You can read the article for the numbers, but here's the sentence that struck me:
Offensive lineman Clint Boling is the Bulldogs’ most draftable senior, according to Detillier, who thinks Boling is a late fourth or early fifth-round pick.The biggest problems, though, have been on defense, where we haven't had a player taken in the first two rounds since Tim Jennings in 2006.
Buck Belue was talking about this issue, going forward at least, the other day:
Let me be as honest as I can be about the Georgia defense. We had 9 guys out there that wouldn't be starting at Auburn, LSU or Bama. Only Houston and Boykin are capable of starting elsewhere. Wonder when Grantham realized that?I don't know how much stock I put into Richard Samuel as a starting linebacker next year, since he hasn't cracked the depth chart at all this year. But, then, I had the same concerns last year, when Aaron Murray didn't beat Joe Cox out for the starting job, and look how that turned out.
The personnel should be better in 2011, with Jarvis Jones, Richard Samuel, and Alec Ogletree plugged in. But it's the D-Line that has me concerned looking ahead. Who are the impact dudes; like Auburn's Fairley. Don't see any.
The bottom line is that we're going to have to find impact players for every level of the defense, and particularly in the middle of the defense. If Buck says we've got that covered next year at linebacker and safety, I'll allow myself some cautious optimism, though I think Jones is an outside linebacker - a position more crucial in the 3-4.
But destructive nose tackles ... you don't usually just pluck one of those off a high school football field.
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Anybody who was paying attention had to know we were in big trouble on the interior of the D-line this year. Young and inexperienced with the loss of Owens, Atkins and Weston. Geathers, Abry Jones and Tyson were highly recruited, but who knows if they'll ever develop into NFL-caliber players. They certainly aren't anywhere close to that now, which gets back to the point...where are the stud interior DL who should be upperclassmen now? If Garner is as good of a recruiter as they say he is, how did this happen? I don't have time to look back at the history of it, but it's obvious that we are either targeting the wrong guys(academic or injury risks..or just not that talented) or not getting the guys we really want(Bama and UF have been getting most of them...and now we've got AU and SC in the SEC championship game this year). We had incredible talent on the D back in 2002. Every single one of the starters played in the NFL at some point. Now look at us. Night and day difference.
As for the OL, experience doesn't equal talent. Sturdivant and Glenn are the only guys we had on the line who could physically dominate and be a high draft pick...in Sturdivant's case, that was before two knee injuries.
As the old saying goes, recruiting is the lifeblood of a program. Unfortunately, it's sucking the life out of UGA compared to our rivals at this point.
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