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February 3, 2006

Gamecock Recruiting: How They Fared

Preseason Spurrier was predicted to have tremendous success on the recruiting trail. Now that his second recruiting class has ended once again with a whimper some in the media have changed their tune.

Now, it's all about what the evil genius does with kids after he gets them. Give me a break. When Spurrier was at UF, he had star studded recruiting classes almost every year. It's revisionist history to make it sound like he beat Georgia and UT with Tier 2 talent.

Spurrier faired ok in this class going with what Rivals.com calls a 25th ranked class. That's about what Holtz was pulling in his best classes. Spurrier went into Florida and closed four fairly highly rated kids.

In his own state, he got his visor handed to him. Something I predicted months ago.

Scout.com's list of Top kids in the Palmetto State shows Spurrier landing:
0 of the Top 5
2 of the Top 10
4 of the Top 30

Interestingly, Vanderbilt closed just as many Top 30 kids from SC as the Gamecocks did. Georgia signed two of the Top 15 in the state, and has a shot at a third in Geathers. Clemson inked 6 in the Top 20.


Cockadoodledoo indeed.

Or as Mike Floyd, Bulldog e-newsletter writer, said:
Don't know if you noticed, but [the Gamecocks] lost out on virtually every solid prospect they were holding out for on signing day, including Patterson (Michigan), Rose (FSU) and Isom (Auburn). Lots of bulk along the OL, which they desperately needed, but not a true game-breaking playmaker in the whole class. Spurrier better do more than this if he truly expects to compete for SEC honors.

Floyd is right. The strength of this class is their OL and DL. 8 offensive linemen and 4 defensive linemen signed on with the Gamecocks. It's an impressive haul. The rest is hardly overwhelming.

Interestingly, Spurrier went into Tuscaloosa and recruited Chris Smelley to be his QB of the future. I'm sorry, but the T-Shirts, Blog Jokes and other assorted Humor that will come from the Smelley Cock line of comedy will be absolutely priceless. For that signee....I say, "Thank You Steve."

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but 'wait til next year!'

Anonymous said...

As long as Spurrier is there, the Cocks will be tough to handle. But due to their sense of rivalry with Georgia, they have always been reasonably tough for the Bulldogs to handle. It's just that now the Cocks are tough for others to handle too.

Who knows? SOS's time at South Carolina may actually end of helping Georgia rather then hurting it. The Bulldogs already have a certain amount of respect for the Cocks. Others are having to learn that repsect after taking losses to them.

Spurs helped Georgia in his first year. Will he help them again this year?

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

Sorry, but I'm going to have to vote a big fat "no" on the "Who Let the Dogs Out" idea. I remember when that song came out in 2000 — right after I'd moved back to Atlanta, and right before football season started — and everyone in Bulldog Nation thought it was a sign that we were destined for the national title that year. Instead, we got ambushed by South Carolina in the second game of the season, got the usual smackdown from Florida, got gang-raped by Tech at home and finished out the season with a lame-duck Jim Donnan coaching the Dawgs in the Oahu Bowl. I just don't think I could stand to relive the memories that song would inevitably invoke if they were to play it at Sanford again.

Anonymous said...

Georgia signed one, not two, of the top 15 in the state of South Carolina. Ronnie Tyler originally committed to UGA, but signed with Maryland.

Unknown said...

oh yeah. that's right. Thanks.

Brian said...

Looks like '07 is going to be a MFing freeforall next year, too... big year, indifferent recruiters instate, SEC feeding frenzy, etc. Michigan is going after three guys in its annual "cause random Southern fanbase to compare Michigan with Pluto" tour.

Anonymous said...

Sorry if this comes out wrong, but SOS's motto is to be the champs in December or Janurary, not in February. The line in the AJC about SOS being out recruited by UGA at UF is classic and purely FACT. 11 of 12 says so, with 50 points scored between the hedges in 95'.

Anonymous said...

First, you say that we got no playmaker, but then youmention the playmaker we got... Jokes about his name aside, Smelley is a big time QB..

Also, Emauel Cook was the 6A Florida player of the year... A true sleeper...

Moe Brown and Rodney Paulk will also be playmakers in the future... IMO...

Go ahead and throw stones... As Spurrier says, we want to be the champs in November, not in February...

Oh, and I forget... How did Spurrier fare against UGA when they out recruited him at Florida nearly every year?? HMMM??

Anonymous said...

To Kyle King:
If "sense" had anything to do with fandom, then a LOT of teams would have no fans at all.

Unknown said...

That simply isn't true. That's just something Spurrier said.

UGA outrecruited Spurrier once or twice in '90 and '91. Otherwise, Spurrier stomped Goff's ass on the recruiting trail.

Anonymous said...

OK... I don't know what the rankings were for each team's respective classes. I was just going by what Spurrier said. For the purpose of this conversation, I will throw out the reference to recruiting in that comment......

How did UGA fare against Spurrier when he was at Florida??

Oh, and it would not be untrue to say that, of the big three in the east, the Gamecocks routinely play Georgia the closest...

This is not a good combination of stats for UGA, IMO...

But that's OK, buddy... Just tell yourself whatever you need to in order to feel comfortable with yourself and your team.... See you at Williams Brice!

Anonymous said...

Yeah..

We'll see what the recruiting rankings from the "gurus" at Rivals and Scout mean September 9th in Columbia, Paul...

You can make fun of the names or rankings of the Gamecock players, but when you get right down to it, this is nothing more than sophomoric tripe.

Anonymous said...

oh carolina fans. the depths to which you stoop amaze me sometimes. I realize that I shouldn't ever be surprised by a fanbase that is whipped into a frenzy by the sound of a clucking chicken.

but you have to admit, that when your own team is so inept that in order to talk trash, you have to cite your coach's former team, there is a problem. carolina fans only recourse against UGA is "well, we can't beat you, but our coach used to be able to beat you, so maybe he'll do it again." add that to the "we almost beat you" and the wait till next year, and I almost begin to feel bad for you.

listen, I'm trying not to be too harsh, because being a football fan of a school that has 2 bowl wins ever would be tough. but the act is growing old. win a game, then talk trash (I realize that won't happen, because the cocks are just not a good football program).

but if not, just tell us that SOS beat us at UF.
oh and by that line of reasoning, all of our former coaches pounded you guys WHILE THEY WERE COACHING UGA.

Anonymous said...

Kyle, that last line is outstanding.

 
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