Yes, I admit sometimes it angers me when I hear that we have 67 or 68 kids on scholarship when we are allowed 85. On the surface it could appear that our coaches, most notably Rodney Garner (recruiting coordinator) and Mark Richt, don't know how to manage the numbers correctly. They don't know how to manage for attrition, and they don't OVER sign kids to compensate for what they know will likely happen each spring-players leave the program-either due to NFL, grades, playing time, breaking the law etc etc. I simply don't buy that, and I honestly don't want a program to run like Alabama, Ole Miss or countless others that make it practice to over sign, then they have to figure out who they CUT from the roster.
Here is my take on this, first of all, our coaches are recruiting many of the same players that other schools are recruiting. Our coaches I believe do serious research on these kids in regards to work ethic, grades, behavior, and playing ability. That being said, a kid can and will act a lot different when Mom and Dad are not around and they have a lot more freedom. Our coaches can't babysit, players have to be held accountable for their actions and this is one area that you can't knock UGA. We DO hold our players accountable and they are punished. Other schools chose to sweep their problems under the carpet but not in Athens. Thus, our kids sometimes end up out of the program where if they were somewhere else, they would still be around. So, the amount of kids that we have lost for example just off the dream team recruiting class of 2011, take a look at it-
Crowell-failed a drug test, carrying a concealed weapon
Harrow-grade issues
Sanders, Seay and Marshall-involved in stealing in dorms-kicked off team.
Turene-was flagged for grades and never enrolled.
Mayes-didn't qualify out of HS, hopefully will enroll this Jan.
That is 7 kids right there not in Athens today. Take a look at class of 2010.
Baker-kicked off team for DUI
Benedict-left school due to dispute over injury rehab
Fields-never enrolled
Lonnie Outlaw-never enrolled
Hamilton-left team over lack of playing time.
Owens-see Hamilton above.
Another 6 kids there, so 13 kids out of the last two signing classes. You can throw in the loss of Washuan Ealey in there, Caleb King left after failing out, I mean the list goes on and on. Now, the only thing you could argue is why do we recruit kids that never qualify. That being said, often times kids are REALLY close to qualifying out of HS and so you feel they are worth the risk.
What our coaches will not do is offer a kid and then turn him away or offer more kids than they know we have a space for, then wait and see how things pan out-ie the Nick Saban way of manipulating a roster. I think many UGA faithful deep down want our program to be run like Bama's program is run and I just disagree with that. I like the way Mark Richt runs his program, and I firmly believe our numbers problem will take care of itself with what will be a very large class of 2013. We are recruiting a lot of kids that plan to enroll early, meaning as many as 8-9 kids in our class with come to school in January. That number will count toward class of 2012 totals. This means that we can sign our full 25 for the class of 2013 and then with those 8 or 9, we are at 33 or 34 total. That number should then get us VERY close to the 85 max limit.
So, what does that mean for this upcoming season-well, it means a couple of things, we don't have a ton of overall depth in the program. This likely means fewer kids in the class of 2012 will redshirt. Keep in mind though, we have two coaches on our staff that spend MANY years working in professional football, where you basically have a roster size of just over 50. 11 play at a time on offense, 11 on defense, a punter, kicker and snappe. 25 players right there. You add second string O and D, another 22, your total now sits at 47, we have 20 more than that, not including walk on players-we have enough depth in other words. Granted, we can't afford a lot of serious injuries, that much is a given but let's be honest here, even a team with 85 kids on hand, if they lose a top player to injury they are not going to replace them much or any better than we do with our 67. Yesterday it was reported that we awarded 7 walk on players a scholarship for this football season-these kids are all kids that help us in one way or another-either via special teams or in some cases, actually get snaps with the 1st or second teams. I for one applaud our coaches for doing this, reward these kids that might not have the WOW factor coming out of high school or be the best athlete on the field but they WORK HARD and they are dedicated to TEAM. Give those kids a free ride if for only one season to help out their parents financially, let those young men know that you value their contributions to the program. Eventually the numbers will work themselves out and we will get back to 82-84 total but for now I am just not one that is overly concerned about our numbers and honestly I am tired of all the negative talk about it on message boards, chat rooms etc. It is what it is, there is nothing that can be done about it right now so let's just stay positive and realize that we have a good football team preparing for what could be an incredible football season in 2012. I know everyone has a right to their opinion, that is fine and good but I get really tired of reading all the negative about our football program when this should be a time of great excitment and anticipation. I guess it just comes with the territory, there will always be a group of people that are not happy regardless of the situation at hand.
On a personal note, my son's GFL football team is off to a great start. We have scrimmaged now 4 times and the regular season starts this upcoming Saturday. We scrimmaged a team a year older than us and while we lost that one, we more than held our own against a much larger group of boys. Next up was against the other 8 year old team from our association-we beat them by two TD's, next up was Mill Creek a pretty good and talented team we jumped them early 20-0 but then had a bit of a letdown but still won 25-18. Finally on Saturday was what is called jamboree, full field, cheerleaders but half a game. We scored 26 points in 12 minutes, winning the game 26-0 in a game we could have probably scored 50 or 60 points. Each quarter is 10 minutes, we scored 26 points in just over a quarter of a game, course we don't run up scores and would never score that many but obviously so far we are very excited about or team. If you read this blog, sorry but you will have to read Grayson Ram 8 year old updates from time to time. I LOVE UGA football but I love my son and his team too, I am on the coaching staff and so I spend a lot of time with these boys and their families, including 3 practices a week, game on Saturday and then coaches gather on Sunday to watch film. SOOO, again if you read this blog be prepared to read my thoughts on UGA football but also Grayson 8 year old football. Go Dogs and Go Rams!!
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