2020, Year of Agent Muschamp?

I dunno about this one.

"2020 is the big year for Will Muschamp. 2019 is about survival on the field to set up what in 2020 is kind of a prove it year for Muschamp" – @JoshatTheState pic.twitter.com/JpNGbxIeNQ

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) April 30, 2019

Kendall’s level-headed and good at his job, so I have to think he’s gotten this somewhere from the SC administration.  But what exactly are they expecting for 2020?

Here’s what the schedule looks like at the moment:  a couple of cupcakes, Georgia and (a presumably improving) Tennessee at home, Florida and Clemson on the road and a brutal cross-division slate of Texas A&M and at LSU.

They finished eighth in the conference in recruiting this year, according to the 247Sports Composite.  Their 2020 class currently ranks seventh.

Oh, and Jake Bentley’s a senior this season.

So what’s Boom proving in 2020 exactly?

Advertisement

Because you can never get enough Corch

Reggie Bush tells @ArashMarkazi if USC struggles this year, Bush & Matt Leinart will “recruit” Urban Meyer to replace Clay Helton as USC’s coach in 2020. “We’ll definitely be recruiting him,” Bush said. "What makes you think we won’t be recruiters? Nothing is off the table.”

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) April 30, 2019

What’s the over/under on that shelf life?

A primary secondary

I’ll say it again:  the biggest eye-opener for me at G-Day was the depth in the defensive backfield.  Deandre Baker is gone, but there’s plenty left to fill in the gap created by his departure.

A lot of Georgia’s reliance in the defensive secondary was on former cornerback Deandre Baker. He was the lockdown guy who hadn’t allowed a touchdown in two years, and good luck if you try to throw at him. He’s walked through the doors and finished a career, and the Bulldogs got a taste of the new-look secondary only a few days before Baker donned a New York Giants jersey as a first-round draftee.

From the outset, the first-team defense has its core in place. That includes younger names like Campbell, Stokes and Webb and is rounded out by the older presences of J.R. Reed and Richard LeCounte (yes, it’s strange to call them veterans already). There were two moments that could’ve been to Georgia’s favor: Campbell, after being picked on and eventually benched, looked like a force, and Stokes ball-hawking tendencies continued to show.

Georgia’s recruiting prowess came into play with the production of that group. It’s a testament to the fact that bringing in a horde of highly-touted recruits will pay off and be fruitful (not everyone is great in year one, but that’s been noted before).

Some glimpses of guys who could contribute in the secondary were also seen on the Red team. Other than an egregious pass interference penalty from Divaad Wilson, most of the signs were positive. Early enrollee Lewis Cine led the defense with eight tackles, sophomore Latavious Brini had an interception at safety and Tyrique Stevenson saw play early and often.

Hubba hubba.

Maybe the best man won.

We saw Justin Fields’ less than stellar stats from Ohio State’s spring game, along with the reality that he’s pretty much a lock to start for the Buckeyes this fall.

It seems that much the same story is playing out at Washington with another former Georgia quarterback.

In the wake of senior quarterback Jake Browning’s departure, Eason, Haener and Morris will continue that competition this fall. Eason — a former five-star prospect, Lake Stevens product and the heavy favorite to start this season — completed 7 of 12 passes for 42 yards and a touchdown, while being sacked four times, in the Spring Preview.

Of course, maybe it’s just the case that Ohio State and Washington have much better defenses than Georgia does.

Blame it on the weed.

Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.

Elijah Holyfield, Jonathan Ledbetter, Natrez Patrick and Jayson Stanley all had to deal with marijuana and/or impaired driving charges while at Georgia. All of them ended up as undrafted free agents. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe they’d have been undrafted anyway. There’s simply no way to know for sure.

Maybe is doing a shitload of work there, but Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.

Again, there were plenty of NFL draftees that had been arrested for something during college — or before — and still heard their name called during the draft. But I’d suggest that it still affected their stock.

Mississippi State defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons is the first that pops to mind. He was arrested for the awful offense of punching a woman in a fight when he was still a recruit. Yet, Simmons was drafted with the 19th pick by the Tennessee Titans. Without that significant blemish, though, his talent surely would have seen him be one of the first to go off the board this past Thursday.

Likewise, LSU’s Devin White went with the fifth pick despite a couple of arrests before he’d signed with the Tigers. One of his purported offenses was complicated beyond my comfort with even discussing it here and ultimately was expunged from his record, anyway. But White has the size of Georgia’s Patrick and ran a blistering 40.

Imagine how much higher in the draft White might have gone!  Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.

Chip Towers is just sayin’, y’all.

“The NFL doesn’t tell us who to recruit and we don’t tell them who to draft.”

Sure, Mike Leach is a strange dude, but strange enough to actively torpedo the draft prospects of one of his players?