Rising and falling, preseason 2021 edition

To give you an idea how thin a reed some of these rankings rest upon, note that 247Sports has adjusted its preseason rankings in part by moving Ohio State past Georgia into fourth.  How come?

Ohio State did get a surprise, however, with the announced return of Chris Olave as well as the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class.  That sees Ohio State pass Georgia for the No. 4 spot.

This, despite losing what is likely a top five pick in the NFL draft in Justin Fields.  And here I thought quarterback was the big deal in college football these days.

One other thing that gets me — check out the Georgia analysis.

The Bulldogs drop one spot in the updated 247Sports poll. Georgia finished 2020 in a strong way, not losing a game since the transition to JT Daniels at quarterback. Daniels returns for 2021 with some other interesting quarterback names in the conversation. Five-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff is one of the headliners of the nation’s No. 3 recruiting class and Gunner Stockton is already committed for 2022.

“Here’s what’s fascinating,” Josh Pate said in his review of Georgia’s recruiting class. “If you were to be an Oregon State fan, let’s say, and you were watching recruiting as a whole. You look at the way Georgia recruits, and they are top five every, top three every year, you would think, I can’t even imagine – that’s on a different planet than anything I’ve been used to. And yet, if you’re a Georgia Bulldog fan, you’re looking at your class and you’re thinking, this is really good, this is really good, then you cut your eyes over to Tuscaloosa, and you cut your eyes up to Clemson and you cut your eyes up to Columbus.

“Again, when we were talking about Ohio State, Georgia lives in that same world and so you can look at it as being totally elite which they are every year, but Trey, you know, because we write about it all the time, we talk about it all the time on the college football daily you’re mentioning it all the time. It’s about where we are in relation to where they are. And right now as good as this class is, I mean it’s not even the top class of the SEC, just to give you an idea of what the waters in the SEC are like.”

I confess that I cut my eyes over to Tuscaloosa, because what Saban brought in was insane.  But I’m not sitting here with tears in my eyes because Smart’s had to settle for the fourth-best signing class in the country.  (Besides, how much are any of these classes going to make a difference this season, anyway?)  Especially when he’s done such a good job digging out of the hole that was his quarterbacks room a year ago.  And you?