Some of the season’s chatter around “what’s wrong with the ‘Dawgs” pointed to a use of the portal for guns for hire and also our recent move away from recruiting in-state talent. Well…
Shot (2024 cycle):
Chaser (2025 projections):
For what it’s worth, Houston played in three games this year at tOSU and made three tackles on the year. Caleb Downs has 46 fewer tackles and less than half the solid tackles from his freshman year at Alabama (more of a testament to Ohio State’s opponents than anything else).
I’d have to really reconsider an offer from Columbus if I had intentions of anything beyond some NIL money.
https://247sports.com/college/georgia/season/2025-football/commits/
20 of the 28 commits for our current 2025 Class are Georgia boys. Absolutely love Kirby’s shift to really recruiting our state harder and keeping the vast majority of the ‘Blue Chips’ home. This DL haul in particular is gonna pay off big time, and the best part is… we’re not done yet… there’s more to come. Oh, and for those of you who don’t follow recruiting closely, we have the #1 rated class. 👏👏
HBTFD
2025 D Line class is amazing. Add to that we are getting another 6’7″ TE
Kirby goes to get players from where they are. This year the 5 star players are in state (by the way, I would never have called the ChatGPT poet an in state prospect).
Look at this year’s guys and the rating they have at their position. 4 of the 5 are the #1 player at their position. The only reason it isn’t 5 of 5 is that the other one is #2 behind the committed #1.
I do think NIL and the portal together are changing how we recruit. You get an NIL discount as the in-state option and the pull of home makes it more difficult to decide to enter the portal.
Wednesday should be fun to watch (although Terry decides on Friday).
EE, I like your ChatGTP poet name for the QB who left us high and dry @ the 11th hour. He didn’t stay at one place long to really know where he’s from. In our Dawg Text Group I refer to him as the ‘Vagabond’ and refuse to call him by name. Huge end of cycle recruiting weekend and our ‘supposed’ class leader doesn’t even show up. Hope the turncoat never wins shit.
Whit, I don’t follow recruiting much, just what I hear on the Dawg Nation podcast. Who is “vagabond” and the class leader?
See the 1st player (QB) listed above on JP’s chart of the top 5 Georgia players for the ’24 recruiting cycle (1st chart). His initials are DR. He plays for Nebraska. I still won’t say or type his name. FTMF Hope he never wins shit.
I thought that might be the one. I never heard the story about him not showing up for a recruiting weekend. I too, hope he never wins anything! I feel the same way about JF.
I don’t like “closing the border around the state of Georgia” mentality regarding recruiting. It has never worked!! See Mark Richts “state of Georgia” class – Isiah Crowell et al. Complete bust class. I don’t think Kirby has this mentality – just so happens some “prospective” elite talent from the state WANTS to be in Athens the next 3-4 years. Good for us.
It’s not about closing the border. It is about getting the right players inside the state and let everyone else fight over the leftovers.
Recruit the heck out of in-state blue chips that fill needs and fit your system. Find the Eric Stokes, Javon Bullard and Ladd McConkey types that can become players on your team.
Go national (and especially to adjoining states) where and when it makes sense.
You’re leaving out some fairly talented in-state backs like Walker, Hearst, Edwards and Chubb to name a few. In-staters we didn’t get, like a Tank Bigsby, Ronnie Brown, or particularly Jamal Lewis, still have some of us shaking our heads about ‘what could’ve been’.
Sure, we’ve gotten great players from outta state – Gurley, Seymour, AJ, Geno Atkins and many more. But I still feel that if measured pound for pound Georgia has the best football talent that exists.
By the way, Crowell played in the nfl for 5 years and gained over 3,800 yards. He wasn’t a bad football player, just didn’t perform for UGA as we all hoped he would.
Every year I think these recruiting services are becoming more and more incorrect.
I’ve never really followed recruiting beyond where our class ultimately ranks after signing day – and even now that’s shaky. So long as we’re top 5, we should be OK. Otherwise, placing your faith in the whims of a 17-year-old boy (and/or his parents, “guardians”, “uncles”, “ministers”, etc.) is a losing proposition.
But ol’ Nil Butron does idea for a new recruiting website: NIL-Bay. Just let the colleges/collectives bid on each player publicly and you can see the amounts go higher and higher. Want that 4-star DB? Well, the current bid is $1M with only 2 days left in the auction, but you can BUY NOW for $1.5M!
The fact that I could monetize my own handle is just a shameless money grab – like recruiting.