On the football front, the Dawgs are putting together an elite class ranked by almost everyone in the Top 3-4 in the country. However, there are still two glaring needs in the group. One priority area is at running back and the other is offensive tackle.
Stafon Johnson is the #2 RB in the country per Scout.com. Georgia normally doesn't look that closely at California tailbacks, but one of Johnson's high school coaches is a former Dawg. He contacted us in a similar fashion to Albert Hollis II. Johnson came away from his trip extremely impressed. There is a good chance that he commits to UGA. Next year, Ware, Brown and Lumpkin will all be Juniors. We have no other tailbacks on the roster once they leave. We must sign a big time RB in this class. Knowshon Moreno from New Jersey is still up in the air so the news that Stafon is so excited about us is huge. Interestingly, Johnson could play either safety or running back for the Dawgs.
[Photo: Brown and the other RBs will be Juniors next year. We need some guys behind them. Photo from Georgiadogs.com]
The Bulldogs also addressed a huge need at Offensive Tackle in Josh Davis. Davis is 6'6" and listed at 295-315 lbs. He was previously committed to Ole Miss; however, he flipped us verbal to Georgia over the weekend.
The Dawgs have a bunch of Offensive Linemen committed for the Fall. However, most look to be guys who won't contribute for the first 2-3 years. Given our lack of players currently on the roster at that spot -- Inman (SR), Shackleford (SR) and Turner (SR) are basically all that we have -- we need guys who can contribute sooner rather than later.
Justin Anderson will start at OT, but he may end up at guard when all is said and done (similar to the evolution of Max Jean-Gilles. John Miller is barely 17 now, and he is a lock to redshirt. Perez is almost definitely an OG, and Tripp may end up playing defensive end instead of OT. So the committment of a kid like Josh Davis is huge for us. We still need one more elite OT in this class, but this is progress. The good news is that the state looks to have a variety of solid OL in the 2007 recruiting class with Georgia already having Tanner Strickland commited.
[Photo: More photos like this require more Offensive Tackles in the pipeline. Photo by Jim Hipple]
In Hoops News, Felton got a commit for a 2007 Point Guard in Keegan Bell. According to Justin Young of Rivals.com, Bell is one of the Top 100 players for the 2007 recruiting class. In a class so loaded with great guards, breaking the Top 100 is good news. Rivals has him as a 4 star kid while Scout.com has him as a 3 star kid. Scout shows the Dawgs with 2 commits for 2007 while Rivals shows 3. The class is headlined by Jeremy Price one of the Top 3 centers in the country. The Bell commitment is interesting b/c Felton's offense needs more of a sense of organization and purpose. Hopefully, a true point guard can provide that.
Signing day for football is right around the corner. I don't do much recruiting coverage b/c Scout and Rivals do such a good job, but I'll have some more thoughts on this topic as we get closer.
pwd
5 comments:
I am big believer in OL as the position that makes yout team GO. But, we do have Juniors and Sophomores in the system now. Don't think Anderson has to start, but if he beats somebody, fine. Just don't disregard McKinzey, Adams and some others.
I'm not completely dismissing McKinsey, Adams, Watts, Velasco or Smith. However, none of those guys have spent any real minutes at Offensive Tackle with the possible exception of Adams.
And even with Adams it was only practice. Adams is a JR.
I agree about the Josh Davis verbal - if it sticks (and there is no reason to think not) it moves Tripp to DE and gives us another quality OT to allow Bean to possibly move to OG.
I don't agree with Johnson being a Georgia lean - everything I've read makes him seem just like Ausberry. Real interest but I think he stays in Cali.
I think we finish with Moreno (with VT being out), R. Jones and one wild-card.
Great work as always-
I was wrong about Moreno - it looks like he's there this weekend.
Go Dawgs!!
pretty sure that Staphon was just enjoying some Southern hospitality...
really hope we still have room for Hillman in the 2007 basketball class...
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