The best lost recruit ever?
by vineyarddawg on Feb 13, 2009 10:13 AM EST
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PrintPlease forgive the hyperbole in the title, but this is what I thought when I read the article about Greg Reid in the AJC today.
To quote Reid directly from the article, "I really like Georgia and the coaches. It’s a fun place. I just felt like it was too far from home and I’d probably have to work a little harder [to compete for a starting position] with the other people in front of me."
If "not having to work as hard" is the deciding criteria for you when selecting your collegiate football home, then, son, welcome to Florida State. (Or, for that matter, Alabama, or anywhere other than Athens.)
Reid might turn out to be a fantastic college DB, and he might be in the pro football hall of fame 20 years from now. With that attitude, however, I suspect he's equally likely (if not more so) to end up as one of those guys you see on FSU's backup roster 4 years from now and say, "Hey, wasn't that guy supposed to be good?"
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Agree
When I read that, I had to re-read it.
I think he meant to say something along the lines of “I’ll get more playing time early on at FSU than UGA” and it just came out really wrong.
Me too......
I thought the exact same thing when I read that statement. If the kid doesn’t want to come in, work hard and compete for a starting spot then he’s not one you want in your program.
Hopefully UgaBulldog14 is right and he just butchered up his words. He did say he liked Alabama because Saban told him he’d have to earn his playing time.
Yeah . . .
I imagine that if he had it to do over again he would say “It was closer to home, and the depth chart was more favorable for me to play early.” I don’t think any kid gets to where Reid has gotten to on pure athletic ability. There’s a healthy dose of 5:00 am weight training and summer two-a-days thrown in.
The thing that I think a lot of guys don’t fully appreciate is how hard every player has to work in college. Every guy playing in the SEC was a Friday night legend somewhere. I’m just happy he’s going to FSU rather than Florida, and wish him the best.
Though I think that perhaps our best lost recruit of the Richt era may turn out to be Allen Bailey. Though Houston County/Southern Cal standout Kyle Moore would be right up there.
Yeah
I’d give the kid the benefit of the doubt. I think he meant what’s been mentioned above about earlier playing time due to a better depth chart situation rather than “I’m just lazy” as it came across. Anytime you see one or two quotes from an entire interview it’s easy to be taken out of the context which it was intended. I don’t think we should be getting too negative on a 17 year old kid because of one quote he made.
http://hobnailboot.blogspot.com/
great post vineyard
I have really been down on this kid since he backed out of his early commitment from UF – and not just because he backed out, it was the reason for doing so. Apparently he wanted to be guaranteed a starting spot right away. We have 2 young corners coming back that are both very solid players. But like all recruits, Meyer told him he would have every opportunity to earn a spot. Apparently that wasn’t good enough – he wanted guarantees and that’s exactly what Bowden is so good at – promising 20+ kids every year that they will indeed start for the Seminoles the next season.
Reid was also consindered an academic risk, so once again, he seems to have found the perfect place to play football for the next few years. So I also agree with Macondawg – I’m glad he went to FSU and not UF. I’d rather have guys who come in willing to work their way into the lineup.
The best lost recruit of the Mark Richt era . . .
. . . is Chris Rix, whom Coach Richt was recruiting for Florida State when he got the Georgia job.
Rix had committed to F.S.U., and reportedly was willing to follow Coach Richt to Athens, but, out of respect for Bobby Bowden, Coach Richt adopted a policy of not recruiting to Georgia guys he had recruited to Florida State unless Georgia had been pursuing the kid already. Coach Richt told Rix to go to Tallahassee, David Greene became the winningest quarterback in Division I-A history, and Rix crashed and burned (although Jeff Bowden probably had quite a lot to do with that).
Letting us dodge the Rix bullet was Fate’s way of balancing the ledger after letting us swipe Quincy Carter from Georgia Tech.
Go 'Dawgs!
But do you ever wonder...
what might have become of Rix had he come to Athens and received his QB tutelage from Richt? He might have turned into the star he was supposed to be.
Of course, it would have been a nightmare for Erin “His name is Pollack, not Polack” Andrews to have Coach Richt coaching Chris Rix.
In Erin's defense . . .
. . . it was Jill Arrington, not Erin Andrews, who made the gaffe.
Go 'Dawgs!
comparing Erin Andrews to Jill Arrington
is like comparing Marissa Miller to Paris Hilton and claiming you mixed up the blondes.
Biggest misses of the Richt era
Eric Berry, Calvin Johnson, Morgan Burnett, whichever future Auburn running back they steal that runs for 200 yards against us. A more interesting question would be who was the biggest recruiting loss of the Donnan era. You could come up with an All-Pro team of those guys.
While Calvin Johnson was a great talent . . .
. . . he was a dubious miss, for two reasons.
First of all, Calvin said he chose Georgia Tech for essentially the same reason Greg Reid says he chose Florida State. Stated positively, it was the chance to play immediately. Stated negatively, it was a fear of competition. Either way, Calvin opted against us because, and only because, Georgia had recruited well at his position in the years prior to Calvin’s high school graduation. That’s why Florida missed out on some players this year, and it’s a good problem to have.
Secondly, Calvin Johnson looked good on the stat sheet and looked great on the highlight reel, but how often did he come through in big games? He accomplished exactly nothing against Georgia, I know that. Big players make big plays in big games. Calvin simply didn’t.
Go 'Dawgs!
In Calvin's defense...
He did have Reggie Ball as the guy that was throwing him the ball. Dude had a huge year last year in the pros so obviously he isn’t just some bum. If anything, Calvin made Reggie Ball look semi-competent. He may have done little against Georgia, but that was do to a great play by Paul Oliver in the end zone in 2006 to strip the ball and we covered him with a corner and a safety on every play. If you remember the Virginia Tech game that year that set GA Tech on the path to win their ACC Division, he was a monster in Blacksburg. He definitely had some big-time games against big-time opponents, just not Georgia. Like I said, I think that was more a factor of our defensive scheme and his QB than it was Calvin. Then again, I’ve been wrong before.
http://hobnailboot.blogspot.com/
Exactly
Reggie Ball is perhaps the worst 4-yr starter in CFB history
by The ArchDawg on Feb 14, 2009 4:51 PM EST up reply actions
No argument on Reggie Ball . . .
. . . although, if Mark Richt hadn’t run Quincy Carter off by telling him he would have to compete for his job in 2001, Quincy Carter might well have wrested the “worst four-year starter” distinction from Reggie.
I meant to qualify my critique of Calvin Johnson’s career by confining my remarks to his college career, although, in re-reading my comment, I see I failed to make that seminal distinction; mea culpa. He’s clearly a talented guy, and he did have some good games, but, for all the criticisms of Terrence Edwards and Mohamed Massaquoi, I believe Johnson disappeared in more (though not all) critical college games than either Edwards or MoMass.
As a collegian, Johnson was a gussied-up Fred Gibson (who also had some big games, though not nearly enough, given his talent). The bottom line is that the only recruits I consider huge losses are the ones I feared when they went to rival schools. Calvin Johnson never gave me a reason to be scared of him. If I’m not worried about you when you play against my team, losing you must not have been that big a deal.
Go 'Dawgs!
That is a fair statement except
in the case of WRs, even the very best are limited by the ability of their quarterback.
In the sense that every player is limited by the ten guys around him, sure
I’ve seen a heck of a lot of great receivers make a heck of a lot of spectacular plays to make a heck of a lot of mediocre quarterbacks look good, though.
Reggie Ball is probably the dumbest quarterback I’ve ever seen, but he is far from the worst. If Reggie Ball had been throwing to, say, Florida’s or Florida State’s receiving corps from the 1990s—-or even Georgia’s receiving corps from the early to mid-‘90s—-there’d have been a lot more great catches made than Calvin made.
Paul Oliver had a lot more to do with Calvin Johnson’s underwhelming performances against Georgia than Reggie Ball did. Reggie didn’t put every ball right on the money for C.J., but enough of them were close enough that a receiver as highly touted as Johnson should have made a lot more plays than he made. Sometimes, it takes two to incomplete a pass.
Go 'Dawgs!
understood
but a WR and QB do rely on each other more than other players do. If a lineman misses a block, the RB can still get by the defender, but if a QB one hops a pass – the WR is completely powerless. Same goes the other way – you can have the best QB in the world, but he gets no credit for his passes when they are dropped.
I think Calvin Johnson was a great college WR and a an excellent NFL receiver as well. It is unfortunate for him to be cursed with playing in Detroit where virtually nobody can excel. Barry Sanders was one damn good RB – imagine what he could have done elsewhere?!
Reid didn't mess up his words...
I have felt since the moment he chose FSU over UGA that the entire reason he did was because he is afraid of the competition. Not that he isn’t any good, just that he wants to go somewhere that he can waltz in and be “The Man” and not have to actually work for it. Once he saw the talent already here and watched us bring in a guy like Branden Smith, he was going to hightail it because he was worried he couldn’t cut it. Provided this is the case, I do not mind him choosing “Free Shoes” U instead of UGA as we just do not need someone with the attitude it appears he does. No “yellow” players for us, thank you. I wish Reid all the best at FSU, but I am glad he is not in Athens.
Calvin was a big loss on the recruiting front, but Kyle has a good argument in saying that he never really scared us. He didn’t, but that was more because of the guy throwing him the ball and the fact that he and Choice were the only good offensive players Tech had. If CJ had held true to his original commitment and came to UGA and played with Greene instead of throwing his talent away at the NATS, who knows how great he could have been?
For my money though, the best lost recruit we have ever had is Eric Berry. It is hard to say we lost him since his father played for the Vols and the is a hard factor to overcome, but we did have a really good shot at him and didn’t close the deal. This kid stands a chance to break every meaningful NCAA record there is for safeties before he heads off to the No Fun League and it is not hard to imagine him being considered the best safety to ever play college football when all is said and done. Especially if he stays for his senior season. God what I would have given to have had Eric Berry in our secondary this season in place of Reshad Jones…what might have been…
I don't agree with you entire argument about not messing up the words, but...
…did you really have to mention the Eric Berry over Reshad Jones comparison? Wouldn’t have made a difference in the ‘Bama or Florida games, but there’s no way Tech scores 26 unanswered in the 3rd quarter if Berry is back there. Sigh…
http://hobnailboot.blogspot.com/
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