A little Sam Pittman porn for your morning pleasure:
Georgia landed three of the top eight offensive line prospects this year by the 247Sports Composite: No. 2 Jamaree Salyer, No. 4 Cade Mays and No. 8 Trey Hill.
That’s after bringing in two of the top 10 2017 line recruits in Isaiah Wilson and Andrew Thomas, giving the Bulldogs five top-10 offensive line prospects in the past two recruiting cycles. Only three other programs have more than one: Ohio State with three and Alabama and Stanford with two each.
More than twice as many as ‘Bama? Hoo, boy. I need to go off and decompress somewhere.
Get The Picture 
Pittman has been crazy underrated on the recruiting trail. McGee and Coley get all the publicity for their recruiting prowess, but Pittman brings in the beef.
#yesssssir
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And that doesn’t include guys like Netori Johnson and Ericson, who are solid if not high 4 star guys who previously would have been our top OL recruit most years. The talent and depth we now have in just a few short years is nothing short of miraculous.
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Miraculous seems appropriate. Scary, everyone I have seen accomplish landing anything near this level of talent at 2-3 different positions have been dirty. I am not accusing us of that, but just expressing what an unbelievable load of talent we have brought in, especially at OL, RB, QB. If these guys come close to playing up to their ratings, we could have multiple guys not ever break through until year three or four and still be drafted in the first 3 rounds.
Pittman is set to become a legendary OL coach if UGA delivers what many of us expect. Honestly don’t see how anyone stops this group of RBs, running behind these offensive linemen, especially in 2019. Yep, Kool Aide is mighty tasty this time of the morning.
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Smart and co. have signed more 5 star OL’s in their first two full recruiting classes (3) than Richt did in his entire 15 year career at UGA (1). And guys like Thomas and Hill were literally borderline 5 star…in fact I believe Hill was rated as a 5 star by ESPN.
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Yes, pretty stunning stuff. Much of the credit for recruiting goes to the entire staff but the key has to be the reputation of Pittman. These guys are coming in to be prepared for the next level as much as to win titles for the good old Red and Black. The performance of them in certain camps and All Star games indicate they probably would have been successful any where but have aspirations to be the best they can become. Having tough competition will only make them hungrier.
Sayler and Hill were especially impressive, I didn’t even see Mays and he is rated even higher. Have never seen anything quite like it, even at the old Nebraska and current Wisky situations. Good times.
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Amazing to think that eventually Baker and Kindley will be backups. And they were starters this year. Ben and Sayler should end up full time starters at G and could be backed up by Baker and Kindley and even challenged by Netori, Shaffer and Trey Hill. And still having Pat Allen and Chris Barnes…..amazing depth.
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Pittman is the man. I hope we can hold onto him for as long as possible.
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it will be interesting to see this play out. Clemson is doing on the DL what we are doing on the OL. Wonder which will provide a bigger impact in games and wins and loses.
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It’s an interesting question. I think I’d rather take the dominant OL because then you are rolling up massive margins of victory all year long. The best DL could still leave you in some defensive struggles where a turnover breaks things one way or another.
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‘ I need to go off and decompress somewhere.’ I suggest that you follow your own advice Senator.. Drink heavily.
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We can only hope that some of the Pittman recruiting magic wears off on Tray Scott. The Sandidge whiff did not impress me!
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Sandidge was not a whiff. I’d call it a blessing in disguise.
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How so? Have you seen his tape? There was a good reason why we invested so much time trying to bring him to Athens! I’m not saying CTS can’t recruit, but I want to see the same type of production in him that I’m seeing out of Pittman.
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Wasn’t he the player whose mother was an athlete and alum of SC? And lives much closer to Columbia than Athens? Also was the top rated recruit for the cocks versus buried in UGA’s class. Not sure how big a whiff I would call that if true, would have put our chances at 35% at most given the situation. Cannot get them all, even in a great year like this where we almost did get every top target we went after.
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We didn’t have room for Sandidge.
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This recruiting year will be the tell for Scott. We desperate need to sign some DT studs into the pipeline or we gonna start hurting beginning 2019. Our haul over last two cycles of Wyatt, Davis, and Walthour appears lackluster compared to Pittman’s success. If Rochester has a big year and goes early, we will be shallow at NG in ’19.
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yeah the hole on the DL side seems to be getting over looked with the giddiness over the OL recruits. UGA is currently only in the mix for 2 of the top 15 DL guys in the country for 2019.
We swapped Rocker for Scott and Bama just got the best DL coach in the country from Miami. And they weret exactly hurting on the DL to begin with.
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There are two important conclusions I draw.
The first is a truism that Saban adopted from his time with Belichick, which is “Big people beat up small people.” We know Pittman shares the view that it is easier to take weight off a prospect than bulk one up.
The second is that Pittman is both a great recruiter but also has a differentiated approach to coaching and developing his players, which has been highly effective.
When you put those two things together, it suggests our OL play has the potential to be championship level for the foreseeable future, which is remarkable when one considers where we were at the end of the 2015 and 2016 seasons!
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“Where’s the beef?”, that would be at Georgia. The opposing Dlineman are going to get tired of having 300+ quick guys beating on them all day. By the 4th qtr our stable of running backs will be walking into the endzone. I need a cold shower.
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A good OL forces the Dline to get better week in and week out.
When Kirby took Pittman from Bert, their response was telling. Pittman’s raise was easily justified.
Oline competition this spring is going to be fun to watch.
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I believe other than Wilson and Mays these are all home grown guys. State has been blessed with a ton of OL last 2 years and coaches convinced most of them to stay home.
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He hand writes letters to prospects.
In this day and time, that has to stand out. Nice technique, Sam.
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