Ok, so the recruiting efforts are starting to pick up steam, first it was Marshall, now it is Jordan Jenkins who committed to UGA on TV last night. This kid is obviously a great talent but what a nice tight knit family, Mom and Dad, sister, and brother-they all were there together, they all helped make the decision together-a far cry from the kid that committed to Bama only to have his Mom say Go Tigers as she liked LSU better. Jordan Jenkins just a few months ago had no thought of being a Bulldog but our coaches, namely Todd Grantham never gave up on him. Bama was his favorite, it came down to Bama and UGA, he decided to stay in state and this is one of those recruiting victories that we need to see more and more. UGA is going to lose players every year, that is a given considering the amount of players this state produces. The key to me is getting the majority of the ones you REALLY want and it is clear Jenkins is one that we really wanted. This continues our trend of getting the elite defensive players in state and I hope it continues again soon, landing us Josh Harvey-Clemons from Lowndes as well as Kenderious Whitehead from MLK. I have seen JCH play in person, he is skinny now but you can tell, a great football player. You watch the title game last night and you see both teams with great defenses, loaded with depth and playmakers, that is what Todd Grantham is building up for us, I think we need more and more depth but not only depth but QUALITY depth which means your #2's don't miss a beat when they enter the game. One thing I feel very comfortable in saying about our 2012 season, I firmly believe our defense is going to keep us in every game we play. Adding players like Jordan Jenkins insures that we will be more like Bama and LSU-after they lose top players to the NFL, they reload with more star players-that is how the elite programs operate. We are just not quite there yet.
I have checked with my leading recruiting source and here are a few kids he feels like we are in good standing with and SHOULD be ours coming signing day (note, my source is Lowndes25 for those that might have heard of him and he is a VERY reliable source I might add)
Josh Harvey Clemons
Kenderius Whitehead
Todd Gurley
Sheldon Dawson
JUCO WR Cordarelle Patterson-although grades might be a concern
Avery Young-we are neck and neck on this kid but we have very decent shot here
That would be 6 more to add to our list of 16 now including Jenkins. We had three recruits enroll early and they are already in school, Faton Bauta QB, Keith Marshall RB, and Mark Beard OL. Of course we still wait word on Orson Charles, Rambo, Williams, Washington and Branden Smith. From what I have heard, the two most likely to leave would be Charles and Rambo both of which are thought to be nearly certain to leave. Williams and Smith should be back, Washington is still on the fence. Bottom line, we are going to have more spots open and there will be some last minute additions to our class-we might flip some kids or we might have some under the radar kids that will get last minute offers. All in all though, if we finish with the 6 I name above, if not Gurley than Mike Davis at RB, this will be a super class. Next year should be another Dream Team type class so the future is looking bright for us talent wise. Now, I still believe on offense our entire offensive coaching staff needs to take a road trip down to New Orleans-visit with Sean Payton and his offensive staff on how they use Drew Brees. If you notice, the Saints DO run out of pro set some of the time-but that offense is built around Brees and the passing game. I believe if we are to get the most out of Aaron Murray, we need to be more of a spread with some pro set mixed in. But our strength on offense is a lot of quality WR's, backs that are good in space and can catch the ball well, and a mobile athletic QB that can throw well on the run. Why not build our offense around the QB we have in place. Why force a square peg into a round hole. But that is just me. Like I say, with our defense and our schedule, we just need the offense and our young kickers to do their job-not try to do too much and we will win a lot of games next year.
Ok, a quick note about the hoops team as they play tonight at 7p in Gainesville, Florida against the nationally ranked Gators, game is one ESPN. The Gators are 12-4 but 0-1 in SEC play as UT beat them in Knoxville on Saturday. This Gator team beat us twice last year, they have size and experience, good shooters, good rebounders, they are a solid team. Our team is struggling with rebounding, struggling with defense at times, we have trouble scoring any points down low and thus we rely on outside shots falling and then sometimes we can score in transition or Robinson can penetrate for some easy buckets. Honestly tonight has a chance to get ugly because UF is tough at home, they have much more talent than we do, it just doesn't look good for us. We have a favorable football schedule last year and in 2012 but certainly that is not the case in hoops. We started with a really strong Bama team, then play road games at UF and at Vandy-WOW. After the Vandy game, we will get three straight home games, 2 of which we might stand a chance-UT and Ole Miss. Bottom line, this team is going to struggle to win SEC games this year, there are some teams we have enough talent to win but unless we pull off a huge upset, I see an 0-3 start to the conference schedule.
No comments:
Post a Comment