I know many of you follow recruiting more closely than I do, so you’re probably already aware of the late offer to Ladd McConkey. I don’t know anything about the kid, but there’s something in Jeff Sentell’s piece about Georgia’s offer to him that caught my eye.
“Georgia offered me to be a true slot guy,” McConkey said. “Guys that can win the one-on-one battle. I mean obviously they have guys who can win one-on-one matchups but really get in space there down in the slot and make people miss in real tight coverage.”
But, muh blocking! What are you thinking, Kirby?
His weight is a story on its own. He weighed 178 pounds this past summer. That was before basketball camp and then a football season and then basketball season.
He’s about 165 pounds right now. That’s not really SEC grade, but keep in mind this is a Monken system fit. A new way of looking at that spot. McConkey has impressive ball skills and the short-space quickness that will flourish in any “Air Raid” sets. He’s also a guy who wants the ball coming his way in big spots.
He’s small. Especially for a typical UGA signee, but consider his stature in the right context.
This is not your father’s manball, Dawg fans.
Get The Picture 
First thing I thought was he sounds like that little Italian kid from UMass who seemed open all day against us, or one of those tiny NE Patriots WRs who create so much havoc. Just don’t run him up the middle into a 10 man box
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^^^Yup!! Andy Isabella. Plays for Arizona quite a bit.
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I don’t follow recruiting closely, either. Which is (at least partially) why I can’t tell if this offer is for the slot formerly being held for Evans.
We’ve had successful 165 pounders before, even during the Smart era. Isaiah McKenzie comes to mind.
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Smart didn’t recruit McKenzie.
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No he didn’t. But McKenzie was successful under Smart, which was my point.
http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/player/257/1063141/yardsfromscrim/split.html
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Hoo-wee! Thank you for that, Senator! I can’t wait to see how these changes pan out at G day. I’m not even going to be reserved about it for now. That can wait, so, hoo-wee! GO DAWGS!
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In case anyone else is wondering: no, he is not related to Phil McConkey.
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A few of us are old enough to wonder about that.
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McConkey, the prototype of Edelman.
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Exactly what I was wondering! A bit disappointed to hear he is not.
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Wait a minute!
Do we really want a kid that could get in on his own academic merit?
I thought those guys couldn’t play?
The idea that if we had a team full of kids like this that we’d tune out is just stupid. There are plenty of kids like this that we could play football with and we wouldn’t have to burn the thing down to accommodate them.
Play college football with qualified college students.
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Gee, Derek, don’t stop now while you’re on a roll.
Go ahead and call out by name all the current Georgia players whom you believe have no business being at the school.
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And he hardly puts his money where his mouth is on that front.
Recruiting scuttlebutt on Pickens was that he would not qualify and would have rehab his academics a year or go Juco. Derek could not stop raving about the kid.
Meanwhile, Derek spent most of the season trashing Robertson, who, at least during his recruiting, was aiming high academically. Really wanted Stanford and when they wouldn’t bite, went to Cal instead.
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WTF are you babbling about?
I’ve never said we shouldn’t get the best players available under the existing rules. I’m saying we should change the rules. And if we did, we’d still watch.
As far as criticizing Robertson, his grades are great. He was on a list in the past week. Proud for him.
I called out Landers and Simmons enty. No recollection of doing that to 16. If i did it would be because of his play. He doesn’t get a pass because he’s smart.
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If I had their transcripts I’d tell you. I assure you that a whole bunch of them shut out far more qualified student athletes.
The University of Georgia is first and foremost an academic institution right? Its not an augmentation of a football team is it?
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Are you for real?
Maybe I should have started a blog about Georgia academics instead of GTP.
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Where’s this disconnect? You can’t value both?
Seriously? Why are these concepts mutually exclusive?
College players should be qualified college students. Why is that not a defensible value to express here?
Perhaps you should blog about the Falcons since they fit your preferred market economic fairness doctrines?
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How many on the academic side are paid like Smart? Or Collins, at Tech?
We live in a society that absurdly values entertainment. And schools are in a world where bringing in money is their highest priority, whether that’s reflected in football recruiting, legacies or allowing rich folks to buy admission for their children if they make a big enough contribution.
So spare me the sanctimony.
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Ok, but there are minimum academic requirements, right?
Is that a product of “sanctimony?” Should there be no bottom?
Is it ok to express the opinion that the current bottom is far too low?
I think “I don’t care if their IQ is 37 if they run a 4.2” is equally as valuable an opinion as my own. I would simply disagree with it.
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Don’t blame me because you asked a stupid rhetorical question.
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The opinion has been expressed around here many many times that compromised academic standards are necessary to achieve a product the consumer would find valuable. I’ve called that bullshit many many times.
I see a kid with a 4.5 gpa and runs a 10.8 100 meters that everyone on this blog wants and I simply point out the long standing hypocrisy.
You are welcome to call it stupid. Does not make it so.
I will commend you on your Derek-like capacity to attack those with whom you disagree. I don’t agree with your target here, but stupid should be called stupid. Harshly and directly. Fuck civility.
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The post is about offensive philosophy, you hijacked it to make a personal point about a personal agenda and now you want to whine about civility?
Let me be blunt: don’t hijack a post thread. You want to discuss your perfect world and I don’t post about academic standards, there’s a perfect place to do so and it’s called the Playpen.
Hope that doesn’t hurt your fee fees too much.
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A fair point. I thought “hijackings” were tolerated if they weren’t political in nature.
So many rules!
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He can’t identify which players on Georgia don’t belong there but he knows they’re out there!
And we’re the stupid ones apparently.
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As far as i know no one will commit a murder today. Logic and common sense should not lead me to speculate that a murder will occur in america sometime later today. Or that anyone is thinking about it.
You only know what is in front of you. Its called counter-evolutionary thinking.
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You pop onto a thread about a kid committing to Georgia and sneer about academics. Do you have a problem with this kid? Some other kids on the team?
Or just the purely hypothetical notion that some of these kids can’t be educated and therefore should not be educated at Georgia no matter how gifted they might be at something the German intellectuals who crafted the original model of a research university never really contemplated?
I mean, your analogy above suggests you oppose counter-evolutionary impulses. Can the academy not evolve?
Don’t bother answering, that was rhetorical. You’ve got some extra asshole in you today. Duly noted.
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I have simply observed that the clamor to remodel college athletics is being driven first by the idea that college football and basketball is run like a minor league for the NFL and NBA. And its true. It begins at the lie that they are taking in kids because they want to educate them. We know that isn’t true when UK basketball recruits kids who have said “i am one and done” If thats true, why are you bringing him to campus? To use him. Likewise he is using the school. And he wants as much as possible. I don’t blame the kid. I blame the moneyed interests.
We also know its not true when schools being in marginally qualified students and hand hold them through. I have never in my lifetime heard of an academically ineligible Auburn football player.
40 plus years and not 1? How is that possible?
I just think its a bunch of crap.
I also think it excuses kids who have been the best player on their teams since 3rd grade from hitting the books as hard as they should. Low academic standards encourages mediocrity for kids who might other wise do better OR where communities might make an effort to improve their schools if the best talent they’ve seen cant get into alabama or georgia because the community let them down.
Like coach Boone said in remember the titans. “You think you’re helping these kids. But your not. You’re crippling them.”
To justify that for entertainment purposes? Really? That suffices as a justification?
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3rd grade? No.
High schools will protect their athletes, but colleges have been complaining about the academic preparedness of all high school graduates for a couple of decades now. It’s why campuses are festooned with free academic support services now – writing centers, math labs, whatever it takes to get Jenny with the Hope Scholarship up to speed. Let’s not pretend athletes are the only people showing up on campus with deficits.
A remarkably high percentage of athletes seem to have ADHD and related forms of learning disabilities. Mine was one of them. A single post-grad year at a school specializing in that disability raised his SAT to 80th percentile and his grades to As. He just got accepted at UAB, Temple, and Lynn University, with a merit scholarship at Lynn. A year ago he was iffy for community college. He just needed to understand himself as a student better, and that took people who understood it and how to handle it rather than hoping they could shame it out of him or just sweep him along because he had a knack for assists, rebounds and 3 pointers.
My requirement is that schools commit to helping those students succeed as college students. They can and will with the right support, and it’s going to be individualized to a degree.
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I too wondered if he was related to Phil.
Also, how has Tech missed recruiting him – academics, etc. ?
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Looks like the kid can MOVE. I believe this is him “schooling” Ringo at a summer camp:
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If only our current WR’s could cut as sharply.
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Do you know when they mail out the intramural season tickets? I’m so excited!
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Exactly. This comment isn’t stupid at all because of how many championships Notre Dame, Stanford and Vanderbilt win every year and everything like that. And let’s not forget football powerhouses Berry College and LaGrange. Yes, this singular three star athlete with good grades proves Derek has been right all along about all the many thousands of college football players. His superior knowledge ab sports should never be questioned again.
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My Playpen comment goes for this, too.
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Idk what that means, I’m over here pricing out Berry football season tix.
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If he can become an Isabella type of player, that would be something. Good luck to the kid.
The part of the story about the date he got his offer wasn’t an accident. Kirby doesn’t miss stuff like that.
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Added bonus: having mom and dad peel off those orange Ts from the car window (again)
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I guess it makes sense, if Monken’s idea is to ‘stretch’ defenses. We will need guys that can create pressure underneath, as well as, stretch the field vertically. Who will the opposing defense place on a kid like McConkey? Certainly not a LB. As we’ve said before, it’s about matchups or actually miss-matches.
I like the speed in which the changes appear to be happening. Apparently, Monken came in with players on his mind.
Spring can’t get here soon enough. I’m ready to see us hit every corner of the field and slots in between!
…and just when the opposing defense thinks it’s safe to move a safety out of the box, BAM!, a hand-off to Zeus…
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If he is anything like this “McConkey, he will be pretty damn good:
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We already have Cook. I say coach Cook up or find a new WR coach who can, before using precious recruit slots on a one trick pony. And we could probably get a few dozen PWO candidates from across the state with similar size/skills by announcing the need at a presser.
I’m not a big fan of undersized players. While reading this I was having flashbacks of the Falcons pint-sized WRs when June Jones was running the O, and find myself humming that Randy Newman short people song.
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If nothing else, your defense needs to see these guys in practice. Waddle is going to be a major headache week 3.
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Kirby needs to tell our punter:
“If 17 catches a punt, you’re walking home.”
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Seriously. Not a guy you want to get cute with.
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He reminds me a little of Hunter Renfro
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I hope his Dad doesn’t fold a chair around his finger.
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Or Under his (My) Thumb.
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tbf, folding chairs are less dangerous to people weighing UNDER 300 lbs
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Anyone that can take over a game like this is fine by me:
What transpired on Oct. 11 will go down as one of the best individual performances in the history of northwest Georgia football. McConkey accounted for seven touchdowns in a 49-6 win over Coahulla Creek that night, but that’s only part of the story.
He did so by scoring four ways. The 6-foot, 175-pound speedster threw two touchdown passes, rushed for two touchdowns, returned punts 84 and 76 yards for scores and had a pick-six on defense.
https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/sports/preps/story/2019/oct/24/north-murray-qb-ladd-mcconkey/506576/
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Senator please find a way to “pink out” Derek’s comments so I can identify them quicker and move on…would help most of us!
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Reading “Derek” is too difficult for you.
Get this man some help Senator.
The world is a difficult place for this man!
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It says “Derek” in big black letters right at the top of his comments. Just sayin’
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Its just not enough protection from… the WORDS!!!!
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I don’t follow recruiting like I used to but it doesn’t take an expert to watch watch a video or two and see what kind of athlete he is. He also played multiple positions, multiple sports and is intelligent. I think he’d be great for a spread O or maybe grown into a safety.
Even more, I’d hate to watch him go to a rival and give us hell for 3 or 4 years.
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Surprised he hasn’t received an offer under UT’s ‘blanked the southeast with offers’ policy. I like the idea of these shifty slot guys. Would be nice to see more move the chains slot guys and a focus a little away from sideline lower percentage back shoulder stuff.
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Kirby went to his basketball game and offered him. He knows.
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Something that may be lost here regarding academics and service academies is that many of the kids that go to AFA, USNA, and Westpoint as athletes first attend a year of prep school in order to be able to survive the academics there. This is true for enlisted service members that gain acceptance to the academies. I trust Kirby, if he thinks the kid can play I assume that he can.
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Mecole Hardman approves this recruit while practicing for the Super Bowl.
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Great name. Munson would have loved this kid.
Get em Kirbs.
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Dude needs to be holding for kicks immediately.
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