Georgia Recruiting Recap

I let a few days pass before I posted any recruiting thoughts. Recruiting is an emotional diversion. Fans seem to get way too excited and way too down about recruiting. I've posted before about how recruiting is fun to follow, but it is only a part of college football, unable to guarantee success or failure. While a great recruiting class does not necessarily grant great teams, it is obviously better to be closer to the top of the rankings than the bottom.

With that preface, we Georgia fans seem to be way too down about this class. The Dawgs didn't get a top 5 class, by any measure. One service even ranked us below Georgia Tech, ouch. So, we have to fall back on the old line, "we addressed our needs." Despite the fact that this is a normal statements for those schools that disappointed, in our case it is true. UGA needed two things, offensive linemen and a bluechip running back. That is exactly what we got. Georgia signed a ton of linemen, literally. They signed high school seniors, prep schoolers, and JUCOs. Now Stacey Searles has to whip them into shape because several of them will play immediately.


The Dawgs also got Caleb King, one of the top running backs in the country. You must be doing something good when a down class is still ranked in the top 10 in the country.

Despite the good, this class also exposes some disturbing trends for the Bulldogs. First, Florida continues to outrecruit them. The Gators won the recruiting championship again this year. In fact, Georgia finished behind five other SEC schools, including UT and South Carolina. So, despite a solid class, it isn't like we're getting ahead of anyone.

Second, Georgia signed only two of the top 10 players in Georgia. This group does not include the state's top lineman who defected on signing day. Last year, we got five out of those 10. In 2005, three of the top 10 and five of the top ten in 2004. Richt has talked about simply keeping the Georgia boys home to play for Georgia. There are simply too many good players in Georgia to sign them all, but it should not be too much to ask to get most of the top players. It seems that more and more of the elite players in Georgia are looking elsewhere. This trend looks to change next year as the Dawgs look like they are in good shape with several of the state's best already.

Lastly, as previously mentioned, Georgia signed lots of linemen this year because they had huge holes to fill in next year's line. The Dawgs missed out again on the state's top offensive lineman, Antwane Greenlee. Other than last year's signing of Justin Anderson (who we had to resign this year because he didn't qualify) and Seth Watts, UGA hasn't signed an elite Georgia offensive lineman since 2003. Some have speculated that this is because of Niel Calloway, so I hope Stacey Searles can help to remedy this, although it sounded like Searles lost a personality contest with FSU's Rick Trickett for Greenlee.

In any case, welcome aboard pups.