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February 23, 2008

Ace Recruiter Neil Callaway Brings in the Heavy Hitters


Neil Callaway, former UGA offensive line coach and current UAB head coach, closed out his second recruiting class a few weeks ago with a blistering finish. Callaway signed 14 high school players and 11 junior college prospects. According to the Birmingham News
"The Blazers' signing class is not highly ranked. Scout.com ranks it 104th overall and last in C-USA. The rankings were slightly better by Rivals.com but UAB was still 101st overall and tied for ninth with UTEP in C-USA.

Callaway said he's not concerned with rankings and he is optimistic that this class will help next season."
In Callaway's defense, he has a proven, unmatched eye for talent. He had the vision to see that Pro Bowler Marcus McNeil wasn't worth a scholarship at UGA, and that about a half dozen kids with one functioning shoulder and/or leg should be locked up as early as possible in the recruiting process.

This is his second back-to-back Top 100 recruiting class at UAB. Indeed, we'll miss his eagle eyes and smooth talking sales pitch in Athens for sure.

PWD

23 comments:

C. Paul said...

Wow. Never let fiction get in the way of good, solid facts.

Does Tommy Ganious have any eligibility left?

Anonymous said...

This does not compute:

"Callaway was particularly excited about signing former Alabama running back Aaron Johns for the second time. Johns, who played for a season at Copiah-Lincoln junior college, was part of the 2007 signing class but failed to qualify. He'll have one year of eligibility remaining."

He signed a kid with one year of eligibility remaining? And he's "particularly excited" about that?

Looks like the UAB Regents knew what they were doing when they rejected Jimbo Fisher for Callaway. Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness for Stacy Searles - but why rip Callaway and say nothing of the fact that Garner and Richt signed off on his recruiting while he was at UGA?

Also, I think the tone might be misinterpreted by some to be an attack on those players that were unfortunate enough to have shoulder injuries. I don't think that's how this was meant, but I can see how some could see this post that way.

Anonymous said...

Searles > Callaway.

Unknown said...

Hank,

There is some blame for Richt and Garner. Certainly. But at the end of the day, you have to recruit kids the position coach signs off on or he won't play them.

There's a separate issue around why it took Richt so long to replace him (one way or the other).

Things that bother me about Callaway include the fact that he was the only coach (other than Tony Pierce) with off the field issues and by coincidence he's the position coach with more player off the field issues (arrests and suspensions) than any other over Richt's tenure. Funny how that happens.


If Callaway could evaluate and sign talented, qualified, high character, healthy kids at the same rate as the rest of his counterparts, Georgia would have two more SEC titles OR better.


PWD

Anonymous said...

I love that facial expression in the pic. It says approachable, nurturing, charismatic, father figure...sign here.

blackertai said...

I generally have a rule. Unless a coach does something to purposely screw over your team, like something malicious, then it's not cool to call him out. Callaway looks horrible in relation to Searles, there is no doubt. But, we've got to remember he didn't go out of his way to be a bad recruiter or coach, and we won our first two SEC championships in 20 odd years with him as a coach. I'm not going to sing this guy's praises, because he obviously wasn't a great coach/recruiter, but he was no Kelvin Sampson.

ugadawgfan said...
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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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blackertai said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

What I deleted wasn't criticism of me or my post.

It was a drunken tirade on another topic unrelated to the thread. Then in fairness, I deleted the other comments about the first comment.

You can't use big boy profanity in the comments. F or GD, I can't roll with that.

PWD

Anonymous said...

what a sour post, dude. he's gone. wish him well and roll on. this is one of a few bush league posts on a great blog.

Unknown said...

Anon - 9:38

You may be right. It probably is a little cheap and sour. But I mostly held my tongue for 3 years while he was recruiting lights off.

I think your criticism of the article is fair.

Anonymous said...

lol this blog is becoming more
"negative" / real and more appealing to me every day. good job, great piece

Anonymous said...

Thank you Lord for U of A board protecting Alabama from having to face a up and coming UAB by forcing NC down their throats.

A bigger thanks to Coach Searles who actually knows how to develop linemen practice by practive.

....and also Coach SS is one that unlike NC the rest of our staff actually respects and is part of the team.

Anonymous said...

PWD,

Honestly, I don't think there's any need to apologize. The facts are what they are. That you presented them with blistering satire only made it more enjoyable to read.

There are only a few former Dawgs for whom I would make the case that they should be exempt from all ridicule, and Neil Callaway is not one of them. When you get a DUI, you're automatically removed from that short list. Otherwise, let the facts speak for themselves.

Anonymous said...

PWD - no need to apologize. To get where you want to go, you have to learn from past mistakes. Neil Callaway was clearly a mistake all the way around. Thanks for Coach Searles.

Anonymous said...

If you continue this tone, Rolo and Wasse will be posting regularly soon...

for better or worse

Anonymous said...

Let us not forget NC brought in Inman who got plenty of penalties and missed blocks(especially the miss on the Gator DT who stripped Lumpkin inside the five)

I hope NC left because even he knew he wasn't getting it done.

Anonymous said...

i should email you, but please, please, please don't miss this http://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=282884

And you might want to consider registering so you can affiliate...I think they pay $50 per referral.

Just a thought. Give orson some shti.

no worries re: the sour post.

-Anon 9:38

Anonymous said...

Check out the jean shorts - there are like 20 different articles of denim clothing on this site. Anyone ever seen denim on a UGA site?

WTF?

http://www.gatorsstore.com/WStore/WStoreProductInfo.aspx?cat_id=&product_id=1980&ru=

Astronaut Mike Dexter said...

Sure. Fine. Go ahead, kick the Blazers when we're down. If I hadn't just back surgery and wasn't blitzed on morphine right now, I'd throw on my UAB hat, drive over to Georgia, and kick your ass. And then I'D DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!11!1!!!

Now then, you want to tailgate for G-Day again this year?

 
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