Here’s a fantastic article from Bruce Feldman ($$) about how the scouting services and coaches whiffed on the top nine quarterbacks in the 2013 class. (Only one of them managed to hold a starting job at the school he was recruited to.)
Anyway, here’s a particular story that might be of interest to some of you.
Brice Ramsey, the No. 7 QB, threw four touchdowns in four seasons at Georgia.
Roberts: In person, Brice Ramsey looks great. He’s 6-3. Strokes it (throwing). Unbelievable kid. But he came from like a Wing-T/veer offense, where every throw was either a slant or a go-route and that’s it. He probably only had about 150 reps and that’s it. The Air Raid guys are getting an absurd amount of reps. In the pros on must-pass situations, when the whole stadium knows he has to thread the needle, (Patrick) Mahomes can do it because he’s done it so many times before. There was no sophistication in Brice’s offense, but he’d won a lot of games and Mark Richt offered him early.
So did Nick Saban. C’est la vie.
Get The Picture 
Picking Brice over Deshaun? SMH….
I wonder how much Derrick Henry’s relationship with the Ramsey’s played a role in that selection.
LikeLike
I’m going to need more info on the Henry relationship
LikeLike
I remember reading stories about Henry spending time with the Ramseys. I even recall Brice’s mom assuring all would be well when Henry decommitted because she was going to see him later that day and talk to him.
LikeLike
Yep.
IMO that cost CMR his job. Don’t know who picked BR over DW, though conventional wisdom is that Bobo jumped on DW just a little bit late.
To be fair, BR had some offers from the big schools; he was just a bust
LikeLike
The Schottenheimer bust and Richt not demoting him quickly and not taking over play calling cost CMR his job.
LikeLike
If Watson was a junior QB in 2015 I think he could have even made Shotty’s offense work. Maybe not beat Bama, but probably UT and UF
LikeLike
This is two weeks old:
“Pairing with Schottenheimer
Wilson has had arguably the two best seasons of his career since Brian Schottenheimer took over as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator in 2018 (though his 34 touchdown, eight interception campaign of 2015 would have something to say about that), and Wilson sees one metric as why his pairing with Schottenheimer has been so successful, and why there is room to grow going forward.
Wilson has thrown 66 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions with Schottenheimer calling plays for the Seahawks. Wilson told Heaps he loves working with the man he calls “Schotty.”
“Schotty has been great,” Wilson said. “It’s been fun working with him since the day he got here. He loves the game, he’s passionate about it, he’s a great coach and a great teacher of the game.””
The issue may have been Greyson.
LikeLike
I remember Saban coming hard for him. A buddy of mine (a Bama fan) was coaching at Camden County at the time and was none too happy when Richt held Saban off to sign him. Hindsight, they say…
LikeLike
This part of the Feldman article got my attention:
Del Rio: Oklahoma State had Todd Monken (as offensive coordinator), he went to Southern Miss (as head coach). He said, ‘Hey, I want to bring you with me. You’ll start right away. We have nobody.’ I didn’t go, so they offered Nick Mullens (ranked No. 154 in the 2013 QB class). Well, he broke every single record there (and started eight games for the San Francisco 49ers in 2018). It’s funny, the dominoes that fall.
Coach up much?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I saw that as well.
LikeLike
I scanned through 247’s QB list from 2013 and remember quite a few of the names, but geez, the don’t remember any of them having a ton of success. I don’t remember what Jared Goff did in college, but obviously he is an NFL starter (for now) and Trubisky had some success with some baggage, but made it to the NFL, but a bunch of those guys were backups or transfers.
LikeLike
The Athletic is well worth the price of admission. FWIW the fam and I watched “Draft Day” last night. When Sonny picked the Linebacker I looked over and my wife was crying, then when Sonny tells his Mom she’s gonna be a Grandma? We are talking waterworks, people. 🙂 How can you not like a girl that cries at football movies?
Deshaun played here in my hometown and actually went on a couple of double dates with my son. I wouldn’t have picked him either, I thought he was too small. But trying to predict what a 16-18 year old kid is going to turn out to be? I wouldn’t want to have to make my living doing that.
LikeLike
Sure, Richt can offer Brice Ramsey late, but he and Bobo slept on Deshaun Watson 40 minutes away from the hedges.
LikeLike
Didn’t Sons of Clem offer Watson as a high school sophomore?
LikeLike
They did, I meant to type “Richt can offer Brice Ramsey EARLY” but apparently I wasn’t fully awake this morning.
LikeLike
Ok, I’m finished with the entire Feldman article now and this is my big takeaway: I wouldn’t piss on Bill O’Brien if he was on fire unless I could piss gasoline.
Come to Penn St and help me hold this thing together, O’Brien tells a bunch of kids, then he bolts for Houston and leaves them holding the bag. This is why I’m all for a kid moving whenever he damn well pleases without penalty, until we tell coaches UNDER CONTRACT there are restrictions on their movement.
LikeLike
I recall thinking that taking a Wing T QB was a big, big risk on top of the gamble of the step up in competition/talent. But I think Bobo’s delay on Watson was more about doubt on incorporating a DT talent than evaluating Ramsey over Watson. Then I just think we were too late getting comfortable with that transition, plus there could have been some doubt on Watson’s part after watching all those years of Stafford and Murray at UGA. Doubt on both sides was understandable, imo, but regrettable in hindsight.
LikeLike
Just remember, Greene was a wing t qb and Richt had made it work.
LikeLike
Clemson was the first major program to offer Watson as a freshman. It was over.
LikeLike
If you happen to look at “prospective” athletes UT lead the SEC with nearly 500 offers. CKS and staff was around 300 and that’s for possibly 23-25 slots.
Time and $$$ was different during CMR tenure then. Really I want CKS to groom all of Georgia’s talent he can. I am sure during CMR’s time $$$ was certainly a issue but there is no reason for the previous staff or the present one not to jump all over the kids in Georgia’s high schools in the 8th or 9th grade. Crootin’ budget for CKS this 2019 was $3.5 there is no reason to let Georgia talent slip out of state to play against the Dawgs.
I admit you go after quality first. I am fine with CKS bringing in the kid from California and backing off of the Texas kid. I just hope the evaluations ring true + coaching them up. Would have loved to have seen Pryor and Tank in the Red and Black. I understand it’s not the days of the Bear with unlimited scholarships where you were recruited just so they’d be buried on the depth chart so they wouldn’t dress out against Bama.
Just keep in mind if you don’t do due diligence you tend to offend high school coaches which in the above posts shows there are several high schools that CMR was not welcomed into. I think even though there has been a top 3 rating for the last 3 years CKS will face some of the same issues.
I also understand the fandom of the high school coaches as I was one myself. There is Orange One’s that are UF, UTk, Barn assistants and head coaches. I don’t know where CKS stood in graces but Oconee County’s QB is LSU bound. Even though his dad was a super bowl winner and attended FSU.
Just like Cow Dawg said I wouldn’t want to make my living on how 18 year olds turn out. Being a high school coach you don’t get the pleasure of picking a who’s who enrolled in high school or at least where I coached. That’s changed drastically also.
LikeLike