
We haven’t seen that consistently since 2005. I’m not confident either coordinator can do it.
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And yet Clemson has beaten beat all 3……..
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Bama and OSU are certainly far ahead of the field, but we are in the top 5 range in talent now. I just did a quick count of .9400 and above rated players on the roster and came up with 28, same as FSU. Also, we head into the season with 10 former 5-star players, three more than OSU and one less than FSU.
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As was mentioned above, Dabo beat both last year. Didn’t he beat Meyer 30-0? He could have easily beaten Saban the past two years. His run at Clemson has been outstanding by any measure, IMO. Sometimes you just have to stop talking about talent gaps, etc., and start coaching. If Clemson can do it, there is no reason on earth why UGA can’t do it.
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Agreed. One note however for those that look at last year and think Kirby can’t win it all, is it took Dabo a while to get there too. Get a bunch of talent and at the right positions you can win it all but yes they also have to be coached.
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