When we have prioritized it under Dugans, the guys we got had little success here (Hightower / Ezzard). Pope and Mullins - were not recruited to be jump ball guys - won a whole bunch of jump balls in HS but could not translate the skill. Point being that we need guys with some toughness when the corners and safeties get bigger, stronger and faster. They can't be Andre Johnson but would love some of Andre's toughness in the room.
Smith and Redding are up next to bat. Comparing Redding to our previous jump ball guys in Cager/Langham/Hightower/Ezzard, he has a next level athleticism (4.5 and 40 inch vertical) that none of those guys had. Hopefully that, along with his strength, translates into jump ball wins.
When I say recruit guys who win the ball, I'm definitely talking about things like toughness, physicality, use of body, hands, etc. So I'm with you on their importance. But I don't think we prioritized those things under Richt, tbh. Pope and Wiggins sure weren't that spec. Richt himself said after reviewing our roster that his first priority was speed. That's the trait he saw in Pope, Wiggins. Hightower, I think they probably did think he brought some of this. Whether that was a good eval or not, I suspect they thought that. Ezzard I have no clue. But my point is really, none of our coaches since Butch has made toughness, physicality, use of body and hands enough of a spec priority at WR.
I know I'm a broken record on evals, but how do you trade off two guys, where one is a tall, fast prospect and the other less tall, less fast, but more physical, better use of body, etc. Many fans probably thinks that's what evals are, you just have to look into the crystal ball and try to discern which one will be better. I don't think that. If you take that approach, IMO you're missing step 1. I think you're supposed to start by aligning as a program on what specs you're looking for. You'll still have to make the trade-off decisions, but it would be a lot better of a conversation if there was a basic agreement on whether we'd prefer elite fast or elite hands, say. Because recruiting is about hundreds or thousands of decisions leading up to NSD, not some 'here are my options, let me pick' choice on NSD. You have to know where to spend your time, and how. Hence my point on spec first (goals and strategy), roster need-state second (situation assessment), then eval against spec and needs (execution). So you know where to spend your time. It should be obvious but I'm reasonably sure our staffs the past many years haven't been clear enough with themselves on this topic.
