Welcome to Thursday's random recruiting. Let's look position by position at the latest news, rumor, and blatant innuendo:
Quarterback: For some time it's appeared that in addition to Watkinsville native Zack Mettenberger the coaches wanted one of two other signal callers: Tampa (Plant H.S.) QB Aaron Murray or Philadelphia (Cardinal O'Hara H.S.) product Tom Savage. Savage committed to Rutgers recently and Murray will announce today. The totally unsubstantiated conspiracy theory I've heard is that Savage went ahead and committed to Rutgers because he was told that Murray was committing to Georgia. The Florida message board faithful appear resigned to Murray coming to Athens, despite his proclamations early on that Florida was his childhood favorite and dream school. Logically, the depth chart in Athens may make more sense for him, and Murray made no secret of the fact that he was blown away by his visits to the Classic City.
But I still have my doubts about this one, despite the hype. Remember Tyler Love? The five star all-everything offensive tackle prospect from last year who did everything but rent an apartment on Broad Street but then signed with Alabama because it was his childhood favorite? Exactly. Even if Murray verbals to Georgia, expect Urban Meyer to show his usual restraint. In other words, we'll still be fighting it out until signing day. And we'll all have to hope that Aaron keeps his academic affairs in order.
Linebacker: Again, we just don't have a lot of slots. But we continue to pursue Jarvis Jones. The guy has that much potential. I think it's safe to say though that various other solid instate linebackers (Jonathan Davis, Corico Hawkins and Eric Fields come to mind) are truly off the board. Though I still think Davis could contribute at other positions.
Defensive end: If you have the chance, go to UGASports.com and take a look at the film of Phoenix (Desert Vista H.S.) defensive end Devon Kennard, who has an offer from Georgia. The guy reminds me a lot of Charles Johnson coming out of high school. He's just that much bigger, faster and stronger than everyone else on the field. When Mark Richt says that the coaches are willing to go out of state to get a truly exceptional player, I think this is what he means. It will be very difficult to get this young man to leave the southwest to come to Athens. Heck, Pete Carroll is probably doing one handed pushups while penning Kennard a handwritten letter right now. But that deosn't mean we shouldn't try, at least in one blogger's opinion.
Offensive line: By now you've heard about the commitment of Buford offensive lineman Dallas Lee. Along with Chris Burnette this means that the 'Dawgs have commitments from two of the top offensive linemen in the state, both of whom will play either guard or center in college. Now we still need to find 1-2 good tackles for this class. I still believe Jonathan Owens could move outside if necessary, and Cordy Glenn is working hard to get qualified. But you're never more than 1 year away from the type of O-line drought we've suffered through at least twice in recent memory. Look for the coaches to go after a gaggle of top notch offensive tackles in the class of 2009. They may have to go out of state to do it, though. Until later . . . Go Dawgs!!!