Friday, February 09, 2007
What Does It All Mean?
So I was in B'ham on national signing day......heard a bunch about how the Tigers/War Eagles/Plainsmen beat out the Tide in signing class......I did see numerous Super G's on cars and in front of houses so I think.....ok, I hope my house doesn't get torched when I fly my flag.....anyway....I got back to the ATL to see that our class is in the top 20 but that teams like Tech and South Carolina had classes ranked above us.......and yet, I'm not worried even a little....so my qestion is this......what does it all really mean.....and how much weight should it carry.....Toom did a great recap of a few of our classes last year....and with that in mind I feel like all that matters is how we perform on game day.......no matter if our star is a blue chipper or a walk on.
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Had a good talk with my dad and uncle about this on Tuesday....and we all came to a similar conclusion....with one exception. When a team is getting a Top 5 class year after year....that does make a difference.
In our situation this year....I think we were looking for some very specific holes to fill.....normally filled by guys who don't draw the 4 and 5 stars on the ratings...as do the recievers and RB's like UF and USC (the real one) got. I do like the fact that we had almost all of our commitments very early on...which tells me we got most of who we wanted. I also wouldn't doubt that there were a number of guys that we didn't want for attitude/history of trouble kinds of reasons. I use the fact that the kid from LaGrange tried to call the coaches on Monday to tell them he had chosen UGA....and we declined. Tells me the coaches knew something about that kid's character (granted I don't know him and he might be a shining example of what a human should be) or something. Just my thoughts.
Shaq
To me its all about taking the non-blue chip's and making them stars. that is how you win championships. If you think back 10 years ago, recruiting was not telvised and hyped as much as is it now. So I think, that is why its such a big deal. As we all found out in the past, if you don't have an O-line, you can have all the 4 stars you want but they will take a pounding. I.E. Jim Donnan-great recruits+crappy coaching=6-5. I mean david pallack was not a 4 star recruit and he became a 2 time all-american.
I think it is a lot like fishing. A great boat and great equipment and a lot of fishing know-how are your coaches and facilities. But if you're on a lake where there aren't many fish or the fish are small, (the players) you're not going to win many fishing tournaments.
I think you can predict, based on recruiting average, who the Top 10 is going to be, year in and year out. As the game gets faster, this is even easier to predict and statistics in recruiting bear this out. (Also part of the reason why we've seen such increased interest) That's not to say recruiting summarizes how a team will perform. You can project for example, that a team that recruits top 10 on average who graduates a lot of linemen the year before will be relatively down, but in 3 years, should be relatively up. It's no coincidence that UGA has had senior OLs in 1982, 2002, and 2005 and won the conference. (Making 2003 with THAT schedule, one of the all time great performances - I think DG was sacked like 35 times)
What you can't predict are the intangibles. Injuries, chemistry, match-ups, and just plain dumb luck. That can be the difference between a good season and a great season, or for those who aren't good recruiters, a bad season and an OK season.
I saw someone had the SEC having 7 teams in the top 10, recruiting. This kind of parity screws up the conference but it places much more importance on actual performance and makes the whole thing a lot more fun. The main difference between SEC top team and another conference top team is defensive speed and its happened out of necessity. Just ask Alabama with scholarship limitations, if they'd like to skimp on O or D. They've been horrible on O-Line (no depth)but they also know that they wouldn't have won anything had they skimped on D. It's why other teams try and keep the field small after about a quarter. An SEC DT runs down their qb or a DE end makes a play on a toss sweep and they say, "So much for that." Say what you will about Meyer's offense but that team won with Ron Zook's defensive studs.
As far as UGA goes, I'm concerned that we didn't get anybody from FL bc it might be a sign that our contacts have dried up. That and I'm convinced they have enough high school talent to field every D! team in the country. But as far as actual personnel goes, we didn't need anymore skill people. We need some guys to block for Moreno and Thomas and Stafford and Caleb and MoMass and this kid Green that's coming next year. Last year's crop on D was nothing short of awesome as well and not too many DBs are wanting to come to UGA where they redshirted 2 safeties and started a freshman at CB.
We got what we needed. Did we need another QB? Only 1 plays, and we have a set starter a good second, and Logan Gray coming. Did we need RBs? We've got a stable of them, and will have for some time with Moreno and King (after beign red-shirted). We got OL and DL, big and lots of it. It may take a year, but it won't be a worry for long. We got Troupe +1 at WR. I would have loved one more, but someone is bound to step up this year. The LBs and DBs usually don't play as Frosh., but Rennie Curran will do us well in the future. I don't see any holes of any consequence.
I remember a year when the Atlanta Hawks had 3 big scorers and still found themselves in the basement. Moses Malone, Reggie Theus, and one other. Every night, those guys fought over who would score 28, and one of them did, but only one. They had the talent, but no chemistry. There was only room for one "go to guy/playmaker." It would look great on paper to have Bo Jackson and Herschel in the same backfield, but the end result would be one guy getting 200 yds. or 2 getting 100. 2 5 star runners on one team get just about the same as 1 5 star guy alone. 2 5 star QBs throw the same number of passes that 1 5 star guy will.
The Dawgs will be good. Surprisingly so, and some of these gigantic OL guys will play this year, and play well. By the team these guys are Seniors, we will have 2 All Americans and will have forgotten Stinchcomb.
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