Wow, the recruiting world never fails to surprise you and Xzavier Ward committing to UGA yesterday certainly surprised me. I have been following his story for a while now and it really did appear his indecision was hurting him in the process. He was part of the original Dream Team, seemed to have lost some luster for whatever reason, was interested in UGA along with others, then seemed UGA had kind of backed off him. As of 1/17, his final three were Auburn, Bama, and Florida. He also took a visit to Middle Tenn State, then last week visited Miss State. GaTech had an in home visit with him last week, Georgia was interested but had said they wanted him to greyshirt. I am guessing UGA decided they wanted to offer one more tackle, thus agreed to let Antonio Richardson visit when he asked, then found out he was not going to consider UGA so then Sunday morning made an offer to Taylor Gadbois who was committed to Miami. When Gadbois came back and said he was sticking with the Canes, Richt and company went to Ward and offered him the spot and it appears he took it on the spot almost. I am NEVER against offering and signing a lot of OL and DL because I truly believe that is where games are won or lost and also, those positions are the ones that most coaches have trouble really knowing if a kid will pan out. Let's face it, most OL are redshirted because they need more size and strength. DL kids have a better shot at playing early but many of them are also redshirted. In the case of Ward, at 6'7" and 270lbs, there is no doubt he has the frame to add at least another 30-40lbs and could be a force on our OL by 2012 or 2013. Amazingly, we had an OL prospect to our list without having an OL coach. I think that speaks volumes for the confidence our recruits have in Coach Mark Richt. Here is a bio of Ward from Rivals.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/uga/football/recruiting/player-Xzavier-Ward-105824
I already previewed the Gators yesterday so I will just say take a look at that post to read up on our SECe rivals. Should be a great crowd tonight, 4th sellout in a row. Game is set for 7pm and can been seen on ESPN tonight as part of the SEC/Big10 Big Tuesday. Would be great to get this win, we need it badly after the tough loss to the Vols last Tuesday. Here is an article from the Dawgpost about how our new AD is really evaluating our basketball program, as in how to make it a better experience for our fans that are maybe not as into hoops as they are football. As the article states, winning will help draw fans to the games, but also the local Athens/Oconee county area needs to be excited about going to watch exciting SEC basketball. It is TOUGH for those of us in the metro ATL to make trips to games in Athens during the week so the key to weeknight sellouts will be the locals and of course students. I can't believe students would not want to attend the games, college basketball is a lot of fun and the tickets are cheap for students. I attended all I could when I was a student, course we had some really good players back then in Alex Kessler and Litterial Green. Sounds like people are starting to take notice to our hoops team and program which can only help when it comes to national recognition and more importantly, recruiting.
http://georgia.scout.com/2/1042510.html
A week from today, it will be the final countdown to signing day 2011. From all accounts, this has been an outstanding class so far for us and we stand a good shot at getting some very elite guys in the next week or so. IF we can land the last three pieces to the puzzle, Drew (announcing this Friday), Crowell on signing day and Jenkins (could be at anytime), I think all UGA fans can say our coaches have done an INCREDIBLE job putting this class together considering all the negative from the local media as well as negative from within our own fanbase. Time will tell but the experts are predicting we get Drew and Crowell, sounds like we have a great shot at Jenkins as well.
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