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- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
Not the writer’s position to be snarky. That’s what the commenters are for.
By the way, had we gotten Downs, we wouldn’t be in position to play Notre Dame for the Natty; we would have possibly already beat them
It’s all about the money for these kids now—90% of them, at least. Loyalty to state or school is a thing of the past. With quarterbacks raking in millions, the days of convincing a 4- or 5-star QB to sit for more than a year are nearly over. They want to start by their second year and head to the draft in their third—no redshirt seasons for this new era of players.
That’s why Kirby needs to build a complete NFL pipeline—now. Bring in NFL coaches to create a program that guarantees a three-year path to the draft. Do it before Ohio State or Alabama beats us to it. Hell, Belichick is already ahead of the game.
College Power 5s are the AAA farm system for the NFL. Might as well act like it.
It’s 2025 !!! Go Dawgs !!!
@dawgfromduluth
Oh please. You guys had a 4 - 5 star QB not only sit for 3 years but pass up being a 2nd day NFL draft pick for his senior season in Carson Beck, and how did the fanbase treat him? Exactly. Half the time he was negatively compared with his predecessor who had much more talent around him. The other half people were rooting for one of the kids on the bench, Brock Vandagriff then Gunner Stockton, to supplant him because they were "Georgia kids who were dual threats" as opposed to the dropback passer Floridian. The very same people who defended SB IV's NIL deals and off-the-field behavior claimed that the same from Beck were "dividing the team" and somehow responsible for the UGA OL having no true OTs and their RBs and WRs being unable to separate from defenses.
Example: when UGA calls for a Hail Mary against Texas despite their OTs being unable to handle the Texas pass rush the whole game long and it gets Beck injured, ruining his ability to enter the draft, what does his own coach Kirby Smart do? Throw Beck under the bus, saying that he should have gotten rid of the ball quicker. Later in the game when Gunner Stockton throws a pick when he was clearly trying to throw it out of bounds but couldn't get enough on it because his feet weren't set? Kirby runs interference for him, claiming that the receiver ran the wrong route on the play and the same UGA fans believed him. When Kirby makes the same play call, which results in a ****-sack TD in the next game, instead of saying "Gunner should have gotten rid of the ball quicker" like when he threw Beck under the bus, he says "well maybe I shouldn't have made that play call in the first place." And Smart does his level best to let everyone know how upset that he was that Beck wasn't with the team and was instead consulting doctors and trying to rehab to get ready for the draft as fast as possible even though Beck had suffered a season ending injury and had no ability to help the team at all.
Beck would honestly have been better off honoring his original commitment to Bama or staying at home and playing for the Gators than spending 5 miserable years in Athens with the UGA "fans." Not that UGA fans are any better or worse than any other fan bases. They all act like this and some are even worse. But Beck's treatment is a classic example of why your appeals to "loyalty" are bogus. A total joke. Why should players have any more "loyalty" to programs and fans than those programs and fans show to them?
You want to talk about "back in the day"? Well "back in the day", meaning UGA's last head coach before Kirby Smart, Mark Richt, if a player committed to UGA, then Richt and UGA would honor that commitment until that player graduated. The Smart era? Nope. Smart will pull a scholarship offer from a kid in a heartbeat. Even once the kid gets to Athens, if he isn't on the depth chart then there are no guarantees that his scholarship will be renewed. If he is an upperclassman not on the depth chart, then it flat out won't be. Remember Julian Humphrey, who split Athens before the SEC title game? If you think that UGA was going to either renew his scholarship for 2025 or pay his way with NIL collective money like Dan Jackson and Cash Jones then you are being naive. Yet people caled Humphrey disloyal for not sticking around until the end of the season to support a program that had made it clear that he was no longer wanted in.
So again, if you have some reason why players should show more loyalty than the coaches, institutions and fans are showing the players, I'd like to hear it. The players who realize that it is a business now, a one way street, and act accordingly are being savvy.
@rtparkeriv No, unless Downs was going to play WR or RB in addition to safety like Travis Hunter, his being on the UGA team wouldn't have helped beat Notre Dame. ND had no TDs in that game that weren't set up by turnovers or special teams. UGA lost that game because of the lack of quality skill players on offense. Which leads me to …
@1SICemDAWGS1 @BubbaBill @JimWallace and the rest:
You guys are forgetting that Caleb Downs was on the Bama team that beat UGA in the SECCG last year. Meaning that Downs knew first hand that after UGA lost Brock Bowers, Ladd McConkey, Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton from the 2023's team that they weren't going to have a shot in 2024. Downs studied film on and played against Lovett, Bell, Delp and Smith. He knew that they were going to have issues getting open and catching the football. Downs also knew that UGA didn't have anyone formidable coming back at tailback. Downs knew Trevor Etienne joining UGA out of the portal would have made no difference as even though Bama didn't play the Gators that year Downs knew enough about the SEC to know that Etienne was a backup to a 3 star former Sun Belt player for a losing Florida team for 2 years, which meant he wasn't going to make a difference in Athens either.
Downs knew that his choice between Ohio State and Georgia was going to be a choice between a team that had the talent to contend for a national title on offense and defense (Ohio State) or a team that not was only going to go as far as its defense was going to take it (Georgia) but even with him still wasn't going to be as talented as the 2021-2022 defenses. So even though for my money Carson Beck is probably better than Will Howard, Will Howard is still a 2nd or 3rd round pick. The difference is that Howard gets to throw to Emeka Egbuka (2nd-3rd round), Jeremiah Smith (1st round) and Carnell Tate (2nd-3rd round) while handing off to Quinshon Judkins (1st -2nd round) and TreVeyon Henderson (2nd round).
So there is no way that Caleb Downs was coming to Athens because Downs played against the guys that UGA was going to start on offense in 2024 and Downs knew that they weren't close to being good enough to win a title. For UGA fans to blame NIL instead of several years of questionable recruiting on offense - in high school AND the portal - is just choosing to reject reality.
It is curious that Smart was all of a sudden able to sign 4 elite WR prospects this year instead of letting them just mosey on out of state like usual. Might want to ask Smart what kept him from doing this in the past instead of just resorting to calling Downs NIL greedy. Who knows how many more titles UGA would have if Smart had been recruiting WRs like that the whole time.
You totally missed my point. Maybe you were reading another post?
For be it from me to start questioning someone's relationship with God and the Holy Spirit. But will say that I KNOW FOR A FACT, that Caleb Downs had decided to become a Dawg and just before he signed the papers to do so, Ohio State swooped in and offered him substantially more money to come play for him. More money than UGA was legitimately able to match. I don't know if it was about money why he chose Alabama in the first place, but I do know about the Ohio State situation. And as for why doesn't Georgia just spend more, the reality is they (we) really don't have it. We do not have as many mega-donors (i.e. billionaire alumni and supporters) as many of the Big 10 schools. In fact, I don't know if UGA has even one billionaire alum and if so, that alum has, so far, not been an NIL contributor. That's not to say Georgia is broke. Far from it. But our dollars just don't reach as far as those at Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M. And at some of these other schools, some of the largest contributors aren't even big sports fans. They just love their school and/or the attention and adulation that giving big sums of money gets them (like their name on a building or a field). Go Dawgs!
Not suprising..
I don't know about you...and the rest of Dawg Nation.…but, CFB is starting to lose it's essence and shine. At least for me.
Too many new faces rotating in each year, with the Freshmen. Too many new faces rotating out every year, in search of "Greener" grass.
No continuity. Half the fun of CFB, to me, is watching the development of the young players. And, seeing them form a bond over 2 o 3 seasons that translates to more wins.
i also enjoy the week to week strategic moves in game planning, roster management and preparation. All the new faces you see on the offense and defensive backfield each year....puts a limit on the Coaches play-calling options.
The more new faces....the less complicated the play selection. Boring.
It hasn't effected UGA as much as most of the otherTuteams in the SEC. Yet. But, it's become a creeping fungus, that is gutting what made NCAA DIV1 CFB so darn popular in the first place.
CFB is becoming a watered down version of the NFL. Just, not as professional, mature or physically developed.
DIV1 CFB has become, more about flash and hyperbole, than football. Money has ruined many a good thing and good people. At some point, the adults are gonna have to step in and take charge.
As far as player compensation...i'm torn. Just because you want it....doesn't mean you should haveit. And, just because it looks "good" or feels "good"....doesn't mean, it IS "good".
There's got to be another way to fairly compensate the student-athletes without destroying the goose. That's all I'm sayin'..
IMO....We're gonna know less and less about our team, going into each season. To the point, we will be supporting a bunch of professional athletes, we barely know. Not a good formula for Fandom growth. Lol
One word could have written this ridiculous article that I didn’t read…
Money.
That's the MO. Lengthy posts that have an almost impressive knack for missing every possible mark on whatever the subject is. He starts with a contrarian conclusion and works backwards to try to find an argument for it, which more often than not ends up failing spectacularly.
Downs choosing Ohio State over Georgia probably had less to do with some deep analysis of Georgia's 2024 offensive depth chart and more to do with, you know, life being complicated. Assuming he made his decision because he played against Georgia’s backups and thought, “These guys can’t hang,” is like saying you picked your college based on the cafeteria menu. Sure, it’s a factor, but it’s not the whole meal.
Let’s talk about Georgia’s offense. Yeah, Brock Bowers and friends were banged up, and the backups weren’t exactly scaring NFL scouts. But Kirby and Georgia don’t just reload; they reforge the machine. Assuming that one SEC Championship game in 2023 defines Georgia’s future is like thinking Tom Cruise peaked at Risky Business. Have you seen the last few years? Georgia’s offense has been doing its own stunts lately.
And about ETN? Sure, he might’ve been a backup at Florida, but saying he wouldn’t make an impact at Georgia is like judging an actor’s career based on their first sitcom role. Georgia has a way of taking good players and turning them into household names. You thinkETN wouldn’t look good behind a Georgia O-line?
The “Carson Beck isn’t throwing to Emeka Egbuka” argument is cute, but Georgia’s quarterback room has done just fine without Ohio State’s wide receiver bingo card. Beck could toss the ball to a PE teacher and still find a way to win ten games. And let’s not forget Kirby pulling in four elite WRs this cycle. It’s like he realized, “Oh, you want flashy wideouts? Fine. Hold my visor.”
Blaming Kirby’s past recruiting for WRs may be fair, it is like blaming your dad for not buying Bitcoin in 2011. Yeah, it would’ve been nice, but look where you are now: two national titles and counting. Georgia’s recruiting hasn’t just improved; it’s gone full Shark Tank—buying into every five-star that makes sense.
So maybe Downs went to Ohio State because he liked the vibe, the campus, or, more likely, their NIL pitch came with a free Tesla or two. But to say he skipped Georgia because their 2024 offense is doomed? That’s like saying you skip Thanksgiving dinner because the stuffing wasn’t great last year. Spoiler: the Dawgs are going to be just fine, and so is their offense.
My magic 8 ball says he's passed on the Dawgs "for the money" and that's okay, just don't try and convince me otherwise. I wonder if he feels that he was shortchanged - the best deals now come with money and a hot date.
I have to agree with most of the comments below. I have no idea what Connor was thinking with this piece. Surely DN is aware of the predominant impression that Downs chose the highest bidder. Now, however many months later, there's a headline promising the real answer, and the article does absolutely nothing to dispel the idea that it was all about the bag. God called him to Columbus? Seriously? And as if that weren't bad enough, Connor goes ahead and praises Downs' decision not to come to Georgia. And what made him think anyone here wants to read about Ohio State's season? I mean dämn Connor.