Georgia may be the most talented team we'll face

[Pokevette]

I was just flipping through the Rivals recruiting rankings of the last several years....

Only two teams in America have had Top-10 recruiting classes in EACH of the last 6 years; USC and Georgia. So for those two teams as well as the Big-12, I looked at each of the last four recruiting class ranks (using the Rivals rankings) and averaged them. That gave me a "talent ranking" as follows:

TEAM.. Avg
USC.. 4.00
Georgia.. 6.50
Texas.. 7.25
Oklahoma.. 10.50
Nebraska.. 22.75
Texas A&M.. 26.75
Okla State.. 28.00
Colorado.. 35.50
Missouri.. 36.00
Texas Tech.. 38.75
Kansas.. 39.75
Baylor.. 49.50
Kansas St.. 51.50
Iowa State.. 64.25

A few observations from the above.
* As you can see, Georgia probably presents the toughest opponent of the season in terms of "talent". Hopefully, the experience of our Cowboys along with the home field advantage of Boone Pickens can swing the game in our favor.
* Using those rankings, you would expect a Big-12 Championship matching Texas vs Nebraska.
* The last three seasons, Oklahoma has had the highest "talent ranking" in the Big-12. Texas takes that spot from the Sooners this year.
* If OSU were to pick up an opening season win against Georgia, there is really no reason to expect anything less than an undefeated season going into Norman for the season finale.

[wood911]

Georgia has a population of nearly 10,000,000 people with only Ga Tech to compete with as far as good BCS programs to compete with in-state, UGA has a very good recruiting situation. Consider that we have 3,300,000 people with UO and OSU. Consider that Texas has 24,000,000 people with UT, aTm, TTech, Baylor, Houston TCU, UO, OSU, etc. With Mark Richt being a very capable recruiter, they should be good. Unfortunately, they are.:stupe: The fact that there are teams like UGA, UT, UO, etc. with built in recruiting advantages and we can be compared with them speaks well of our coaching staff and their efforts tobring in good players.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

those rankings are interesting, but you really have to factor in how many are no longer on the team, like Stafford and Moreno; and accordingly, their respective levels of experience.

[pistolpete2002]

I watched the Capital One Bowl Game from last year between UGA and MSU. UGA didn't even score a TD until 7 minutes left in the 3rd to make it a 10-6 UGA lead. I think we'll have 21 by half. If we can shut their offense down like MSU did last year, I think we'll beat them pretty decently. And MSU shut them down with Stafford and Moreno playing.

I don't know guys, I feel pretty good about this game. I'm just ready to see how healthy Zac is and how much more improved our defense is!!!! 12 more days!!!!!

[FirstDawgHere]

I watched the Capital One Bowl Game from last year between UGA and MSU. UGA didn't even score a TD until 7 minutes left in the 3rd to make it a 10-6 UGA lead. I think we'll have 21 by half. If we can shut their offense down like MSU did last year, I think we'll beat them pretty decently. And MSU shut them down with Stafford and Moreno playing.

I don't know guys, I feel pretty good about this game. I'm just ready to see how healthy Zac is and how much more improved our defense is!!!! 12 more days!!!!!

Another one of those games last year where it looked like we just didn't show up until late. We had enough firepower as we scored 24pts in the last 20min or so of the game. UGA was 2nd in the SEC in total offense, just 13yds behind Florida on average.

What was most encouraging was the defense dominated MSU. They hadn't played like that all year and that was what most Georgia fans were happy to see, regardless if Stafford didn't wake up until the final half. They weren't excited to be down there to begin with and I think it was the first time in a while UGA didn't sell out their side of a stadium in a bowl game.

If the defense goes back to being the Junkyard Dawgs of old and the offense comes back to earth, I think Georgia will be a better football team. That's what I'm hoping for but it begins and ends on defense.

[FirstDawgHere]

Georgia has a population of nearly 10,000,000 people with only Ga Tech to compete with as far as good BCS programs to compete with in-state, UGA has a very good recruiting situation. Consider that we have 3,300,000 people with UO and OSU. Consider that Texas has 24,000,000 people with UT, aTm, TTech, Baylor, Houston TCU, UO, OSU, etc. With Mark Richt being a very capable recruiter, they should be good. Unfortunately, they are.:stupe: The fact that there are teams like UGA, UT, UO, etc. with built in recruiting advantages and we can be compared with them speaks well of our coaching staff and their efforts tobring in good players.

Georgia is 9th in population, yet we're 4th in D-1 football players signed year in and year out behind states that are double, triple or quadruple our population. This is a great state for high school football with lots of talented kids.

You're right that GT and UGA are the only majors within the border, but Clemson, Auburn and Florida State are so close they could almost be considered home-state.

From having worked as a consultant in the recruiting biz and covered this state, you wouldn't believe who all recruits here. From MAC schools, to WAC schools, everybody wants a presence in Georgia. Hell, OSU and Gundy have pulled several kids recently themselves.

Kind of interesting, but despite all the local talent, 8 of UGA's 17 commitments are from outside the border. 7 of those are Floridian's. That's opened up even more good players for out of state programs to come in and recruit.

[FloridaPoke]

A post I made on rivals to rebut the idiocy from Ga fans (FirstDawgHere is not one of them).
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This just in:
The SEC.......is where the 4.5 linebackers are the fastest 4.5 linebackers in the world......somehow even faster than 4.4 linebackers from other regions of the US.

Scientists, however, believe it might just have something to do with how slow the brains work in the region, making things as mundane as linebacker speed seem faster than they really are. Dr. Joe Bob Quirk, University of Georgia quantum physics professor, explained,
"I would describe the phenomenon like this. It's like why our teenage pregnancy rate is the highest in the country. By the time a girl can say Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo[takes a breath]ooooooooooooooooo,
it's just too darned late and the linebacker has planted his seed. While he is, in fact, fast in a copulation sense, he isn't faster than others in the region.....but to a Southeast girl it just seems like it."

Renowned sports psychologists have often described the phenomenon where the game "slows down" for the best athletes on the playing field, as if they are running full tilt while the game around them slows down so they can react quicker and make better decisions. It is much like how slow everything becomes when someone experiences a near death experience. However, Dr. Quirk is in the middle of a ObamaStimulus funded research project to determine why in the Southeast it is the fans who experience the "slow down" and not the players on the field who are in the heat of the battle.

One hypothesis is that human brains have fast twitch and slow twitch cells just like all other muscles in the body. But in the Southeast, all of the fast twitch brain cells are used up on "too late" snappy comebacks on opposing teams message boards. This, in turn, confuses even the slow twitch cells and causes the entire world around them to slow down, even when they are stationary in their seats in a football stadium.

When asked why only the players these people root for seem fast, and not the opposing team's players, Dr. Quirk said, "Once the surrounding world slows down that much, it is simply impossible to focus on anything but what your parents and friends have told you since you were very young. And the need to live vicariously through others and the past is amplified exponentially".

[Tokyoken]

Georgia is so loaded with talent that even if they have a down year they can beat anyone on their schedule. IMHO, IF we beat Georgia, we will probably run the table.. Go Cowboys!!

[TexasCowPoke]

I agree Tokyo. GA talent is sick, and it runs deep. IF we get the win, it will have meant the hype is for real. Let's just not turn around and lose to Grambling, Houston or Rice.