As most probably know by now, DL signee Chris Mayes out of Spalding High will be going to Gulfport JUCO-yes, the same place Mt. Cody and John Jenkins played, also the place that Denzel Nkemdiche is headed (Robert's older brother). Seems that place has become the pipeline for producing some quality D1 players. Anyway, I have heard there could be another one or two kids that will also be headed to JUCO out of this class. It is my understanding that when you head to JUCO, you have to stay until you graduate-someone can correct me if I am wrong. That typically means 2 years although I had heard for Nkemdiche, he might only stay a year which is why I say, correct me if I am wrong. I know kids can go to prep school and that is basically and extension of high school-kids that need to get their test scores up but otherwise are ok to qualify. But thinking JUCO is another story, maybe you need both grades and test scores. Anyway, assuming Mayes is out of the mix for 2 years, that does open up another spot in the class of 2012.
Just read an interesting post on dawgpost, giving the records of Mark Richt in seasons where he has an experience QB vs. when he has an inexperienced QB-thanks to Mercyflush for the stats, of which I did not verifty, taking his word for it but looks accurate to me-
****Edited to note, MAMATOLDMESO first posted about this on dawgpost****
With Returning QB 55-11.
02: 13-1 (3)
03: 11-3 (7)
04: 10-2 (7)
07: 11-2 (2)
08: 10-3 (10)
When he doesn't return a starting QB? 41-23.
01: 8-4 (22)
05: 10-3 (10)
06: 9-4 (23)
09: 8-5 (NR)
10: 6-7 (NR)
I think you can see that when we have experience behind center, it has made a HUGE difference, the only double digit win total without a returing QB was 2005 but we really did have a returing QB because we had a DJ Shockley-who had not started but had played a LOT of snaps the previous years. This is not to say I predict a double digit win total but I do FIRMLY believe that schools with veteran/experienced QB's tend to be the ones that are playing for titles, whether it be SEC or national. As much as we all hate to admit it, look at what school last year in the east had the most experience, Garcia. As for AU, well, they just had such a gifted kid behind center, a one man wrecking crew, that was the exception to the rule. I think because of Garcia, Lattimore and Jeffery, SCarolina will be the favorites to win the east again. But, if we can beat them in game 2, I REALLY like our chances.
I continue to believe that if we can win one or two of the first two games of the season, this could be a very special year in Athens. I also continue hoping that one day the SEC will change up the schedule-wouldn't it be nice to swap say AU and SC one year or maybe change out Tenn and SC or just a number of variations. Reason I say this, SCarolina most every year, if not every year, seems to come out strong out of the gate because they are healthy and hungry for the new season. But, because they usually can't match the quality depth of the traditional SEC powers, UGA included, they usually stumble down the stretch-even last year they did stumble for a stretch. We catch them early every year and that is when they are playing their best-and we usually tend to play our best down the stretch. I just think it would be interesting to jumble the schedules up a little bit from time to time but I guess that is likely never going to happen. I know Spurrier when he took over at UF was able to get the SEC to change his AU-UGA back to back, giving him his off week every year before UGA. Seems it is something that could be looked at. Anyway, Boise is a quality team as is SCarolina but I continue to believe, if we play solid football, limit turnovers, we will win both those games. I believe we have a talent advantage on both and they both are home games-the Dome will be a big home field edge to UGA in regards to crowd, Boise will get edge in the fact they play their games on turf, but we do have a turf practice field so I don't think that is much of an advantage for them. Long time before September rolls around but it is already May, time is moving fast to me.
This weekend of course the baseball team is back in action over at AU. AU has about the same overall record as we do, much worse conference record. We need 2 of 3 in that series without question. Hopefully the players will be ready to play after having this week off for final exams.
One final note, I found this on the dawgpost as well, and since I have been critical of Mark Fox's recruiting efforts at times, I thought this link was worthy of a post here so those that follow this blog can see that maybe his recruiting is not so bad, and maybe the guy can take what most consider "project players" and turn them into NBA players. Pay attention to #'s 14 and 17 on the list. Thanks to TripleB from the hoops forum of dawgpost for this interesting find.
http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/Jeff-Goodman-Top-20-hidden-NBA-draft-gems-since-2000-042911
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