re: 2020 Recruiting Thread (SVP and Broderick Jones stay committed to the G)

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Good point, and accurate. But, getting two 3* WR's and a 4* is still behind our DLine recruiting....going by start power only, which is what some on here are going by.

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I'm not going through and quoting all 700 posts here, but will at least weigh in...

Comparing one year of our WR recruiting to the totality of our DL recruiting is a little disingenuous. I'm not as far gone as NCDawg52 on this point, but DL recruiting has not been a great success for us. Frankly, I put some of that on Kirby. Scott's work thus far leaves a little to be desired, but if Kirby doesn't make it a point of emphasis to start landing the same level of elite talent on the DL as we are under Pittman on the OL, I think we may have a fair amount more heartbreaking games to watch late in the season. I don't know if it's a scheme issue, a messaging issue, or what... but we're failing to generate pressure from the front 5 (or even 7 since we use OLB/ILB a little differently) consistently, yet he doesn't like to dial up pressure with extra bodies and when questioned on why our OLB don't have enough sacks/pressures he says that's not what we ask them to do...

Something has to give there... You either need elite bodies on the DL that can dominate 1:1 and cause havoc on their own OR at least they force teams to scheme around them or double team them freeing up your LBs to then be the cause of that havoc.




It's also worth noting, that there is a bit more that is having to go into player evaluation in 2020 classes and beyond, relative to what we've dealt with in years past. The transfer portal has already caused some depth issues for us, and the staff clearly has identified that as a source of risk when ranking candidates and arranging our board.

Burton for example was identified as an attitude/transfer risk early and dropped from consideration. Similarly, there is chatter that Jarrett had asked the staff to hold a spot (aka silent commit) and then publicly committed to LSU - he's reached out to the staff since then, but it seems we have more or less cut off most communication seeing this as another red flag. Paris Johnson, the OG/DT Rogers and several others it sounds have been flagged as such and consequently moved down or off the board altogether.



Of the 2 3* and 4* WRs you're referring to, one - Rosemy - is already only a few spots away from a 5th star and is on the heels of two stellar camps in the Rivals 5* challenge and the Opening. While I don't think he'll get his 5th, he's a top 40 ranked player overall and if 247 updates their ranking for him, he'll be right at, or just outside his 5th star. Corey Wren is a project - likely won't move up rankings no matter what since he doesn't actually play WR in HS - and has been selected for one very important aspect... speed. He's the replacement for a Hardman/Crumpton/IMac player... Fortunately, we shouldn't need him to contribute early, and frankly, for jet sweeps only, he could still potentially play really early still.

The only real question mark of those 3 is Robinson, and there are 2 different camps... I'm not sure what to believe. 1) The staff identified him very early as a top target, they see him as a Calvin Johnson-esque WR and that his ranking is a product of injury and not going to camps... 2) There are some who think he doesn't end up in the class...

Keep in mind that Hankton was hired in Feb of 2018... In his first class, he signed 2 5* and a 4* WR... In the follow up class he's adding an "almost 5*", one of the fastest athletes in the entire 2020 recruiting class, and someone that the staff has identified as a high upside candidate. You'd be hard pressed to make a reasonable case that Scott is even in the same ballpark.

I think this year *on the field* matters a lot more for Scott than this year *on the recruiting trail*, but we are going to start having some attrition at the position from the larger DL class that we had in Kirby's first class. If we don't hit on the trail this year, we're going to find ourselves pretty thin in 2020 and 2021... particularly if a guy like Jordan Davis decides he's got a good enough draft profile to leave early after 2020.



Ultimately - It's a little less than honest to try and equate 2020 WR class as a "failure" on par with our DL recruiting in general. Hankton >>> Scott thus far and it's not really a close contest. DL has been our most underperforming unit from a recruiting standpoint in the Kirby era. We need to see a change there... the teams that are loading up in that area are the ones that we can ill afford to see it happen with. Every elite DL that we lose to Clemson, Alabama, etc is another body that can potentially line up with our elite OL... I'd much rather see them doing that with fewer elite prospects, wouldn't you? Not to mention the advantage that bringing them to Athens gives us against their OL.


NB4 - TL;DR, Holy Wall of Text Batman, etc ...