Ranking the Redshirt Candidates

Practice goes on. (Image; Georgiadogs.com)

I took a look at the 23 new faces on the Georgia Bulldog football team, and I attempted to rank them based on their odds of redshirting. "1" being the least likely to redshirt and "23" being the most likely. Here's my list:

	Player Name	Comments
1.	Scott Haverkamp OL	JUCO looks to have locked a starting OG spot.
2.	Vince Vance OL	Has already burned his redshirt at GMC. He has 3 years to play 3.
3.	Trinton Sturdivant OL	Freshman starting role to protect Stafford's blindside.
4.	Jarius Wynn DE	Dawgs desperately need him to push up the depth chart, but regardless he's not redshirting.
5.	Corvey Irvin DT	Dawgs need "grown men" at DT.
6.	Ben Harden OL	More in shape than Anderson. Better body than Perez. Cross training OG and C.
7.	Drew Butler P	The punter's spot is WIDE OPEN for Butler to take it.
8.	Justin Anderson OL	Physically, looks the part.
9.	Rennie Curran LB	M. Washington has never really contributed. Curran could fill the 2nd MLB spot.
10.	Bruce Figgins TE	Ben Watson starter kit. Getting work on almost every special teams unit. I have him rated too low based on the DawgPost.com interview today.
11.	Caleb King RB	More on Caleb below.
12.	Charles White LB	Someone has to provide depth at LB this year. Will it be CW?
13.	Tanner Strickland OL	When Harden qualified, it may have pushed Strickland's chances down.
14.	Aron White TE/WR	Would benefit greatly from a year of growing into his body one way or the other.
15.	Israel Troupe WR	It's a crowded WR corp where practice reps are hard to come by.
16.	Walter Hill WR	Less polished than Troupe.
17.	Clint Boling OT	Could make a big push for PT in '07. But he's still growing into his body.
18.	Justin Houston DE	Recently moved to LB. Learning a new position screams redshirt.
19.	Neland Ball DE	Near mortal lock to redshirt at ~225 lbs.
20.	Vance Cuff CB	Just arrived on campus. No class separation among young CB corp.
21.	John Knox S	Just arrived on campus. Buried on '07 depth chart.
22.	Chris Little OL	40-50 pounds over reported "ideal" and a broken wrist.
23.	Logan Gray QB	Recovering from mono, very skinny and behind Stafford and Cox.

If I were guessing where you draw the line between redshirts and kids who play it would be around 10th on the list. As for Caleb King, I think there are only two athletic reasons to redshirt (yesterday I could only think of one):

1. If you think the guy will be here for Year 5. Essentially a redshirt allows a coaching staff to trade Year 1 for Year 5. Nothing about Caleb King's recruitment or talent level suggests to me that he's intending to be here 5 years.

2. There are simply no touches available in Year 1.

There are tons of none athletic reasons for redshirting such as increased likelihood of graduation, adapting to college and succeeding in life. But if we're just talking football, I think the above two are the main on the field reasons to redshirt.

Richt is pretty unpredictable regarding redshirts. DJ Shockley, Knowshon Moreno, Akeem Hebron, and Paul Oliver are some of the biggest name recruits under Richt, and they all redshirted. Whereas little known one and two star recruits like Nick Jones, Jarvis Jackson, Fernando Velasco, Kelin Johnson and Tra Battle (walkon) played immediately as freshmen.

So you never know. The above is my list. Your thoughts? Specifically...does Caleb redshirt?

See Also (aka Reading Tea Leaves):
-- Figgins getting ready to play - DawgPost.com
-- Aron White Unsure of Natural Position - ABH
-- Few first year plays to make an impact - AJC
-- Figgins draws rave reviews - Columbus Ledger
-- Richt says Vince Vance buying into system - David Ching
-- Caleb King Video - GSB

PWD

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