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Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Dogs too good for own good
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Athens — Mark Richt said he was crushed, heartbroken, even “sickened” (yes, he used that word). Because, yes, there must be nothing worse for a college football coach than to actually have too many coveted recruits wanting, begging, pleading to come to your school.
“People tell me it’s a good problem,” Richt said Wednesday. “But it’s sad, having to tell kids there’s not a spot for you.”
They certainly can relate to this sort of thing at Vanderbilt, East Carolina and New Mexico. We all will be there one day. The lottery numbers will hit, and my wife will be forced to tell the Jaguar dealer, “I’m sorry, but we’re going with the Porsche.” And she will weep.
Wednesday was national-letter-of-intent day for college football. Now, as projections go, gauging the futures of 18-year-old flankers and safeties is no closer to exact science than throwing a Ping-Pong ball into a wind tunnel and picking a direction. But when most scouting services list a school as second or third in the SEC and fourth or sixth nationally, it says something about perceptions. Also leverage. Also Porsches.
Richt doesn’t really recruit anymore as much as he opens the door.
Georgia isn’t building. Georgia is now your basic five-bedroom, four-bath dream home with a pool, Jacuzzi and home gym. It just needs a little upkeep and the occasional add-on, like a home theater or a game-breaking receiver.
The Bulldogs nearly went to the national title game last season. They have a chance to go next season. They are led by Richt, who can be considered rare for a college coach: He hasn’t leveraged his success for a paycheck on another campus or an ego stroke in the NFL. Georgia also plays in the SEC, a recruit magnet.
The Dogs used only 28 official visits to fill 24 scholarships. (Three others were used for potential walk-ons.) Receiver A.J. Green, the best player in the Dogs’ class and one of the top 10 in the nation, was so committed that he told Richt he wasn’t even going to waste his time making an official visit.
“I had to beg him to come on the official visit, just so his mom could have a nice weekend,” Richt said.
Georgia had 20 commitments by December. Several top players who waited before making a decision were shut out. Recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner never has seen anything like it.
“It’s unusual, especially when you have a class of 24,” Garner said. “There were a few kids where we were like, ‘We’d love to have you. I can’t believe we’re having this conversation with you today. I wish we were having it back in October or November, and then maybe we would’ve had room to take you.’ “
Jamie Newberg of Scout.com said, “I wrote something the other day, and I had to try to find somebody to put under, ‘The big fish that got away.’ I had trouble coming up with somebody for Georgia.”
When asked to compare recruiting at Georgia now with his first year in 2001, Richt said: “It’s different. It just seems like we’re getting a lot more of those really high-level kids who want to come here.”
Georgia screams success and stability today. Richt can point to SEC titles and Sugar Bowls. He can walk into a recruit’s living room, look a parent in the eyes and say, “I’m not going anywhere.” As Garner said, “He can say, ‘My mom’s moved here; my dad’s moved here; my sisters have moved here; my brother just moved here this summer; [his wife] Katharyn’s dad lives up in White County.’ People know he’s serious.”
When Richt was at Florida State, he tried to recruit two quarterbacks, Danny Wuerffel and Danny Kanell, the same year. “Wuerffel was like, ‘If you take me and only me, I’ll come,’ ” he said. “We had to decide, but we couldn’t do it. Not long after that, he committed to Florida.”
The Seminoles had to settle for Kanell, who threw a school-record 57 touchdown passes and played in four BCS bowls.
Everybody has his own level of regret.
Permalink | Comments (57) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, UGA / SEC
New plan at Tech negates ranking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The worst is over. Georgia Tech won’t soon have to slog through another recruiting year like this. Any coaching change is rough, but a system change — especially to one that de-emphasizes the pass — is frightful.
Not many coaches run the ball the way Paul Johnson plans to run it. That makes for a recruiting list tailored to specifics. The folks who compile the precious rankings don’t care if a school gets what it needs. Recruiting rankings are aggregate things: They measure who gets the most guys with the most stars behind their names. Those stars tell us something, but not nearly everything.
Scout.com has Tech’s class rated the 38th-best in the land, eighth-best in the 12-team ACC. Rivals.com has it 49th nationally, ninth in its conference. Coming in this winter of transition, such tepid assessments should neither surprise nor disappoint. The Jackets will do better next year, once prospects get an idea of what Johnson wants and what Tech does. “Once you get something on record,” he said Wednesday, “you have something to show guys.”
There is, however, a caveat: Due to their newly idiosyncratic scheme, the Jackets under this coach might never be seen to have recruited as well as they actually have.
Dropback quarterbacks needn’t apply. Indeed, the passer who’d committed to Tech and Chan Gailey — Sean Renfree of Arizona, who wound up signing with Duke — reneged posthaste. “Honestly, he needed to change,” Johnson said. “He didn’t fit what we do.”
And then: “If a wide receiver wants to catch 80 balls, he’s probably not going to come here. And if that’s all he’s concerned about, we probably don’t want you anyway.”
Perhaps the Jackets under Johnson will sign a tailback on the order of Darren McFadden. Perhaps not. Big backs tend to want the ball 25 times a game, which mightn’t happen here. The spread option, see, spreads the carries. This isn’t an offense for one feature back; it’s an offense for a running quarterback and a clever fullback and slotbacks who can scoot. Sure enough, Tech got a couple of the slotbacks Wednesday. Neither, however, was a five-star or even a four-star guy.
Johnson, you should know, puts little stock in the rankings. “I trust myself as an evaluator,” he said. “I trust my staff. If we believe someone’s going to help us, we’re going to give him a look.”
Signing day, as we’re constantly reminded, has grown to outsized proportions. Traditionally understated Tech rented the Opera, an ornate Midtown nightclub, for its “celebration” Wednesday night. (What happens if the Jackets’ haul ever cracks somebody’s top 10? Does Disco Dan Radakovich foot the bill for a dinner-dance at the Piedmont Driving Club?) Amid the hullabaloo, we often forget that signing day is but a vehicle, not the destination itself.
It doesn’t matter who signs if he doesn’t fit the system. It doesn’t matter who plays where if the system is flawed at its core. The belief here is that Johnson’s offense, which flourished at Georgia Southern and Navy, will function at Tech. He’ll have more size than at Southern, more speed than at Navy.
Johnson again: “I have no doubt our system can work. It’s a matter of how quickly we can get it installed.”
That stands to be the way of Tech’s new world: Seemingly lesser recruits signing to play for a man who knows exactly what he’s doing.
If you’re a fan, you need to decide whether to place your trust in that coach or in an outside evaluator who doesn’t much care what happens at Bobby Dodd Stadium on autumn Saturdays. Were I a fan, I know which way I’d lean.
Permalink | Comments (103) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
Without Vick, Falcons’ fans vanish
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
In news worthy of a yawn, the Falcons just announced that they’ve sliced the price of tickets for next season in the nose-bleed section of the Georgia Dome.
Nice try.
I guess.
First, we’re talking about the nose-bleed section. Second, if the Falcons can do something about putting a Michael Vick clone in one of their uniforms, they’d have a better chance of putting more fannies in their stands.
The Falcons have to win, too, which they did just four times in 16 games last season before home crowds that were mostly invisible at times.
Anyway, prior to last season, all of those sellouts during Arthur Blank’s six years as Falcons owner weren’t about the momentary lowering of ticket prices in the Georgia Dome’s extreme upper deck. They weren’t about offering more tailgating opportunities for fans. They weren’t about colder beer and warmer hot dogs.
They were about Vick, period.
Consider this: After the Falcons sold every ticket at the Georgia Dome before their 2003 season, they were among the NFL leaders in no-shows during the regular season. That’s because Vick broke his leg in the preseason and didn’t return until late in the year.
It’s all about Vick for the Falcons. It’s always been all about Vick for the Falcons, and maybe you’ve heard: Courtesy of the feds and dogfighting, Vick and his quarterback magic aren’t available to the Falcons or anybody else for a while.
So I guess the Falcons could slash ticket prices and give a Michael Vick bobble head doll for every game. Then again, that only would work if the Falcons could give Vick’s head, body, legs and everything else for all of those games.
Permalink | | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
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