Knox qualified by this much
John Knox (Safety, Statesboro High School) has apparently qualified. Kudos to the entire 2007 Georgia Bulldog recruiting class as it appears that all 23 kids have now qualified. As the AJC points out, no one is really sure when that last happened. The fact that it's newsworthy that all our recruits qualified is an odd thing.
Some (read: GT fans) will spin it as "a miracle" and "the football factory finally got them all in." Some UGA fans will try and spin it as we're not taking as many academic chances. Or they'll point to Auburn who had 9 or 10 not qualify and take on their own holier than thou attitude.
Based on Richt's comments, it doesn't sound like our recruiting strategy has changed. It's just that all these kids actually made it for once.
Given the educational infrastructure in this state, especially in rural areas, we are always going to have recruits that are cutting it close academically. The state of Georgia didn't become one of the bottom 5-10 states in America academically overnight, and it's not going to turn itself around overnight. If you've got a historical beef with UGA signing academic at risk players, talk to you governor.
I'm comfortable over signing (a little) with the assumption that all might not make it. I'm also comfortable sending kids to Hargrave for a semester or a year if that's what it takes. At the end of the day, a Hargrave/Fork Union kid has to meet the same eligibility standards as any other student-athlete before he enrolls at an NCAA college. So why wouldn't we take advantage of that solution to get kids enrolled?
Respected academic schools like UNC, UVA, Southern Cal, Illinois and even Duke have been known to use the prep school method for getting borderline kids in. So I've got no issue with it.
Sorry for the tangent. I'm glad they all qualified, but I don't think that it's the beginning of a new trend. And I'm fine with us leveraging legit prep schools like Hargrave in the future if that's what it takes to get a kid into school.
See Also:
-- Unofficial FAQ on sending kids to Hargrave - GSB
-- Richt happy about John Knox's news - DawgPost.com
PWD
