So today is the day that Todd Gurley, the "other" RB out of North Carolina (Tarboro HS) is to make his verbal commitment. Gurley is very good friends with Keith Marshall, of course the #1 rated RB already in Athens also from North Carolina. Gurley is a different style back. While Marshall is listed at 5-11 190, Gurley is 6-1 195. He is a kid that is also capable of playing on the defensive side but our coaches are recruiting him strictly as a RB. From looking at film of these two backs, Gurley appears much thicker than Marshall and is also a back that is more about breaking tackles and being physical-although in the Under Armour game, Marshall showed he has toughness as well. My #1 recruiting guru (Lowndes25) has already made it known that Gurley will indeed select UGA later today. If he does select us, that makes 17 commits, although we have 3 early enrollees. I am HORRIBLE in math so I will not even begin to try to explain the new rules when it comes to the number of kids you can sign. I do know the limit is 25/85 which of course is 25 in a given year, 85 total kids on scholarship. Where it gets tricky is early enrollees and then you have schools like Bama that will greyshirt kids-meaning, they sign but then agree to hold off enrolling until the second semester-thus they become early enrollees for the next class. Bottom line, there are ways around the system and schools like Bama and others will find loopholes. Speaking of Bama, for all those folks that were so excited about them beating LSU, I simply don't get it. Why be excited for them-they are coached by a man that would as soon cut a kids arm off if that helped him win a football game. I listened to him yesterday call Bama an organization?? NO, Alabama is a university Nick, but you run that program like an organization, code word for NFL franchise. Also, in them winning the game, it essentially meant the regular season meant NOTHING. The same argument people make about football not having a playoff system because it supposedly makes the regular season less important, should be upset about Bama getting a second shot at LSU. LSU played a FAR more difficult schedule than did Bama, they BEAT Bama on the road, yet they were forced with having to beat a very talented and well coached team a second time. Let's see, how many times in a rematch in college football does the team that won game 1 win game 2?? I don't have the exact numbers but we do have the last two examples that tell a huge story. Back in the 90's, FSU beat UF last game of the season only to have to play UF again in the Sugar bowl, UF blew them out. Then you have the LSU/Bama game. Again, the fact LSU beat WV and Oregon, along with Bama, three teams that won BCS bowl games, they also beat Arkansas who won the Cotton and ended up ranked in the top 10, beat UGA who should have won their bowl game, beat AU-LSU would have beat Okie State, Stanford etc, but they played Bama and lost.
Bama winning that game to me stinks for so many reasons but also keep in mind, Bama recruits our state a lot more than does LSU. They already have the #2 rated player in the nation for class of 2013 committed to them (LB Foster from LaGrange, Ga) and have the #1 rated player in the nation as a strong lean (Nkemdiche from Grayson, Ga). Them winning a national title does NOT help our chances. But, help could be on the horizon. Now that they have won another title, now that Kirby Smart has publicly made it known he wants a head coaching job and thinks he is ready for that challenge, he is going to be the #1 choice for a lot of schools NEXT year. Also factor in that the LB coach Sal Sunseri, one of the Tide's best overall recruiters, is interviewing for the Tenn DC position, those are positives in our favor. Also, Nick Saban has shown that he does not stay at programs longer than 6 years, next year will be his 6th year. He might very well stay but any coaching turnover especially when it comes to coaches that are recruiting our top talent in Ga, is a welcoming news for us. Just like the case with Jordan Jenkins, he was a Bama lean for MANY months and even admitted he never really thought he would end up at UGA, he didn't like UGA when the recruiting process started. BUT, Todd Grantham primarily but also Mark Richt chipped away at him and we got him. This leads me to my next point.
Goodbye Orson Charles, I wish this guy only the best in the future-hint to the ATL Falcons, Tony G is eventually going to retire, here is a kid that can come in and be a great weapon for Matt Ryan. The problem is, I think Orson will be selected in the 2nd round but that would be the Falcons first pick of this draft. I am not sure TE is their biggest need, but regardless, I think there is no doubt Orson will make an impact on the next level. This kid was obviously a spiritual young man with a good support system-how many kids can talk daily to a guy like Tony Dungy to get advise on his pro decision. Now, normally I think kids not in the first round should stay another year but in this case, there is really nothing more OC can do in Athens. He will be missed because he really did take a lot of effort and planning from the opposition-they had to account for him in our passing game. The good news, UGA is tight end U and we have two good ones waiting in the wings in Arthur Lynch and Jay Rome. Lynch is just an enourmous kid-6'5 272 and to me he also has NFL written all over him. Now, can he catch like Charles or White for that matter, probably not. But, I have seen enough of him in games and spring to know he CAN catch the football. Also, he is a MUCH better blocker than Charles or White. Considering we are going to have two new tackles on our OL, this is big help. Rome, I think he will continue our legacy of great pass catching TE's as well. He should really be a nice receiving weapon next year. We also have a TE commit from Colquitt County that I got to see in person play against Grayson in the playoffs-he was mostly split out that game but was VERY impressive-he needs a little more weight/strength but the kid can flat out catch the ball and run after the catch. Our other JR's that were considering the draft have all decided to return for their last year. So what does this mean for UGA next year, keep reading.
Our defense next year, quite frankly SHOULD be a top 5, potentially higher defense. We were good last year but we couldn't close out several games that we should have won. SC and MSU being good examples, LSU they kind of collapsed as well. But, I will say in fairness to the defense, the offense and special teams also contributed to second half collapses but you also have to point at the D in two games-SC and MSU that mirrored each other. Never could our D hold to FG's even after turnovers-granted MSU and SCarolina both had defensive scores but hear me out, we had several leads against SCarolina but our D could NOT stop Lattimore, 14 rushes for 94 yards in the 4th quarter-thanks to LeatherHelmet for that stat, also against MSU with our offense putting us up by 7 with under 7 minutes to play, then MSU getting the ball back with under two minutes and ZERO timeouts, they go 85 yards EASILY and only get to third down one time on that drive. SO, my point being, our D was really good in 2011 but I think next year we will be even better. We lost Boykin who simply put, will be missed as he was a special player in all aspects. Also missing will be DeAngelo Tyson-another good player for us. BUT, look at what we have coming back and think about the depth.
DE Abry Jones 6-3 309 SR
Mike Thornton 6-1 287 Soph
DE Garrison Smith 6-3 294 JR
Derrick Lott 6-4 303 Jr
NG John Jenkins 6-3 351 SR
Kwame Geathers 6-6 350 JR
OLB CWashington 6-4 269 SR
Chase Vasser 6-3 227 Soph
OLB Jarvis Jones 6-3 241 JR
Ray Drew 6-5 263 Soph
MLB Alec Ogletree 6-3 236 JR
Amarlo Herrera 6-2 231 Soph
MLB Mike Gilliard 6-2 220 SR
Christian Robinson 6-2 233 SR
CB Sanders Commings 6-2 217 SR
Damian Swann 5-11 177 Soph
CB Branden Smith 5-11 176 SR
Damian Swann 5-11 177 Soph
S Shawn Williams 6-1 220 SR
Corey Moore 6-2 207 Soph
S Bacarri Rambo 6-0 218 SR
Nick Marshall 6-2 195 Soph
WOW, look at that. You think Bama is losing a lot off their D this year, look at us for next year. Now, the good news is, while we do have a LOT of seniors, and we have several JR's that will leave after next year-Ogletree, Geathers (family history dictates this), Jarvis Jones, we will still have some solid players returning for 2013-but here is something eles. Reuben Foster, Robert Nkemdiche-look at where you have a great shot at coming in to play significant minutes as true FR!!! 2013 our DL would be Smith, Thornton, NG-??, Vasser-well, here is where Jordan Jenkins likely fits in, Herrera, Ray Drew, secondary Moore, Swann, Marshall, Chris Sanders. So, what I am saying here is this, NEXT year our D is going to be extremely talented and experienced, 2013, the jury is still out but more chances to come in and play right away if you are good enough to earn it. Everyone is talking about how many off the Bama D for this year will be drafted-I have heard 10 of the starting 11. Let's look at our projected starters next year, here are the guys I say will get drafted without question-Abry Jones, John Jenkins, Kwame Geathers (family history), Jarvis Jones, Alec Ogletree, Baccari Rambo, Shawn Williams, Sanders Commings, and Branden Smith. That would be 9 of 11!! (Ok, so technically it would be 8 of 11 because Geathers and Jenkins both can't start but you get my point) Next year is our year folks if there ever was a year. The key will be Murray (he has got to stop making crucial mistakes in big games) the development of the OL, the emergence of a dependable and talented RB, and of course how will our new kickers pan out. The D is going to keep us in games, the schedule sets up nicely. Let's see what happens.
Finally, another hoops game, another lopsided loss. Obviously we have not been blessed with a favorable early SEC schedule-Bama at home-very deep and talented, UF on the road, Vandy on the road but the team just simply put is NOT good. We have no inside game, if KCP is not hitting his shots (shot badly at UF only scored 8 pts) we struggle to score. I see it getting no better this Saturday against Vandy. They got their big guy back, that KILLED us last year, Festus Ezeli, they have two great shooters in Jenkins and Taylor, they are 12-4 overall 2-0 in SEC play and have won 6 in row. Oh and we never play well up in that gym in Nashville. Again, if we keep it under 20, that will be an acomplishment for this team. I am trying to reserve judgement on Coach Fox until we play a few SEC teams that are on our level, which after Vandy we play UT and Miss at home-those will be the games to watch closely. Course UT beat the Gators in Knox so not sure they are on our level but certainly Miss should be. If we can win those two home games against lesser SEC teams, I will feel much better and I will have hope we might win 4-6 SEC games this year. Lose one or both of those, I can see 2-3 SEC wins. I am not going to bother previewing this game, I hate to be negative but there is just not much to say about our hoops team right now, we are a very at best average team and I don't see things improving much this year. I strongly believe next year is going to be crucial for Coach Fox. We all have to remember, Greg McGarity has NOT hired any of our coaches at this point in time-well, guess he might have hired a women's golf coach or some minor sport but to me, all the major sport teams which for UGA includes Gymnastics, ALL should be under the gun. Mark Richt has obviously done enough to get McGarity's approval for a contract extension. But, Coach Fox, Coach Perno and Coach Clark (gym Dogs), you guys are under the spotlight this year and next. Perno will be watched very closely this year matter of fact. UGA has too much money, resources and talent not to be a serious player in most every sport.
Basketball game is tomorrow, 4p check local listings for TV coverage-thinking it will be Fox sportssouth but there are about 4 networks that carry SEC hoops and football for that matter. Go Dogs, hope you all have a great weekend.
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