Richt's Recruiting- WR edition

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HurricaneVision

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Now that we have the majority of the coaches named and we know basically the offensive and defensive systems we will run I wanted to take a look at Richt’s recruiting during his time with Georgia. I’ll be going through his recruiting position-by-position until I get through all 293 recruits from 2002 to 2014. I chose 2002 to start for a couple of reasons:

- It’s easier because most of the sites start at 2002
- It’s difficult to evaluate him on the 2001 recruiting class due to limited time to put a class together

I’ve covered the QB's and RB's, so now I'll move on to the WR's:

Richt recruited 35 WR's in his time at Georgia, and they averaged 6-2, 184 and 3.47 stars.

Of the 35 WR's, 10 of them never set foot on campus. I have removed these 10 players from the sample (Cedric Haywood, TJ Gartrell, Alonzo Bryant, Jamar Bryant, Walter Hill, Lonnie Outlaw, Sanford Seay, Rico Johnson, Uriah LeMay, Gilbert Johnson).

Removing those players from the sample still results in 6-2, 184, so it's obvious that is a pretty fair barometer of what Richt looks for in his WR's.

Bryan McClendon- 6-1, 180 and 3.50 average stars. From GA and made 14 career starts.

Mario Raley- 6-1, 185 and 4.00 average stars. From NC and made 6 career starts.

Sean Bailey- 6-0, 165 and 4.00 average stars. From GA and made 12 career starts. Torn ACL ruined a promising career.

Mikey Henderson- 6-1, 155 and 2.00 average stars. From GA and made 4 career starts. Was an all-conference return man.

Demiko Goodman- 6-4, 185 and 3.50 average stars. From GA and made 2 career starts.

Kenneth Harris- 6-4, 198 and 3.50 average stars. From GA and made 5 career starts.

Mohamed Massaquoi- 6-1, 190 and 4.00 average stars. From NC and made 26 starts. All-SEC and drafted into NFL.

Mike Moore- 6-3, 187 and 3.50 average stars. From FL and made 13 career starts.

Kris Durham- 6-5, 186 and 3.00 average stars. From GA and made 15 career starts. 4th round pick who was solid athlete.

Tony Wilson- 6-1, 165 and 4.00 average stars. From FL and made 3 career starts. Ended up leaving program.

Israel Troupe- 6-1, 200 and 4.00 average stars. From GA and made 0 career starts. Played in 39 career games as a special teamer.

AJ Green- 6-4, 184 and 5.00 average stars. From SC and made 16 career starts. All-SEC and 1st round pick.

Tavarres King- 6-1, 169 and 4.00 average stars. From GA and made 39 career starts. King was also drafted into NFL.

Marlon Brown- 6-5, 205 and 4.33 average stars. From TN and made 11 career starts. He has carved out an NFL career.

Rantavious Wooten- 6-1, 158 and 3.67 average stars. From FL and made 11 career starts.

Michael Bennett- 6-3, 187 and 3.00 average stars. From GA and made 27 career starts.

Chris Conley- 6-3, 191 and 3.33 average stars. From GA and made 23 career starts. Enigma who is freak athletically and was drafted into NFL.

Malcolm Mitchell- 6-1, 187 and 4.00 average stars. From GA and made 34 career starts. Multiple knee injuries ruined his career. Looked like a future star, as best year was freshman year as an All-SEC Freshman player.

Justin Scott-Wesley- 5-11, 210 and 4.00 average stars. From GA and made 4 career starts. Another player with multiple knee injuries.

Blake Tibbs- 6-1, 167 and 3.00 average stars. From GA and made 0 career starts. Left program.

Reggie Davis- 6-0, 159 and 3.67 average stars. From FL and has made 7 career starts. Great special teams player and returner.

Jonathon Rumph- 6-5, 215 and 4.00 average stars. A JC player who made 0 career starts. Whiff as a Juco player.

Tramel Terry- 6-0, 190 and 4.00 average stars. From FL and made 0 career starts and has left the program.

Shakenneth Williams- 6-2, 195 and 3.67 average stars. From GA and has not made a career start yet.

What does this tell us?
As much as any other position, Richt really has defined roles in mind for his receivers. He likes his split end to be rangy and tall. He likes his flanker to be tall, but also agile, so this player will generally be lean. Richt does not mind a player being light in weight, but generally will recruit taller receivers. Rarely did Richt have a receiver that was a go-to player to put up guady numbers. Generally his leading receiver would put up somewhere between 45-60 catches a year.

How would our current players fit in with this?
Stacy Coley is the perfect flanker for Coach Richt. Long and lean with the elusiveness to be a RAC machine in this offense. Lawrence Cager brings the size element that Richt craves on the outside with his split end. Richt's split end is often faced with press at the LOS and he craves receivers who are physical enough to get off that press. Berrios or Bruce would fit quite well at the slot receiver spot where Richt has no size guidelines for this spot.

The overall picture looks bad
When you look at all the defections and see a lack of true superstar players at this position you might be disconcerted. Much of the lack of star production is due to Richt's system not force feeding the ball to one individual in particular. Even AJ Green averaged 55 receptions per season at Georgia. There are several smooth athletes with talent in this crop of WR's.

Richt only recruited two All-SEC WR's in his time at Georgia, but did bring in several talented players who fit their role and produced. Perhaps more than any other position, Coach Richt is looking for specific attributes out of his WR's and he especially requires his split end to block on the perimeter. Some good players listed, but traditionally Coach Richt does not recruit WR's to the level that he does RB's and QB's.
 
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I think this is what's going to take Mark over the top and finally win championships. Besides A.J nobody really really flashed the superstar potential. Like you said bailey was a good one ashame what happened to him. Other than those two everybody else were role players in my opinion or fit to be possession receivers.

Richt has pool full of gifted athletes to choose from to play receiver down here. We're going to kill teams soon and I can't wait.
 
The overall picture looks bad
When you look at all the defections and see a lack of true superstar players at this position you might be disconcerted. Much of the lack of star production is due to Richt's system not force feeding the ball to one individual in particular. Even AJ Green averaged 55 receptions per season at Georgia. There are several smooth athletes with talent in this crop of WR's.

Richt only recruited two All-SEC WR's in his time at Georgia, but did bring in several talented players who fit their role and produced. Perhaps more than any other position, Coach Richt is looking for specific attributes out of his WR's and he especially requires his split end to block on the perimeter. Some good players listed, but traditionally Coach Richt does not recruit WR's to the level that he does RB's and QB's.


pretty spot on.
 
Was this mostly because Georgia was running a run heavy offense? We know he wanted to become a little more pass oriented and use the spread a little more, but the AD basically vetoed him.
I think he will be more balanced and pass oriented than his time at UGA.
Also, South Florida grows WRs on palm trees out here, so I'm really not worried about him recruiting WRs. Its hard to **** up. Much more interested in what he did at QB, OL, DL, etc.
 
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The overall picture looks bad
When you look at all the defections and see a lack of true superstar players at this position you might be disconcerted. Much of the lack of star production is due to Richt's system not force feeding the ball to one individual in particular. Even AJ Green averaged 55 receptions per season at Georgia. There are several smooth athletes with talent in this crop of WR's.

Richt only recruited two All-SEC WR's in his time at Georgia, but did bring in several talented players who fit their role and produced. Perhaps more than any other position, Coach Richt is looking for specific attributes out of his WR's and he especially requires his split end to block on the perimeter. Some good players listed, but traditionally Coach Richt does not recruit WR's to the level that he does RB's and QB's.


pretty spot on.

Mystifying. Not quite on the level of Miles with QBs, but the utter lack of production or stars from this position is mystifying. Makes me wonder what the year in and out crop of GA WR talent was during these years. Was it paltry? Did he just crap the bed? Is his eye bad? What was it.
 
I think that also goes with the offense. When you are a team that just runs the ball and does play action deep passes you're no looking for a special receiver. You're just looking for shooting guards, to catch alley oops, and wear pads. I'm hoping this changes in the offense with us being more of a spread type team.
 
I think that also goes with the offense. When you are a team that just runs the ball and does play action deep passes you're no looking for a special receiver. You're just looking for shooting guards, to catch alley oops, and wear pads. I'm hoping this changes in the offense with us being more of a spread type team.

Think that's a good seque into another conversation: what is this O going to look like? Is Richt going to reinvent himself, or return to something closer to his FSU OC days. Is he going to dictate or just contribute? Do I only have questions tonight, or am I actually going to try thinking for once?
 
These posts are very well written and well thought out. Thanks for the read.
 
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run heavy offense, up and down play at qb.

-TJ Gartrell did play for uga though, had an injury shoretened career

This is the best wr talent Richt will see in one small area that he basically can pick and choose from.....think we will air it out a little more than they did at UGA.

Like the write up..we have wr that fit to what he wants to do at the position already...and signing a group of Bruce, Mullins, Richards, and whome ever else will be a nice start to something special down the road.
 
I think this is what's going to take Mark over the top and finally win championships. Besides A.J nobody really really flashed the superstar potential. Like you said bailey was a good one ashame what happened to him. Other than those two everybody else were role players in my opinion or fit to be possession receivers.

Richt has pool full of gifted athletes to choose from to play receiver down here. We're going to kill teams soon and I can't wait.

I wonder if he will be more successful at this position recruiting wise since we crank out badass WR's every year from South Florida. Location alone I believe will improve his skill positions.
 
I think this is what's going to take Mark over the top and finally win championships. Besides A.J nobody really really flashed the superstar potential. Like you said bailey was a good one ashame what happened to him. Other than those two everybody else were role players in my opinion or fit to be possession receivers.

Richt has pool full of gifted athletes to choose from to play receiver down here. We're going to kill teams soon and I can't wait.

I wonder if he will be more successful at this position recruiting wise since we crank out badass WR's every year from South Florida. Location alone I believe will improve his skill positions.

If he isnt successful down here at the wide receiver position you already know the banners will fly lol
 
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Tramel Terry is from sc.

Did he prep in FL perhaps? For instance, when I get to OL you'll see quite a few from VA, but almost every single one went to Hargrave.

It was clear Richt had an airtight relationship with that school and if you didn't qualify- and were worth the trouble- he'd still get you onto campus after a year of prep.
 
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Great post again.

I think WR recruiting is where Richt has been consistently weak. 2 things that are telling to me:

1) Georgia WR's didn't do anything in the NFL (outside of Green). Miami had guys like Travis Benjamin, and Allen Hurns have great years this year, and played above their star rating and draft position. I think a general lack of talent is more the reason for GA WR's flaming out vs. Richt's run heavy system.

2) The out of state WR's he recruited were WAY better than the GA WR's. I think Richt should have identified this, and been more aggressive in trying to pull some WR's from LA, TX, VA, AL, TN & FL. But he seemed content on staying local when he wasn't getting results.
 
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It all starts up front and hopefully the new S&C coach can get the jelly bellies off our offensive line...Kaaya is reputed to be the number one QB if he wants to go pro after next year, but without a better offensive line he may be number one for hospital visits...Just a half a second longer on blocking gives that kid a chance to connect with his receivers for larger gains...
 
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