Friday, January 21, 2011

Annual argument over "Rank Bank" building again

"Stars don't mean anything in recruiting," says one man.

"Then why are the top teams in the country always loaded with 4 and 5 star guys?" replies another.

And so it goes, like a never-ending story, but without Falcor. Too arcane a reference this early in the morning?

After nabbing two more of the top players in the country last night, and with two or three more 5-star players within reach, the Dawgs could easily end up with a top-5 recruiting class when it's all said and done.

As we know, statistics can always be bent to the will of the person wielding them, and I'm sure there are percentages, records, draft stats, and any number of other categories that will bear out the importance of highly ranked recruits.

Go up and down NFL rosters, and you're likely to find as many 2 and 3 star players as you are 4 and 5 (granted, there are far fewer 4 and 5 star players in a given year, but still). That being said, it's always nice to get guys that were heavily recruited by the Alabamas, Floridas, and LSUs of the world.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Richt's public lack of fire

I'm not sure anything can really be said after a 6-7 season to sate a ticked-off fan base, at least half of which wants blood (that of Richt's and/or Bobo's, among others). However, somebody really needs to get in the head coach's ear about at least playing to the fans just a little bit.

I may be in the minority at this point, but despite Georgia's poor offensive effort in the Liberty Bowl, I'm not hell-bent on ditching Bobo (that's not to say I think he's doing a superb job, either). Outside of that, though, I think most fans' disgruntlement stems from a perceived lack of toughness throughout the program, and the inability to put away close games, or come from behind to win close games lately.

Richt did make the change on the strength and conditioning front, but he really didn't express the overall disgust with Georgia's "soft" play (particularly on both sides of the line) that I think most fans would have appreciated. He continually used words like "upset" and "disappointed." There's just something different there. I'm 'disappointed' when I ask for extra mayonnaise on my burger, but find that no mayonnaise has been added to the burger at all. I'm 'upset' when people tell me that Maggie Gyllenhaal is a beautiful leading woman, because she's just not.

Folks would have liked to hear Richt say something along the lines of "I'm ticked off about how the season went. We have not played with anywhere near the attitude, tenacity, and toughness it takes to win in this league, and it's our primary goal this off-season to get that back. That's how we won two SEC Championships, and that's how we're going to win again. We're going to take back the line of scrimmage, and start playing football the way Georgia teams should play. Hard."

Talk, as they say, is cheap. At the end of the day, Richt could have said he was thrilled with the way the season went; it doesn't really affect how next season will go. However, he could have saved himself some criticism and question-answering with just a few more well thought out words.