How so? By calling to attention that for all his flaws, recruiting wasn't generally one of them? I've argued many times on this board that his OL recruiting was abysmal for years (essentially the last half of his tenure), so you're not going to find any arguments there. But this was a philosophical distinction for him, rather than a "failure"... His opinion was based on how things went at FSU... he did not believe that you needed elite OL in order to have a successful offense. He valued skill players more highly and was open about it. Whether that was a mistake or not (I believe it was) is in the eye of the beholder. A bigger failure in that regard to me was an inability to attract elite WRs to what was a pretty pass friendly offense (lots of play action).

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Miami and sc both got Smart rejects that were richt guys, so the statement was factually based

Not exactly. You implied that the only guys that might be in the fold were low rated rejects. Deejay Dallas not low rated and would have been committed. I don't think he's going to be an elite WR and doesn't have the size for RB IMO. 4*, #13 ATH in the country. Zamir White #1 RB 2018 also has essentially said that he would be committed to the old UGA staff... doesn't mean we won't get him, but we're back to square one there... There are elite players that could potentially be already committed to UGA under the old staff just like top tier players are committing to the new one.

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underachieving due to high profile misses

High profile misses like Derrick Brown or the Archer OL (drawing a blank right now... Price?)... Recruiting is a numbers game. You will miss out on a lot as everyone has a limited number of slots. Smart has even said as much to all the "build a wall around the state" talk... and yet he's still doing a fricking fantastic job of locking down the majority of the top talent for 17.

Again, don't get me wrong, as I wouldn't trade... simply pointing out that your statement was a bit misplaced. You can be happy with what you have without talking shite about a guy that gave 15 years to our program and won at a higher clip than every coach that had been here before him. Smart is coming in to get past the plateau that Richt couldn't... I like what I'm seeing during the offseason and ready to see how that translates on the field.