I’m sure you’ve seen or heard the news about Oklahoma’s stud freshman quarterback, Caleb Williams, electing to enter the transfer portal. This comes after the departure of Spencer Rattler for greener pastures Columbia, SC. That’s quite a change of fortunes for the Oklahoma quarterback room. Although, to Venables’ credit, they moved quickly in the aftermath to convince Dillon Gabriel, who left UCF, to change from UCLA to Oklahoma.
Whew.
Anyway, before Gabriel’s announcement, the brass at Oklahoma did something you wouldn’t have seen a school do even a year ago. They went on social media with this:
Shorter Oklahoma: “We’d like you to stay, Caleb, but we’re looking anyway.”
We’re a long way from the days when coaches told kids who wanted to transfer where they could go if they didn’t want to sit out for a year. Needless to say, that’s not sitting well in certain quarters.
There are two kinds of football programs now: the ones that sit around, whine about a world in which they have less control, and hope the Todd Berrys of the world can put the genie back in the bottle and the ones that adapt and use change to their advantage.
This isn’t exactly on point, except as illustration of what a coach who isn’t freaking out sounds like.
https://twitter.com/jontweetssports/status/1478157527896543235
Adapt or… play in a bowl game.
Get The Picture 
Why are we looking for a 5-star transfer QB when we won’t use them? We need to be looking for walk-on QBs in the transfer portal. That’s what Kirby wants (please note, this is 100% sarcastic).
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There has been a ton of talk about walk-ons this year, mostly generated by SB’s success and back story. Truth be told, SB is the absolute exception rather than the rule. Yes, you can sometimes catch lightning in a bottle but you cannot build a program on it. Stetson is unique because of his work ethic, determination and absolute love for UGA. Kids like that are rare to non-existent these days. The plus side to all this is that it might encourage others to walk on who believe in themselves and can be assets to UGA’s success in the future.
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CKS, on sharpening the choppin’ process…GO DAWGS!
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SBIV has a pretty darn good arm and athletic ability – I believe I heard on Friday that he was one of the best high school baseball players in the state his senior year. Baseball in particular translates well to quarterbacks. All of the questions about his natural ability have been about his size and his decision making under pressure.
While he won’t get a Baker Mayfield type of shot in the NFL, he very well may get a look by someone as a slot receiver.
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I agree with you that Bennett is unique as a former walk-on and the attributes you cited as reason but you left one out. Bennett truly has athletic talent. Without that determination, work ethic and love for UGA would not have gotten him off the scout team.
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One of the most logical and reasoned commentaries I have seen on GTP. “Heart” is one of the intangibles that you can’t judge by stars but when it appears on the field you know it and some even profit by its exisitence. (I’m biased, of course, having been a former walk-on…with “heart”)
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Last night the rumor was that Williams really likes UGA. I would be very surprised because that likely means Beck and BVG are out the door. I also would think that means SBIV has decided to get his career after college started and Daniels has decided to leave as well.
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Beck is probably gone anyway. The kids heart isn’t in Athens. Saw it on full display after he threw a pic vs UAB; he completely gave up on the play and walked off the field to the sidelines smiling.
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Moe, I was incensed at Beck’s half-ass effort. I’m sure the staff noticed also.
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I’d really like to see BVG and Gunner work it out next season, hopefully BVG starting and Gunner backing up.
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You know they got to earn it in Athens. All them stars don’t mean a gotdam thing to CKS and Monken.
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Monken wont be there.
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What is weird there is that we were all over Caleb during recruiting.
Vandergriff was an OK commit and it looked like only a matter of time that we’d get the commit. Then, they switched spots.
No idea of why that all happened. For Williams to end up in Athens would be strange… My half ass guess is he lands somewhere without much of a depth chart at qb but potential as a team OR he stays put.
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Coley was the primary relationship for Williams. And I think BV really did have a change of heart about wanting to stay close to home.
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I wonder which coaches and schools are losing their advantage because they can’t keep players from transferring and NIL has removed the bagman from CFB?
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Nice. Real nice.
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Brenton Cox’s ears are burning in Gainesville.
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I wonder sometimes who helps Kirby hone his messaging…. in selling the program — it’s own inherit benefits, as well as his own particular vision for it…. or if he crafts all the messaging himself. ‘Cause he’s got it nailed.
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Saban taught him everything.
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We can only hope that’s true. It certainly looks like it to me.
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It is an interesting development indeed. Something I was thinking about yesterday about this situation described above.
Substitute Dillon Gabriel with any P5 position coach and you could describe the coaching carousel for the last several years. That carousel is effectively agnostic now between coaches and players.
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Kirby, with the subtle major burns to kids who left early.
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I thought the same thing. When he said that guys had let him know they had regret for their decision, I wonder if that was Justin Fields or Tyrique Stevenson.
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No f—ing way it was Fields. Fields was being criminally misused here and became a first round pick at OSU. You can’t complain about that.
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He said he wanted to come back as soon as he left. I’m not saying it didn’t work out for him, but it was clear he had some early regrets.
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Where did he say that?
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It was public knowledge at the time. His Daddy was in charge, so it didn’t matter.
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Fields said somewhere that even after he went to OSU he almost returned to Athens.
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And he showed up in Athens during 2020 scrimmages when the B1G wasn’t planning to play.
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LOL….he quit.
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Tyrique would be my guess.
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Could also have been a few of those 2019 early declares.
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And Otis Reece.
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Could be Divaad Wilson. He would have helped an awful lot this year. For some reason, the portal has hurt us the most at safety. Wilson, Stevenson, Burns, and Otis Reese are all good players. By God if we aren’t making a title run with Dan Jackson. Hope he can survive one more game.
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Man, Kirby ain’t wrong. Put that video up there with his master class on recruiting.
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Hey man I dont think you had to line out the greener pastures thing. Doesn’t Oklahoma basically sit in a dust bowl?
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I was trained by GySgt Wiehre and made friends with a few Marines at Ft Sill, Okla. To a man they couldn’t wait to get back to “Twenty-Nine Stumps” as they referred to it. That should give you an idea about the conditions in Oklahoma.
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Holy shit dude, if ANYONE wanted to go back to the ‘Stumps from anywhere else, that is… well, insane to me. I hated ever single minute I spent in that blighted place.
The Army literally shut down the base after WWII, saying it was, quote, “Unfit for human habitation.”
So the Marines were like, hey, a free base with free infrastructure, we’ll take it!
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Yeah, I was joking. Gunney Wiehre was having neck issues from constantly shaking his head at Doggie antics, but he seemed to enjoy the amenities of Ft Sill. The Lance Corporals and Privates I buddied up with were not looking forward to the end of their TAD, TDY whatever. They were there to shoot the big guns on yankee Army ranges and the Gunney was instructor assigned as recompense. Outstanding NCO. His Army counterpart was, to put it bluntly, a fuckn slob. He knew his job. But he was a piss poor physical example for young soldiers.
Marines didn’t seem to mind co-opting Army gear as well as abandoned posts, Corch. LCpl Maldonado traded two new jungle green camo ERDL slant pocket uniforms for two of my worn pickle suits. He said the “sateens” matched his cover better. I wore the camo for years in the field. LBE covered the screen-printed EGA.
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Yep. We have no issue co-opting Army gear, as it’s almost always better than our own. We did at the Chosin Reservoir. We did it at the ‘Stumps.
We’ll do it anywhere.
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Dude….CAX sucks big time. My God Ranger dont ever say that word again.
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Sorry I should stay 29 Palms or the Stumps like Corch. CAX is the combined arm exercise that we all did to prepare for deployment.
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Yeah, CAX is bad enough. Imagine being stationed there. Maybe the worst two years of my life. My first two years in the Corps were so much better, so I guess to even things out, the Corps was like, “Well, you had two great years, so now we’re sending you to Hell. Have fun!”
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Desolate duty reminds me of a friend who joined the Corps rather than jail just out of high school around ’78. Subsequently he was stationed in Iceland. We all thought he must’ve really fucked up and the Marines hate him. We were wrong on many levels. Just luck of the draw where you’re stationed and Iceland was an excellent duty station. Ken liked it so much he was able to use his Embassy connections and is a permanent resident there.
I’ve heard stories. Wild times.
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I’m not thrilled with the idea of Williams at UGA. He’s clearly a talented player but I’ve just about had enough of transfer QB’s, although I understand that it’s the nature of the beast nowadays. My ideal scenario would be for BVG to take the reigns next season and redshirt Gunner so that he can take over when BVG takes off to the league.
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If SBIV should lead the Dawgs to victory Monday and bow out before the ’22 season it will be the football equivalent of Cincinnatus or G. Washington.
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Kirby’s just missing one thing on his shelf that Saban has and uses with the same speech we saw last summer.
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Face it, with no malice toward SB4, Georgia has not had a 5* QB make it big at Georgia since Matt Stafford. Jake, DOG bless him, got yanked from his first start in the NFL. Justin doesn’t count. JT, who knows what’s up with him. Kirby has tried but he seems to be unlucky with his 5* guys. I guess he is going to use the “throw it up on the wall and see what sticks” QB selection technique. I agree, JT is gone, he needs a place that he can get some film. Beck will be in the portal asap as the CFPCG is over. Gunners a Dawg for life so he will stay. Von is the wild card, if he buys into the two years of training for a year of starting, he may stay. SB4 should bow out gracefully after the CFPCG win or lose. All this could change if the kid from OK comes a calling.
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