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October 17, 2012

Offensive Tackle recruiting since 2007

If you want to know why things have been the way they've been along the OL the past few years, here's the list of OT recruits since 2007:
    2007 - Chris Little - transfer/host of issues
    2007 - Sturdivant - injured
    2007 - Boling - star
    2008 - Glenn - star
    2008 - Harmon - transfer/grades
    2009 - Austin Long - injured
    2010 - Benedict - transfer/injured
    2010 - Gates - better suited to guard/starter
    2010 - Houston - roids/NCAA
    2011 - Ward - injured/young/small
    2011 - Dantzler - injured much of this year
    2011 - DeBell - I have no idea
    2012 - Beard - typical juco backup
    2012 - Theus - overmatched freshman doing his best
You can't be that wrong and/or that unlucky year after year after year and not pay the price.

The good news...if Tunsil commits/stays healthy and Theus makes the normal Year 2 improvements, we'll have two blue chippers on campus at OT for the first time since Foster and Stinchcomb played together.

And that was a mighty long time ago.

PWD

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If your sample size is 5 years or more, it's not a matter of luck.

Anonymous said...

No amount of talent will matter until we have a coach that can coach up the talent and win big games.

Anonymous said...

Agreed overall. But there is certainly some luck in there with Sturdy, Long and Benedict. If any of those 4-5 star OTs had been 2-3 year starters it would have changed the course of multiple games.

We are recruiting too few elite OTs. That's the real moral of the story to me.

Think back to the 2004 UGA at AU game. I believe if you swap Dan Inman for Marcus McNeil ( a trade off Callaway actually made ) then I'm not sure the outcome of those 2 teams seasons would have been the same.

So this issue has been around for a while.

Mr. Sanchez said...

I also think this is where Nick Saban's oversigning really pays off. The kids who aren't panning out, like a Long, Ward, or Debell, he'd "advise" going elsewhere, and replace them with another blue chip type. OL recruiting is the toughest recruiting in football imo, and cutting the bad choices while increasing your overall # of possible good choices allows for their monster OLs while we struggle to come up with a decent first unit.

Anonymous said...

You list Glenn as "star", but I can't get the image of him being repeatedly schooled by Boise's DEs out of my head. He's obviously a star in the sense that he's now a starting NFL LT as a rookie, but he did not play to his level of talent while in college. My point being, I wonder how good the offensive line coaching really is at UGA.

Tony Waller said...

You mean schooled by Shea McClellin, the 1st round draft pick that is being groomed to be Brian F'ing Urlacher's successor? That guy?

Glenn was just a run of the mill, 50 game starter in the SEC, who was an All-American. Playing out of position. Yeah, that guy sucked.

Fred said...

This is why it's infuriating that we've been leaving scholarships on the table when we have GLARING needs.

Anonymous said...

Disagree. It's not a recruiting or bad luck/injuries issue.

The issue is much simpler: Richt has never really wanted a physical offensive line. It's simply not a priority.

(Compare the way our OL played vs. SCU and the way LSU's (with 2 freshman) played vs. SCU. Miles makes physical OL play a priority.)

Often in life things are the way they are because that's how people want them.

 
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