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Opinion Time: Best recruiting class ever?
Posted on 2/6/14 at 9:34 am
Posted on 2/6/14 at 9:34 am
"Best" is hard to qualify. I guess for the purpose of this exercise, which class do you think was the one that BEFORE anybody ever played a snap, was the one where you'd be inclined to say "this is the best class we've ever had"? Meaning..some of those early 2000s classes set the way for some great runs we had, but on NSD itself a lot of times there wasn't much star power. Greene, Pollack, Davis, Jennings, etc were all relatively unknowns at the time, although in hindsight of course they were crucial. So I'm talking about just taking things at face value only on NSD. Some to consider:
1980- I wasn't around then, so I can't begin to tell you about how sought after most of these guys were. I do know that several have big name recognition and helped us out, so I assume those were pretty highly sought after players. But really, this is here due to Herschel, obviously. Even before he was HERSCHEL, he was still one of the most wanted players in America.
1998-Stellar class with some big time blue chippers. Even the ones that didn't quite pan out for us (Quincy, Sanks, Mitchell) were still very highly rated. Ranked #4 at the time by SI. LINK and I want to say it was #1 by a couple services, could be wrong on that though.
1999- Ended up ranked #2 by tom lemming. Brown and Robinson were the top 2 WRs in America if memory serves. Several other big timers on there as well.
2006- This class, ranked 4th by rivals, might just have the most "star" power. Stafford and Reshad were 5 stars, and we had a ton of 4 stars to boot.
There's not a lot of data out there on how heavily recruited people were going back before the mid 90s, so my options here are pretty limited. Any others to throw in the ring?
1980- I wasn't around then, so I can't begin to tell you about how sought after most of these guys were. I do know that several have big name recognition and helped us out, so I assume those were pretty highly sought after players. But really, this is here due to Herschel, obviously. Even before he was HERSCHEL, he was still one of the most wanted players in America.
1998-Stellar class with some big time blue chippers. Even the ones that didn't quite pan out for us (Quincy, Sanks, Mitchell) were still very highly rated. Ranked #4 at the time by SI. LINK and I want to say it was #1 by a couple services, could be wrong on that though.
1999- Ended up ranked #2 by tom lemming. Brown and Robinson were the top 2 WRs in America if memory serves. Several other big timers on there as well.
2006- This class, ranked 4th by rivals, might just have the most "star" power. Stafford and Reshad were 5 stars, and we had a ton of 4 stars to boot.
There's not a lot of data out there on how heavily recruited people were going back before the mid 90s, so my options here are pretty limited. Any others to throw in the ring?
This post was edited on 2/6/14 at 9:36 am
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Posted on 2/6/14 at 9:45 am to WG_Dawg
I have always been partial to the 1990 class.
QB Eric Zeier
RB Garrison Hearst
WR Andre Hastings
WR Hason Graham
OT Bernard Williams
LB Mitch Davis
LB Carlo Butler
S Greg Tremble
That class was pretty top heavy, but VERY talented.
QB Eric Zeier
RB Garrison Hearst
WR Andre Hastings
WR Hason Graham
OT Bernard Williams
LB Mitch Davis
LB Carlo Butler
S Greg Tremble
That class was pretty top heavy, but VERY talented.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 9:51 am to JStanDawgFan
Ooh good one.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 9:52 am to WG_Dawg
2015. 
Posted on 2/6/14 at 9:59 am to JStanDawgFan
quote:
QB Eric Zeier
RB Garrison Hearst
Love watching these 2 play.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 10:14 am to WG_Dawg
quote:
Ooh good one.
Yeah. They never got the hardware in college, but man that was a talented freshman class. I am pretty sure that Zeier, Hearst, and Hastings were all consensus 5 star recruits.
ETA: By the way, Ray Goff should have lost his job on principle alone after redshirting Zeier in favor of Greg Talley. Don't get me wrong Talley gave everything he had for the team, but no way Zeier should have sat behind him for a year. Granted the college football world was different back then and QB's never came in and played right away, but Zeier was that talented out of HS to be an exception.
This post was edited on 2/6/14 at 10:19 am
Posted on 2/6/14 at 11:31 am to WG_Dawg
Has anybody ever gone back and re-evaluated recruiting classes once the players careers are all finished at each school?
Todd Gurley for instance was a "4 star", but he'd obviously be considered a "5 star" now in hindsight, right?. While other "5 stars", would be down-graded based on falling short of their expectations coming in. SO, it'd be interesting to see how the top recruiting classes might be shuffled around based on actual results in college.
WGDawg, As Minister of Stats for the Chowderpop Guild, please add this project to your list of off-season chores.............thanks.
Todd Gurley for instance was a "4 star", but he'd obviously be considered a "5 star" now in hindsight, right?. While other "5 stars", would be down-graded based on falling short of their expectations coming in. SO, it'd be interesting to see how the top recruiting classes might be shuffled around based on actual results in college.
WGDawg, As Minister of Stats for the Chowderpop Guild, please add this project to your list of off-season chores.............thanks.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 11:40 am to Jefferson Dawg
quote:
Has anybody ever gone back and re-evaluated recruiting classes once the players careers are all finished at each school?
I remember this being done by a poster on Dawg Run. Basically concluded that our realized product on the field is often not as good as our recruiting ranking due to a variety of reasons not the least of which is attrition of top recruits and busts though obviously some turn out better than their recruited rankings.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 12:00 pm to JStanDawgFan
quote:
ETA: By the way, Ray Goff should have lost his job on principle alone after redshirting Zeier in favor of Greg Talley
Zeier never redshirted. With that having been said, Goff still should have lost his job for failing to start Zeier immediately. There was not one thing Talley did as a QB that was better than Zeier the second Zeier stepped on campus. And Zeier was one of the first H.S. players in history to take advantage of graduating early so he could participate in Spring practice.
Zeier actually took over the job from Talley in the Clemson game his first season and went on to start the final 7 games, fwiw.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 12:25 pm to GoldenDawg
quote:
Opinion Time: Best recruiting class ever?
Alabama 2014
/thread
Posted on 2/6/14 at 12:25 pm to IT_Dawg
oh....and frick Grantham
Posted on 2/6/14 at 12:29 pm to IT_Dawg
quote:
oh....and frick Grantham
It's so nice to finally have a villain to cast our hatred toward that is NOT employed by the University
Posted on 2/6/14 at 12:33 pm to IT_Dawg
quote:
quote:
Opinion Time: Best recruiting class ever?
Alabama 2014
/thread
With six 5 stars, fifteen 4 stars and five 3 stars, it's hard to argue against that assessment irrespective of how they all pan out.
This post was edited on 2/6/14 at 1:18 pm
Posted on 2/6/14 at 1:11 pm to GoldenDawg
quote:
Zeier never redshirted. With that having been said, Goff still should have lost his job for failing to start Zeier immediately. There was not one thing Talley did as a QB that was better than Zeier the second Zeier stepped on campus. And Zeier was one of the first H.S. players in history to take advantage of graduating early so he could participate in Spring practice.
Zeier actually took over the job from Talley in the Clemson game his first season and went on to start the final 7 games, fwiw.
That's right! Memory is getting to old. I definitely remembered Zeier being a pioneer by being an early enrollee. Now its commonplace throughout the country.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 1:14 pm to JStanDawgFan
quote:
That's right! Memory is getting to old. I definitely remembered Zeier being a pioneer by being an early enrollee. Now its commonplace throughout the country.
I only remember it so well because I was a student at UGA at the time, sitting in the stands with my head exploding every time Talley went out there with Zeier on the bench.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 1:18 pm to GoldenDawg
quote:
I only remember it so well because I was a student at UGA at the time, sitting in the stands with my head exploding every time Talley went out there with Zeier on the bench
Yeah, that was bad. I can remember the Talley/Wayne Johnson QB battle days. Brutal.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 1:23 pm to WG_Dawg
I came into UGA with the 2006 class and it was loaded. I only followed Scout back then, so I can only analyze it from that viewpoint. Some big time talent in that class that wasn't rated as high as it should have been on Scout, which was balanced out by some big time busts.
Outside of Stafford, Knowshon, Asher Allen and Reshad Jones, I was most excited about Dewberry, Hebron, Brandon Wood, and Na Derris Ward
Geno Atkins was waaaaaaaaaaay low on Scout.
Outside of Stafford, Knowshon, Asher Allen and Reshad Jones, I was most excited about Dewberry, Hebron, Brandon Wood, and Na Derris Ward
Geno Atkins was waaaaaaaaaaay low on Scout.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 1:28 pm to MenloDawg
quote:
Geno Atkins was waaaaaaaaaaay low on Scout.
Which never made sense because he was named Florida's class AAAAA defensive player of the year.
He was clearly a beast in H.S., but Scout never seemed to catch on.
Glad our coaches did, though.
Posted on 2/6/14 at 1:35 pm to GoldenDawg
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