A National Signing Day Post Mortem

Now we can go back to actual football, not this internet and media fueled hoopla.

… and call it gold. Georgia’s class just isn’t as good at Florida’s class this year… on paper. There’s no getting around that.

I will reserve final judgment on this signing class for at least 24 months, however… seems only reasonable to see some results on the field before calling this signing effort a failure compared to the other SEC schools ranked ahead of us right now.

If we filled the holes we needed to fill on defense and stocked up another offensive lineman or two (because lord knows you can’t have too many offensive linemen), then I’m pleased.

No one’s is… Ours just isn’t as bad as some people are making it out to be.

Like I said though, before we talk about their 16 ESPN commits, let’s see who qualifies, who is let go, and who steals a dead girl’s credit card.

Hell, in 6 months Steve Addazio may be the head coach at Florida… Then a bunch of recruits jump ship.

that is all.

. . . I will abandon my planned six-part series “Previous Eras of Georgia Football We Thought Were Good That Secretly Sucked, Too” and extend my thanks to RedCrake for exemplifying the SB Nation principle of fan-produced community-driven quality weblog content. I am in your debt, sir.

I will also express my gratitude to RedCrake for putting matters into context for us. I quite agree that average star rating is a better measure than total stars, as the former accounts adequately for smaller classes such as ours. High-profile defections like Da’Rick Rogers, late disappointments like Christian Green, and the general perception (fair or unfair) that we whiffed on almost every kid who took his decision down to the wire, coupled with the undeniable fact that Florida cleaned up, has me a little glum.

No, recruiting isn’t everything, or even the main thing, but it is a large thing . . . large enough, in fact, that, during the modern heyday of Georgia football, Ron Zook was able to go 2-1 against the Bulldogs, despite being able to do nothing else well except recruit.

Nevertheless, you are right that recruiting is need-driven and a football team is a unit. Talent is a prerequisite, but it is one of many important factors, and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The latter fact is significant, for two reasons:

1. All eleven players have to function together, so it is not enough to be stocked at the so-called “skill positions.” The best quarterback in the country can’t complete passes to the best receiving corps in the country without a competent offensive line. As Chris Brown recently noted, there is a limit to a team’s ability to be good at one thing if it is bad at something else; opposing teams will key on weaknesses, so a team must be strong at every point. Any given recruiting class must be targeted to improve existing weaknesses, and this class did that.

2. The best recruiter in the world can’t win games without getting athletes to qualify academically, commit to being a part of a team, and execute effectively a well-designed game plan. Mark Richt’s selectivity regarding academics (as evidenced by the high rate at which his recruits qualify) and character, together with the recent positive changes to the Georgia coaching staff, have gone a long way toward correcting the systemic problems in Athens.

To this fact should be added a fact that occurred to me after considering a point made by Senator Blutarsky. The Senator noted, I believe correctly, that he couldn’t recall ever leaving the stadium in Jacksonville after a loss to Florida and thinking, “We’d have won that game in Athens.” Likewise, I can’t recall ever watching a loss to the Gators and thinking, “We lost that game due to lack of talent.”

Even the teams in the 1990s that got shellacked regularly by the Orange and Blue featured loads of future NFL draft picks. At one point, Steve Spurrier even noted that Georgia regularly beat Florida in the recruiting rankings, paying a backhanded compliment to preface the declaration, “Something must happen to them at Georgia.”

We have the talent, and tankertoad is right that the mercenary mentality in Knoxville is what got Tennessee into its present mess . . . and not just under Lane Kiffin, who merely mirrored what already was a trend at a program focused on rugged individualists like the California Clausens who insulted their own teammates by stating that the Vols would have won had they only played. Can you imagine any Mark Richt-coached quarterback ever saying such a thing? (D.J. Shockley certainly didn’t say such a thing about Joe Tereshinski III after the 2005 Cocktail Party, even though it undeniably was true.)

We got a good group of guys who want to be Georgia Bulldogs, and that counts for quite a lot, even if some of the more heralded fish got away. So, yeah, it wasn’t a great day, but it was a good day. Grand slams may bring crowds to their feet, but consistent hitting and reliable pitching win more baseball games in the long run than the long ball does.

If losing Jeff Whitaker was the price we had to pay for a defensive coordinator whose new scheme will put the players we do have in a position to win games, that opportunity cost was well worth it. This class may not contain as much high-end talent as I would have liked, but at least I am confident in the current coaching staff to get the most out the talent we have. Except for a brief window from 2002 to 2004, how often have we said that since Erk Russell left for Statesboro?

As a wise man said above, “Anyone who can call that a failure (at least on the defensive side of the ball) is clearly delusional or so predisposed to pessimism that they can’t see the proverbial forest for the trees.” To whom, I wonder, was that referring? :)

We were pining for the early Richt years when we signed several 3 or less star guys in each class with tremendous upside that we could coach up.

There are lots of guys like that in this class – Brandon Burrows comes to mind (could have easily been a four or even five star if it weren’t for injury, Brent Benedict as well) — now we just have to see if we have the coaching component in place.

Yeah, we lost a few kids today, but our biggest need was filled when GATA pulled into town.

We are going to have a lot of ‘ships for 2011. From what I’ve gathered over the last few weeks, we are going about our bid’ness the right way. I’m thrilled with this class. I am also thrilled with the depth already in place.

Exhale, breathe, sleep. Repeat every February.

In that second picture, he looks like Charles Manson with dreadlocks.

I’m not advocating murder by any means, but if he wants to inflict some violence on Da’rick, Christian, or Adrian, I’m sure Bacarri Rambo will be more than happy to give him some tips.