Friday, May 29, 2009

A Note on Recruiting

I just want to say one quick thing about recruiting: I laugh at people who think that Georgia's recruiting has taken a step back. While I might not care about a 2011 recruit right now, or a 2010 recruit for that matter, I sure do care about 2009 signees right now.

Looking at the 2009 class in the Athlon magazine covering the SEC, Georgia just might've done the best job in the conference. Athlon lists their top 40 incoming freshmen in the SEC (on page 69). There are 4 players from the state of Georgia. That seems unusually low for the state, but Georgia has signed all 4 players.

Branden Smith
Chris Burnette
Washaun Ealey
Abry Jones

Not one of those players went out of state to play at another SEC school.

Meanwhile, there are 9 players on the list that are from the Southeast but signed with an out-of-state SEC school. Georgia leads the way, signing 4 of those 9 players.

Marlon Brown
Aaron Murray
Orson Charles
Austin Long

The others include:

Trent Richardson, RB, Pensacola, FL -- Alabama
Sam Montgomery, DE, Greenwood, SC -- LSU
Janzen Jackson, CB, Lake Charles, LA -- Tennessee
Nu'Keese Richardson, WR, Pahokee, FL -- Tennessee
Eddie Lacy, RB, Geismar, LA -- Alabama


Athlon's been doing this for a while ya know...was there an Athlon top 40 when Knox Culpepper (middle) committed to Georgia?

So, by my count, that's an impressive list for Georgia, hauling in 8 of Athlon's top 40, keeping all the in-state kids on the entire list, and essentially being the biggest player in the SEC for out-of-state talent across the Southeast.

And that fires me up for Georgia's future from the class of 2009 as it presents a solid argument for Georgia's recruiting class even against the likes of LSU (6 of the top 40) and Alabama (8 of the top 40), which were both considered better classes by the pundits in February. For further comparison, Florida hauled in 5 of the top 40, while Tennessee hauled in 4 of the top 40.

Bascially, the only two SEC schools that didn't lose any in-state players on Athlon's top 40 were Georgia and Alabama.

1 comment:

GBOB said...

UGA 20
OSU 6
8th Inning
Go Dawgs!