June 21, 2018 · 7:43 AM

Hit or miss?

ESPN’s got a piece up about ten former highly ranked recruits “running out of time to live up to hype“.  One of the ten plays for Georgia.

Julian Rochester, DT

  • What happened: Rochester was a big recruit, literally and in the rankings. At 6-foot-6, 335 pounds, he was the No. 8 defensive tackle in the 2016 class. He signed with Georgia and has played both seasons for the Dawgs, but the impact hasn’t been as big as many expected. That’s not to say that he has been bad, because he hasn’t. But the expectations haven’t yet matched. Rochester appeared in all 15 games for Georgia last season, starting one, so many are hoping he continues to progress forward.
  • The opportunity: Rochester has two years of eligibility left and there is a big opportunity along the interior of the defensive line. Nose guard John Atkins and tackle Trenton Thompson are both gone to the NFL, which leaves a lot of snaps for Rochester to grab. With some consistency in the defensive coaching staff as well, this should be an excellent opportunity for Rochester to shine and and take over the stage.

I find that interesting on several levels.  For one, if you want to talk about running out of time to live up to hype, Thompson’s a better example of that than Rochester, who has, as the article notes, two years left, been through a coaching staff transition, played regularly behind more experienced players and is in a system that prefers to rotate defensive linemen constantly.  He’s got time, in other words.

19 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football

19 responses to “Hit or miss?”

  1. bulldogbry
    June 21, 2018 at 7:54 AM

    Why didn’t they just title this, “You’ll never believe who isn’t living up to the hype?”. If you’re gonna clickbait, do it right.

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  2. eethomaswfnc
    June 21, 2018 at 7:55 AM

    Has Rochester been a dominant presence yet? No. Has he shown some flashes? Yep. We have players up front … the first team o-line didn’t push the first team d-line around at G-Day, and that may be the best offensive line we face all year.

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    • Argondawg
      June 21, 2018 at 9:32 AM

      I agree completely. Not sure who in the country I would swap O-lines with but it’s not obvious who that would be. Those lines make each other better every time they square off. I saw a picture of Jay Hayes the transfer from ND at camp sunshine yesterday. That man is every bit of 315. He is not 290 he is full grown for sure.

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  3. Ben
    June 21, 2018 at 9:39 AM

    What really annoys and upsets me about these articles is that the people who hyped these guys up are ESPN and Athlon and all of those other services that need content to drive clicks to drive revenue. Most of the time, it’s not these kids hyping themselves up and saying what they’re going to do. They all develop at different paces, and some of them end up in places that might not have worked out or with staffs who don’t know what to do with them or any other number of factors.

    These clickbait pieces do nothing other than tear down a kid, say he didn’t live up to expectations put on him by the service saying he was going to be a breakout player, and now he’s running out of time to give them legitimacy.

    Anyway, that’s my soapbox, especially as someone who works with high school kids and sees the immense amount of pressure and anxiety that’s on all of them. ESPN calling them out for page views just doesn’t sit will with me.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Russ
    June 21, 2018 at 9:40 AM

    Thanks to ESPN for that article. I hope Rochester has it pinned in his locker all season.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Argondawg
      June 21, 2018 at 10:23 AM

      This is what I was thinking also. Rochester has worked his ass off since he got here. He doesn’t even look like the same kid. I think he will have a great year.

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  5. CPark58
    June 21, 2018 at 11:03 AM

    Come on Sept 1. Run Clock, Run.

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  6. W Cobb Dawg
    June 21, 2018 at 11:05 AM

    Sorry to disagree with the experts, but right now I wouldn’t mind if we had one or two more Rochester’s on the roster. We’ve had some underachievers at DT, but he ain’t one of em.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Biggus Rickus
      June 21, 2018 at 11:59 AM

      That’s what I don’t get. He’s been good as a defensive tackle in the kind of rotation Georgia runs. He eats up blockers and occasionally makes a big play. He’s not supposed to have 65 tackles and 8 sacks. Even Payne only ended up with 53 tackles, a sack and a TFL last year. But then, they have Ivey on there for Florida, who was named second team All-SEC last year.

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