Dawgs land 2 more commits. 13 of 18 on defense

TJ Stripling ($ premium), a 4 star defensive end, and Nickell Robey ($), a 4 star DB/Athlete, have committed to Georgia during the past 24 hours. Georgia now has 18 total commitments, and 13 of the kids are on defense with a heavy, heavy emphasis on speed on the group.

Glad to have them. This is certainly one way to fix a defense that looked slow and tentative last year.

But the bigger story of the week on the recruiting front looks to be the spat at Carver High School in Columbus. The story is almost two days old now. You can read it here, here or here.

But here's my belated take. Everyone on this process screwed up. The kid, the high school coach and the Georgia staff. All of them botched this kid's recruitment badly over the past two months. I don't for a minute think it's a conspiracy by an ex-Auburn player turned high school football coach to blow this up. Nor do I think it's a conspiracy by Richt to offer the QB in hopes of landing the other kids at the high school.

It's just a run of the mill shank. The kid had an offer, and he didn't commit...despite knowing that UGA was short on scholarships this year. According to Dean Legge at DawgPost.com, UGA got 11 public commitments after the kid got his offer in May. That brought our total number of public commitments to 15. Why wait if you know you want to come to UGA? That's on the kid.

Georgia knew it was running out of scholarships with the public commitments plus likely private commitments and "on the cusp" commitments from a handful of others. Why not tell the kid that we weren't going to sign a QB this year? Why wait? That's on the coaches.

And the high school coach blew this from the start. He knows how the recruiting process works. It's not like UGA pulled his offer after the kid committed. That's the unforgivable sin. It's a game of musical chairs and you don't wait to be the last kid to grab your seat. The HS coach let his kids down in managing their recruitment.

This will all blow over in a few months and everything will get back to normal. Richt has the credibility to fix this. The high school coach said as much in the interviews. Per the Georgia High School Football Daily (partial list of quotes):

"I told [Richt] how I felt, and he said he supported my decision and said he didn't blame me," McGee said. "He apologized. He admitted that they screwed up and didn't handle the situation correctly."

"I respect Coach Richt; I know he's a Christian guy," McGee said. "He's a model coach and father. It's just a big breakdown in their communication within the coaching staff at Georgia, and that's kind of sad. I'm sure they'll get it corrected."

"Mark Richt is a class guy; I'm sure he'll write a letter of apology and things of that sort," McGee said. "It's going to take time. I've got to stand up for kids in my program."

I think the only folks who are really overreacting are recruiting junkies. And the only person genuinely hurt by this is the QB who will end up likely playing for a program not quite as good as UGA. Long term, I'd wager this is a non-event.

See Also:
-- If you want something done right... - Blutarsky

PWD