re: 2015 UGA recruiting thread (commits, offers, etc)

I know this is the recruiting thread, but I'm posting my thoughts on the game in here to limit the amount of dumbasses commenting on it. It also ties back into recruiting in a major way. Warning: Long.

Contrary to the opinion of what I hope is the loud minority, UGA did not lose that game because of Mason and Bobo on the final drive after the interception. UGA didn't lose the game because of two missed field goals, although they certainly would have helped.

UGA lost because the USCe OL handled UGA's front seven in the pass rush and at times in the running game. This left the secondary, which everybody should have known is the weakness of our team, and our ILBs, who struggle in space, exposed on the back end, and they weren't good enough to handle it.

When I was going through the recruiting process (in another sport, but the anecdote still applies), you'd go to these showcase camps and tournaments with your club team. The college coaches that were there just had a clipboard with names and numbers of every player on every team. I don't know how every one of them did it, but the standard joke was that you didn't want to get marked as "NGE" or "not good enough." It was basically the terminology used by coaches on their clipboard making snap judgements on players to try and sort through the masses at a showcase camp.

We've got several guys at DB and ILB that should have been marked NGE. Y'all basically know who I'm talking about so I won't call anybody out. A few of them are playing a good bit for us. The bigger problem, imo, is that we have very little play-able depth because those guys are taking up scholarships that could have been used on guys who at least had some developmental upside. I'm not talking about the standard busts that don't work out. I'm talking about the guys who never should have been recruited in the first place because they don't meet the athletic baseline to get it done in big-time football. Several years of bad evals and misses at ILB and DB have caught up to us. We also could really use JHC this year, but that's another debate for another time.

So what can be done about it. IMO, the only guys who are playing well enough for us at ILB and DB are Herrera, Reggie Carter, Swann (not great but the best we got), and Mauger, surprisingly enough. Sanders is taking his lumps, but he's one of the relative few who can do it athletically, so he needs to stay out there. We desperately need Fenteng to get healthy. Davis is a liability in man-to-man, but he's probably the smartest DB we have, and he's athletic enough to be a solid safety. Moore did well against Clemson but really struggled yesterday. He's also one of our best athletes though so he probably needs to be playing in some fashion. Bowman is a huge liability. Wilson is our fourth-best ILB and should be playing behind Herrera, R. Carter, and Kimbrough IMO.

In terms of this season, our defense is really going to struggle if the pass rush isn't effective. Floyd, Jenkins, Lorenzo Carter, and the DL need to bring it every Saturday, or we're in trouble. They're really good players, and the season can still be very successful if they play well. Everything's still out in front of this team. The best player in the country still plays for us, and that gives UGA a chance in every game, against any team.

In recruiting, Roquan Smith, Donte Jackson, Tarvarus McFadden, Rashad Roundtree, and Micah Abernathy are all critically important. UGA basically needs a massive talent upgrade at ILB and DB before it can really be a championship-level defense.

Sorry for the TL/DR, but thought it was worth sharing to generate some discussion.

I agree with all of that

So whats the latest news on Sweat? VT and UGA lost, so does that put FSU in the lead? I keep seeing FSU getting more and more predictions for J Sweat. Don't tell me he likes them free kroger crab legs.

If he was like knuckleheads like me he'd have a new top 3

Crow, why couldnt we adjust our secondary when they kept using those stacked routes against our zones? Pruitt got them in a 4th with Swann as a robber, why didnt we try that sooner? or maybe we did and I didnt notice?

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I'm not really qualified to comment on scheme. I try to limit my comments to stuff I at least have some basis for comparison for, like how athletic somebody is. Not that I'm qualified to do that, but I'm more qualified than I am to talk about advanced football tactics.

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oh, I'm not either, sorry if that came off like a Peter Buck comment or somehting...I just noticed that robber position for the first time on the pick and wondered why we waited so long to try it....which that probably wasnt even the first time they ran it.

What's up with Langley? Surely he's as good as anyone out there now and evidently isn't making any impressions as a wr.

He played db last year.

Evidently not.