re: 2018 UGA Recruiting Thread (commits, offers, visits, etc.) - Back to that #1 class

List of all 5 stars since 2008

2008: AJ Green (drafted), Richard Samuel, DeAngelo Tyson (drafted)
2009: Aaron Murray (drafted and DGD), Marlon Brown (played in NFL)
2010: Alec Ogletree (drafted)
2011: Isiah Crowell (drafted), Ray Drew (played in NFL)
2012: Keith Marshall (drafted), John Theus (drafted), John Harvey-Clemons (drafted), Jordan Jenkins (drafted)
2014: Lorenzo Carter, Sony Michel, Nick Chubb
2015: Trent Thompson, Terry Godwin
2016: Jacob Eason, Isaac Nauta
2017: Isaiah Wilson, Richard LeCounte III, De'Andre Swift. Fromm was borderline 5 star.
2018..so far: Justin Fields, Zamir White
2019..so far: Jadon Haselwood, Nolan Smith, Dominick Blaylock

We have had overall really good luck with our 5 stars. A couple have gotten kicked off or transferred but a really high success rate.

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Dawgsontop34

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Thanks, typo

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I don’t remember Zander being a 5 star. I could’ve sworn he was a 3*

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Same here. They must have bumped him up the day of.

Ray Drew didn't live up to his 5 star rating.

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JC seems to have righted the ship on the offensive side of the ball so likely bought a fair amount of goodwill.

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I hope so. I liked him (even last year when everybody else didn't) from the beginning. I mean, if you have the players, I could be the OC and do well, but he was very limited by what he could do with a freshman QB. I realize Fromm is a true freshman, too, but he seems to have picked everything up a bit faster, and Chaney has opened to playbook more as the season has gone along.

Our fan base has GOT to quit reacting in a knee jerk way, or we are going to run off some good coaches.
(This was not aimed at you, fib)

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Exactly, I don't see either of them ever leaving voluntarily from Athens. Neither seems to have HC ambitions and if we want them here then we will pay them what they want.

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Fully agree. Not impossible that something changes, but certainly unlikely. Both guys have generally stayed where they are in the last several years unless pushed out. I don't see that changing. Devil you know and all that jazz.

On the other hand, a good portion of our defensive staff is going to be at risk over the next couple of seasons. Mel Tucker probably close to HC offers. Sherrer up for a DC gig if I had to guess. Scott probably safe for a few after the quick bolt out of Oxford... Doesn't want to look unstable. Gotta figure a way to retain Schumann IMO. He is one of the keys.

Could see Coley leave for an OC gig at some point. Beamer less likely at this time. Also must retain Dell McGee if at all possible. Has been murdering fools on the recruiting trail.

Very interested to see what happens with the 10th coaching slot... Assuming it goes to one of the guys on staff already, but who knows.

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I don’t remember Zander being a 5 star. I could’ve sworn he was a 3*

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I thought so, too, but I just looked him up and he is showing 5* .9865 which is off the charts!

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Considering what he had to work with....I don't know. I mean first year here and putting in his offensive scheme. Freshman QB. Patchwork OLine, that was playing out of position. (I will blame the coaches for this one, since the most important position on the line was playing at guard)

Some of those things made him look worse than he was, though. he can call the plays, but if the receivers are dropping the passes....and if the Olinemen are playing out of position, and our QB is looking more settled.

Well, maybe we are basically saying the same thing, here. When you have the players it's easy to look good. When you don't, I don't care who you have at OC. he isn't going to look good.

Looks like I am derailing the recruiting thread, again, though. Sorry.

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Haha... yeah, a bit of a derail, but I'll give one last reply... if we want to continue it in another thread afterwards, not the worst idea.

I'd already typed this up once, but in transition to my flight, looks like it didn't post and didn't store the typed message in my phone either...

Here's how I look at it. Chaney in 2016 was objectively bad as an OC. That doesn't mean he had a great starting hand... but he played it poorly. Does it look better this year? Absolutely... he made changes *in addition* to the improvements in certain positions.

If we take it one at a time:

OL: The only truly "new addition" to the starting OL is Andrew Thomas at RT. All 4 other starters (and the 1st backup Sims) were on the roster last year. With that said, Kindley likely wasn't really "ready" last year, so we'll give him 2/5 there... though the biggest concerns last year really were RG/RT... starting Catalina at LT when it seemed he was simply not the right guy was odd... I can't say how much of it was Wynn really improving this offseason, but it certainly seems we misplayed that collectively... We're undefeated with Wynn at LT in his career going back to 2015 I believe... seems like after some of the poor OL play early, we might have gone to that prior to when we did last year. Catalina obviously showing that he has ability by making an NFL roster as a backup OG.

WR: We lost our most dynamic receiver from last year in IMac... otherwise, every significantly contributing WR this season was on the roster last year as well. Ridley was hurt a lot last year, Godwin has improved a ton as has Wims, and Hardman was being groomed at DB even though most who knew him felt that he was most electric with the ball in his hands. We continued to trot out Stanley and Chigbu at WR a good amount last year... I'd put that on the coaches to some degree as it was just another indication on when we were likely to run vs pass... the improvement of perimeter blocking by our talented *receivers* at the position has been a huge boost and given Chaney a lot more flexibility. Still can't give coaches a complete pass on 16 given that all of these guys were on the roster.

QB: How much of Fromm's success is because we're not asking him to outright win games for us? I *love* the kid and I think he's supremely talented, particularly operating the type of offense we clearly seem to want to be this year. The weird thing to me is, we spent nearly zero effort on trying to put Eason in a similar offensive style last year, even though it would have helped neutralize our OL woes. Key concerns on Eason was his lack of touch and accuracy... so by no means do I think he would have had the same effectiveness as Fromm, but I do wonder if putting the games on his shoulders as a true freshman can't be argued as another big misstep by the staff.

Anyways... I am just glad that we're having *this* conversation now, rather than "when the frick is Jim Chaney gone"

To put this back on topic... listened to some UGA podcast episodes since I'm on a few flights today and really appreciated Sentell's comments on something that I had already noticed and think may be a little underrated in this 2018 class. Beyond just the ability to pull in so many elite recruits (chance at finishing with 6 total five stars at this time - Fields, White, Salyer, Mays, Henry, Campbell - with a few more just outside in top 50 players: Cook, Anderson, Ford and Hill)...

How about this... If we were to pull Tindall and Mays, we would be taking 2 top tier recruits out of home towns with rival SEC East programs - Tindall in Columbia, SC and Mays in Knoxville, TN. That's tantamount to Kirby just whipping his dick out and having a quick and successful measure against 2 rival coaches. If we are able to essentially secure the talent we want in 90% of cases in state, and then walk into "hostile territory" and go take what we want from there as well... the sky is the damn limit.

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2012: Keith Marshall (drafted), John Theus (drafted), John Harvey-Clemons (drafted), Jordan Jenkins (drafted)

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That's a weird one to me, as Jordan Jenkins was nationally #36, and I feel like I recall reading that 247 has tried to limit 5*s to the top 32 players (to reflect NFL first round draft "potential"). Perhaps that's something they enforced subsequent to the 2012 recruiting year... can't recall when I remember reading that.

Looking back at last several years though, it looks like that # has been floating, so perhaps just misremembering.

Interesting note... in 2016, there were only 25 composite 5* athletes in total nationally... Just seems really low.

Are you guys thinking about his twin brother that played FB?