2008 Recruiting Class

This same comparison would hold true at 95% of any other D1 football program. Out of 20 recruits you are ---- lucky to get 5 good players. Too many uncontrollable variables such as injury, not performing to potential, grades, girl friends, etc. to put too much stock in a recruiting class. We do very well especially with the academic requirements placed upon our SA's. We just need a QB that run this thing.

Go Jackets!
Boy, if you could hear my friends who are Florida fans complain about this very thing. They have four star busts coming out of their ears. Just one example, Xavier Nixon, number one offensive tackle in the country coming out of high school has managed to get beaten out by a defensive tackle moved over to offense. They had two four star tight ends get beat out and ended up transferring this year. Both of their backup quarterbacks were four star recruits and neither of them has played worth a ----. On and on it goes.
 
Good post- it shows what the problem is,lack of talent
a GREAT QB could made our record look better maybe


right on..a Great QB can mask alot of ills...likewise a bad or mediocre QB can be a nail in the coffin for a coaching regime...
 
2009 Class. My thoughts.
CB 98 Carl Miles - Done Nothing

S NR Lance Richardson - Done Nothing

DE 57 Izaan Cross - Showed potential but has disappeared. Just an average NCAA DE

DE 51 Euclid Cummings - Backup

WLB 46 Julian Burnett - Good NCAA player

QB 54 David Sims - average NCAA RB

OG 27 Antonio Foster - Nothing

WR 23 Stephen Hill - potential untapped

RB 112 Orwin Smith - Exceed Expectations, good recruit

S 70 Jemea Thomas - Good NCAA player

CB 22 Roderick Sweeting - Good NCAA player

OG 65 Raymond Beno - backup

OG 26 Will Jackson - average NCAA G

DE 68 Chris Crenshaw - backup

WR 176 Jeremy Moore - who?

FB 5 Daniel Drummond - really hasn't done much

OG 40 Jay Finch - below avg NCAA C

QB 26 Jordan Luallen - nothing

WLB 30 Brandon Watts - everyone said potential and has showed not much; backup

DE 66 Emmanuel Dieke backup

DT 25 J.C. Lanier backup

out of this class, of which 3 years in the program, only 3-4 are good players, none as of today have NFL prospect tied to their name yet (still time), and the rest are either backups, gone or just kinda average players

Out of this many recruits, by now we should have seen at least 1-2 sure fire NFL players. But really....its none. No one is sure fire draft pick.

So to me, its a big class, a bunch of backups, almost like a depth builder but only a couple really good players. Not that great a class.

this is either development, or misses IMO

But, granted, some kids still have 2 more years to show out and become draft potential. So we still will see.

O smith, I cross, r sweeting, s hill, j Thomas, and j burnett will all play in the nfl one day.
 
2009 Class. My thoughts.
CB 98 Carl Miles - Done Nothing

S NR Lance Richardson - Done Nothing

DE 57 Izaan Cross - Showed potential but has disappeared. Just an average NCAA DE

DE 51 Euclid Cummings - Backup

WLB 46 Julian Burnett - Good NCAA player

QB 54 David Sims - average NCAA RB

OG 27 Antonio Foster - Nothing

WR 23 Stephen Hill - potential untapped

RB 112 Orwin Smith - Exceed Expectations, good recruit

S 70 Jemea Thomas - Good NCAA player

CB 22 Roderick Sweeting - Good NCAA player


OG 65 Raymond Beno - backup

OG 26 Will Jackson - average NCAA G

DE 68 Chris Crenshaw - backup

WR 176 Jeremy Moore - who?

FB 5 Daniel Drummond - really hasn't done much

OG 40 Jay Finch - below avg NCAA C

QB 26 Jordan Luallen - nothing

WLB 30 Brandon Watts - everyone said potential and has showed not much; backup

DE 66 Emmanuel Dieke backup

DT 25 J.C. Lanier backup

Those two are more than just "Good NCAA players". They will be drafted next year and I would bet $50 on one or both of them becoming All-ACC. Maybe even All-American.

Our secondary should be phenomenal next year.

Fantastic:
Sweeting
Young
Thomas
Holton? (heard good things)

Serviceable:
Johnson
Golden
Noble
 
True, even Bama and LSU have their share of recruiting misses; that's why they over sign.

But those schools sign lots of good athletes year in and year out. If you sign 10+ four/five star players every year you are going to end up with more good players three years down the road than a team like Tech that typically signs only two maybe three four star players in a class (and no five star players). It's a numbers game. They don't benefit that much from over signing.
 
At this point I'd probably give the 2008 class a C-. It wasn't great, but we did get an All-American in Uzzi and a few good players. I'd give the 2009 class a C+. Better, but still no superstars.

I like our most recent classes a lot, but it remains to be seen if they will pan out.
 
O smith, I cross, r sweeting, s hill, j Thomas, and j burnett will all play in the nfl one day.

ehh.. I'm not sure about that. They all have a shot but none of them are sure things.

Smith is a longshot and probably won't get drafted - doesn't really fit the mold and playing AB wont help him

Cross has the size but hasn't really been an impact player in college

Sweeting - I think he makes a roster for a few years

Hill - Still needs to improve alot but his athletic ability will carry him to the league

Thomas - Longshot

Burnett - Longshot
 
At this point I'd probably give the 2008 class a C-. It wasn't great, but we did get an All-American in Uzzi and a few good players. I'd give the 2009 class a C+. Better, but still no superstars.

I like our most recent classes a lot, but it remains to be seen if they will pan out.

An All-American by reputation only. He has not been very good this year. Mason is easily our best OL right now.
 
Much is made of the fact that we have a paucity of seniors in our program, but another thing to look at is just how poor the 2008 class was. Here's how I think they've performed relative to their scout ranks:

Overachieved
None

Met Expectations
Omeregie Uzzi (****) - NFL Prospect
Phil Smith (***) - Starter
Rashaad Reid (***) - 4 Year Player
Tevin Washington (***) - Serviceable QB
Embry Peeples (***) - Solid A-Back
Daniel McKayhan (**) - Backup, what you'd expect out of a two star

Underachieved
Richard Watson (***) - career 4th stringer
Nick McRae (***) - career backup
Malcolm Munroe (***) - career backup
BJ Machen (***) - career backup
Brandon Leslie (***) - gone
Jaybo Shaw (***) - gone
TJ Barnes (***) - can't seem to break through and be that dominant NT
Jon Lockhart (***) - never found a position he could break through at
Cooper Taylor (***) - Gone
Kamaron Riley (***) - Gone
Marcus Wright (***) - Minimal impact, seemed perfect fit for A-Back, didn't even play his 4th year
Quentin Sims (**) - Gone

For all the talk of trusting the staff to identify the players we need and that they are better judge of talent than the ranking services it doesn't seem to bear out.

You can blame it on the transition from Gailey to Johnson or whatever, but this was a piss poor recruiting class. Truthfully told I'm not sure 2009 was much better.

We need four star talent or for our coaches to do a better job identifying the prospects the services are missing on.

Phil Smith stabbed his teammates in the back TWICE this season.
 
Paul Johnson was hired in December of 2007 and had 2 months to recruit for the 2008 class. Shocker that he didn't haul in a great one.
 
There aren't a lot of 5'9 220 MLB's in the NFL for a reason. He will have an uphill battle

Agree, maybe he will have a shot as a special teams player but I have not really followed him specifically in that phase.

Sadly, it may be hard to judge an individual player on our ST unit since the overall results are so bad.
 
Sadly, it may be hard to judge an individual player on our ST unit since the overall results are so bad.

I thought kickoff and punt return coverage has actually been pretty decent all season. I don't know if the numbers back it up, but I've mostly just been disappointed with the kicking game, not the coverage.
 
I thought kickoff and punt return coverage has actually been pretty decent all season. I don't know if the numbers back it up, but I've mostly just been disappointed with the kicking game, not the coverage.

Not sure about the whole season, but we gave up 2 big returns against Utah, a big one against UGA coming out of the half, and a big one against Miami just before half
 
ehh.. I'm not sure about that. They all have a shot but none of them are sure things.

Smith is a longshot and probably won't get drafted - doesn't really fit the mold and playing AB wont help him

Cross has the size but hasn't really been an impact player in college

Sweeting - I think he makes a roster for a few years

Hill - Still needs to improve alot but his athletic ability will carry him to the league

Thomas - Longshot

Burnett - Longshot

Smith will definitely get drafted. He's got decent size, has shown the ability to catch the ball and has been an explosive runner on the perimeter.

Burnett will definitely get drafted. He's a very good fit for a team running the tampa 2 defense. Plus he has a very good work ethic and will be able to contribute on special teams.

Cross will get drafted. He played well as a 4-3 def end his first year and has done his job as a 3-4 def end the past 2 years. He does not have great numbers, but no 3-4 def end puts up good numbers. His job is to occupy blockers to free up lbs. Also with the way teams in the nfl change looks cross will be extremely valuable. He can play almost any position on the def line. At the very least he'll be a 4-3 def tackle on passing downs.

Thomas, is the biggest longshot on the list ATM, but he has the potential to really develop next yr as he should be a starter all season long.
 
Not sure about the whole season, but we gave up 2 big returns against Utah, a big one against UGA coming out of the half, and a big one against Miami just before half

It didn't help that the last punt had no hang time.
 
Smith will definitely get drafted. He's got decent size, has shown the ability to catch the ball and has been an explosive runner on the perimeter.

Burnett will definitely get drafted. He's a very good fit for a team running the tampa 2 defense. Plus he has a very good work ethic and will be able to contribute on special teams.

Cross will get drafted. He played well as a 4-3 def end his first year and has done his job as a 3-4 def end the past 2 years. He does not have great numbers, but no 3-4 def end puts up good numbers. His job is to occupy blockers to free up lbs. Also with the way teams in the nfl change looks cross will be extremely valuable. He can play almost any position on the def line. At the very least he'll be a 4-3 def tackle on passing downs.

Thomas, is the biggest longshot on the list ATM, but he has the potential to really develop next yr as he should be a starter all season long.

Cross and Hill have the best chance to get drafted. I think the other three are signed as free agents. Thomas doesn't have the "measurables" that excite the scouts--otherwise, he'd have started this entire season. Burnett looks like a low-rounder right now--he may turn out to be a great pro, but he's not 6'3".
 
Cross and Hill have the best chance to get drafted. I think the other three are signed as free agents. Thomas doesn't have the "measurables" that excite the scouts--otherwise, he'd have started this entire season. Burnett looks like a low-rounder right now--he may turn out to be a great pro, but he's not 6'3".

Give Jemea a full season as a starter. He's going to get picked up by someone in the second round. Just watch.
 
Give Jemea a full season as a starter. He's going to get picked up by someone in the second round. Just watch.

I doubt he gets drafted at all, especially in the 2nd round. He lacks the size necessary to compete with the monster WRs in the NFL. He's a special teamer at best in the NFL.
 
Back
Top