Josh posted a couple of handy dandy charts, showing the state of SEC recruiting in the year 2020.
First, look at the six-year track record.
Let’s say it again: Florida ain’t closing any gap with Georgia, so much as trying to regain lost ground. In 2014, it posted a higher composite average, but since then, the Gators have watched Richt erase that first and then Smart run away from them.
That all being said, before we crow too much, there’s still Alabama. No program recruiting that well and that consistently can be dismissed as a conference and national power. Which means Georgia still has work to do.
That’s reflected in Josh’s second chart, which measures the composite averages of SEC teams’ 2020 projected rosters, position-by-position.
As Josh points out in this post, the average lowest-rated CFP team put up a .906 composite average, so you can see several SEC teams have managed to recruit at an elite level. The problem for schools like Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M is that there’s elite and then there’s what Alabama and Georgia are doing.
In my mind, some of this takes us back to what was said in the clip I posted yesterday. To beat Alabama and Georgia, a team either has to match them in overall talent, or have a truly exemplary quarterback who can elevate them. Is there an SEC quarterback out there who’s capable of that this season? And, yes, you can ask that question about Georgia as it attempts again to run down the Tide.
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UPDATE: Hey, you guys get credit!
Get The Picture 
What kind of moron makes a line graph with time displayed right to left?
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Too hard for you to follow, or something?
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HA!…was thinking the same.
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Exactly. .backwards everything write should He
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I was coming on here to post this exact statement!
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I was trying to come up with a reason why to make the graph that way. Had to be done deliberately.
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Swear to god. My brain sees it this way. Sorry – it wasn’t to deliberately piss anyone off
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It’s all good, Josh.
I’ve been reading my investment charts that way, too.
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Funny, I’ve turned mine upside down. Looks better that way. ☺️
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That’d be me
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Still good work.
By chance, are you left handed? I am and for years my brain “saw” things like that, but I had it trained out of me. (Years and years of scientific graphs)
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I’m barely right handed.
Pretty sure it’s laid out that way, because back when I started scraping the data i started out with 2019- I laid out left to right in excel and everything got laid out in the graphics that way.
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And thank you!
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That Florida QB average is suspect. The Auburn QB average is absurd.
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Auburn:
CoxNix (0.9857) Sandberg (0.9112) Garnett (0.8643)Florida: Jones (0.9587) Trask (0.7984) Richardson (0.9208)
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Ok. Good info. I made a lot of these stats back in February. Needed to update. Gatewood out at AU, and Trask didn’t factor into average (he was outside the top 1200 in class (#2731). I manually updated those and updated that chart. This database has 14,000+ players (and Trask wasn’t there) and the roster database is 54,000 lines. So, I had to draw lines somewhere
Also, that 2020 required a lot of manual input as there aren’t any 2020 rosters yet.
https://bulldawgillustrated.com/sports/uga-football-2/sec-and-recruiting-in-playoff-era/
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Assuming ‘Cox’ = Nix, this makes me curious about what the individual Georgia QB numbers are.
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Oops. Thanks for catching.
Georgia: Beck (0.9098) Mathis (0.8992) Bennett (0.8304) Newman (0.8585)
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At the most important position, the player expecting to take the most snaps will be near the bottom of the league at Georgia and Florida.
If the season is played, it will be interesting to see what plan Georgia has in place to develop offensive chemistry on a shortened timeline.
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It means a lot less when you’re talking about a senior who’s started at least one season at the position than it would a freshman, though.
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The overall talent differential between UGA-Bama is negligible, basically a unlucky bounce or poor officiating call can turn it either way. However, the biggest concern I have with the position comparison is in the trenches. Both grades are high, but it worries me comparing our OL to their DL and vice versa. We’ve also got a lot of young and inexperienced, but very talented guys on offense who will have to step up very quickly in 2020 if we want to make a CFP run.
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I think our front DL of Davis, Wyatt, Herring/Walker is slightly better than bama’s first 4. Both teams are in a similar situation with depth – lots of candidates waiting for playing time.
On the OL, bama is where we were last year with 4 returning starters. I believe we have just as much OL talent, and more depth. Bama had to start a true freshman on the OL last year, whereas that wasn’t gonna happen at UGA. At this moment, the difference is we had 3 OLs depart early and bama had 1 leave early. Our backup OLs simply haven’t been given much playing time, so we don’t know how good they are…yet.
I won’t say we’ve passed them across the board. But we’re definitely headed that way. The 2020 class may be the one that puts us clearly ahead for the near future.
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Man…we are right there. I really hope the offense has time to gel by game 3. I would love for us to get the Bama monkey off our back.
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Interesting to see Mississippi State steadily climbing. I wonder if the pirate can build on that….
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Saw a tweet that Leach was going to have his most talented team… ever this year. Look at these years and talent ratings
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Dealing with the Senator’s question, Harrison Bailey might be the elite QB who can lift UT to that higher level and also obtain upsets against higher rated programs but he will be only a freshman this coming season and without a spring practice. Likely his impact will be in the future.
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Take a look at the Gamecocks OL rating. Who woulda thunk it?
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That DL gap is glaring. I know Trey Scott has upped his game over the past two cycles, but he still has work to do, especially in getting guys to the League.
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Yeah, that’s hurting our DL recruiting. From what I’ve read and seen over the past couple of years player development is Scott’s strength. But he’s got to develop some of his players into higher-round draft picks. Assume Jordan Davis will get drafted but have no idea what round.
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Interesting how Tenn and UF track pretty well together roster-wise, yet Tenn gets absolutely dismantled by them on the field every year.
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Bennett didn’t factor into average.. Outside top 1200..
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“To beat Alabama and Georgia, a team either has to match them in overall talent, or have a truly exemplary quarterback who can elevate them.”
I see what you’re saying, but SCe didn’t exactly meet either of those criteria last year, did they?
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There’s always the Any Given Saturday exception that proves the rule.
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My take away is the “gap” between UGA and uf is as far as the difference between uf and Ark.
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FU and the barners shadow each other, seems about right….should FU pony up for their hc, he truly will be Gus mullen
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