Vacuum

by fotodog on Nov 9, 2009 9:13 AM EST

I was watching the UGA-Tenn Tech game online and heard Buck Belue make a comment about a lack of senior leadership and talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball. He said that 4-6 years ago, someone really dropped the ball in recruiting.

I had observed the same thing. So tonight I did a little bit of hasty research. Please feel free to correct this if I made any mistakes.

From the 2005 and 2006 six classes, which at the time looked pretty good, the attrition has been pretty painful. The 2006 class was pretty large (25), but 05 was a little smallish (16).

Gone to the NFL:

Stafford, Moreno, Allen, MoMass (note 3 of those could still be with the team this year)

Graduated:

Byrd, Chandler

Injured this year or during a significant portion of his career:

Battle, Coates, Banks, Dewberry, Wilson*, Durham, J Miller

Transferred or never entered:

N Ward, Lemon, Wilson*, Hebron, Kearney, C Moon, Sesay, Baldwin, I Smith

That is 21 players out of 41 that are no longer playing for UGA.

Add to that players that are mainly bench players or have spent more time switching positions than actually playing:

Perez, Washington, Tripp

And players that would at this point be labeled busts or disappointments:

B Wood, Evans, Miller, Crawford

And what you have are mostly a bunch of roll players with a few strong players on defense:

Owens, Weston, R Jones (probably should be in the group above), Dobbs, Gamble, Dent

And starting on offense:

J Davis, C Davis, Chapas (or Munzenmaier), Moore, Cox

That's not the strongest group and is probably one of the reasons we are so crappy this year. Of course, it is the coaches' job to evaluate talent and help players to improve.

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Auburn folks...

We certainly can relate to problems of losing our recruits over the years. We know how it feels, believe me. We’ve had our own devastating vacuum tare us apart.

by Sparkey on Nov 9, 2009 12:41 PM EST reply actions

That's an interesting analysis

I wonder what the average attrition is for BCS conference teams? I’ll take a look at our numbers when I get a chance for comparison. You surely can’t blame guys who go to the NFL early, or who suffer injuries. The transfers and guys who don’t qualify is what hurts. That and any guys who just bust.

by skigator93 on Nov 9, 2009 1:16 PM EST reply actions

Florida recruiting class retention results

I used the same years as fotodog did above to get a fair comparison. However, our numbers are a little off because 2005 was Corch Meyers’ first year and so he got a late start and lost some guys that the Zooker recruited. But here goes:

In ’05 we signed 18 players, but through great attrition and transfers, we were able to sign 27 players. Of the 45 players signed in those 2 years, I counted 20 still on the active roster. So we have 25 of the 45 signees who are gone (56%) compared to the 51% lost by the Dawgs. Like I said though, our numbers are a little skewed – only 3 of the 18 from 2005 are still playing (17%), while 17 of the 27 (63%) of the ’06 class are still suiting up for the orange and blue – a pretty amazing number when you think about it and it surely explains our high level of senior leadership this year.

Here’s the casualties (again using Foto’s catergories):

Gone to NFL: (3) Percy Harvin, Reggie Nelson, Louis Murphy,

Graduated: (1) Kestahn Moore

Injury: (5) Simon Codrington. Eddie Haupt, Dorian Munroe, Jim Barrie, Bryan Thomas

Transfer or didn’t make it: (10) Kalvin Baker, Nyan Boateng, Jon Demps, Darryl Gresham Jr., Josh Portis, Eric Sledge, Jarred Fayson, Trent Pupello, Chevron Walker, Mon Williams

Academic Casualty (1): Brian Ellis

Suspended as common criminals: (4) Avery Atkins (saddest case as he is now deceased), Ronnie Wilson, Jamar Hornsby, Jacques Rickerson.

Signed MLB contract: (1) Derrick Robinson

We are enjoying the fruit of the 2006 and 2007 classes right now. The 2006 class alone included all the following: Tebow, Spikes, Harvin, Antwine, Cooper, Cunningham, Doe, Gilbert, Hurt, Brandon James, Carl Johnson, AJ Jones, Marsh & Sanders. That’s 13 guys who play major roles, plus Harvin who was one of our best players ever. Classes like that allow you to play for championships.

2007 was another large class (27). Of those players, I count 14 who make major contributions right now, plus Brantley was also in that class and will hopefully be our QB for the next couple years.

2008 was a smaller class for us (22), and 2009 was smaller still (17). So the short term future of the Gators really rests in what we sign next February. We should have plenty of scholarships to give because we will lose a lot of players after this season. I think Meyer saw 2007 coming as the result of poor past recruiting (we were only saved by Tebow and Percy on offense). Fortunately, since then, we have reloaded the coffers on a pretty regular basis.

I’d be curious to see how well other SEC teams have done in keeping their players around.

by skigator93 on Nov 10, 2009 12:39 PM EST up reply actions