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Georgia’s 2023 signing class is a real question mark due to transfer portal losses
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Georgia’s 2023 signing class is a real question mark due to transfer portal losses
ATHENS — One of the trade-offs that comes with the transfer portal means that there will be fewer and fewer experienced players on the upper levels of the roster.
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Kirby will have to get more out of portal every year. Problem is, how do you deal with O Lineman and D Lineman. Harder to find that quality in the portal. Wide receivers, even QB's can be found, but real talent up front is not as prevalent.
The key to having a Championship caliber team will be the RIGHT combination of retention, recruiting, and transfer portal players AT THE RIGHT TIME. Putting all that together in one particular season- and staying healthy enuff to keep winning - will be the magic trick every team must try to pull off each season. Like I've said ad nauseum, each season will be like a rebuilding year, and that can be painful. I don't see a Championship caliber team for the Dawgs in 2025. Just being honest. There's just too many questions with this 2025 team, from the QB to the line of scrimmage. We're a Top10 team, maybe even top 5, but not sure at this point.
Ohio State managed to put together a loaded roster that had the league's leading RB duo, an experienced and capable QB, along with (3) of the best WRs in the country. Even with a banged up and shuffled O line, they proved they were the best Team in the country. That won't happen again in 2025 for the Buckeyes.
Terribly damaging to the game, this is.
Go, Dawgs!
THere needs to be analyst(maybe they alread have them) who studies other team's rosters and that's all they do. THat's their job. THey watch the video, they glean the stats, how they graded out, after evey game and they mine for possible TP candidates and they know the minute someone hits the portal whether thats their guy or not.
Good point… in addition to staff who scour the high school ranks, others dedicated to scouring the college ranks, as though everyone might be fair game so we can pounce as soon as they portal.
In addition to that, we simply need to play the super-talented youngins (even if we think they're not completely ready) or expect to lose them.
Go Dawgs!
UGA has fewer experienced players because CKS and staff choose to go with potential and eligibility over production and experience. Jamon Dumas-Johnson is just one example where UGA coaching chose to play inexperience at the expense of experience.
Older, more experienced players will never get the guarantees for playing time from CKS at UGA. The only guarantee a player gets at UGA is that they will share the position.
Granted , playing inexperienced players, has always been a UGA program building block to placate highly ranked young players who feel they need exposure before development. It is a necessary evil if a team wants to keep blue chip players (with potential and more eligibility) on the team. It is a difficult problem to manage in the NIL/TP era. No one, including CKS, has figured out how to manage the inexperience/experience and NIL/TP dynamic yet.
Do you recruit lower ranked players that may be more loyal to the program and their teammates or more highly ranked players more loyal to enriching themselves monetarily and maximizing their field time day one? Those are the scenarios we see playing out real time with the recruiting choices UGA has made since the take off of NIL.
As we move farther along into this new era, new models will emerge I believe of putting together a roster. Whomever has the most success will determine how other programs shift or lean.
I think Ohio St. may have come up with the best plan so far. THey took a 3 star(4th round projected) QB, hired a great OC, surrounded him with great weapons and a really good defense and got a NC out of it. I'm sure they had qaulity players they had recuited but they also spent the most (if not mistaken) on the TP. I was reading somewhere that they went into debt in order to do so, but it paid off I reckon.
It wouldn't seem like it was necessary to spend too high a percentage NIL on your QB, as long as you are great in other areas. THe SB approach.
Kirby will still try the culture/team buiding route while adding a few pieces until it's proven otherwise that model doesn't work.. If it doesn't he may pull a NIck Saban.
You bring up an interesting point I hadn't considered for CFB.
In the NFL, QB deals are cap killers. Watching the Dallas Cowboys fail miserably after throwing tons of money at Dak Prescott (2-5 playoff record in 9 seasons) has led me to believe that teams would be better off drafting a QB in the 1st 3 rds of the NFL draft every other year. I have thought for many years, not signing QB's to mega deals and using that money to supply talent to the rest of the roster was maybe the smart way do go. Patrick Mahomes certainly didn't look worth the money on Sunday. Essentially what you said OSU did and CFB should do. Though OSU did sign the #1 QB in the '25 class (and '24 class Julian Sayin).
There currently is no salary cap in CFB. Technically teams can sign a QB and whoever they want. I still believe especially CFB (and football in general) is a a QB driven league. That is why I feel getting QB Curtis in '26 may be so important to getting UGA back into the top 3. Not getting Raiola set UGA back.
Under your method a team would have to cherry pick a proven QB every year to start and get him cheap. It could work. IDK. It certainly seems foolish to pay a freshman CFB QB big bucks to ride the bench then watch him transfer out after the 1st year. BUT just like with NFL FA proven CFB QB's don't come cheap anymore.
Clemson, while falling off the last few years, has gone the opposite route. They go for elite QB and try to add enough around him. Worked with DW24 and Sunshine Jesus. They have very high hopes for 4th year 5* QB Klubnick and team up there in SC this coming season. Klubnick carried that team in '24 into the playoffs.
I too worry that CKS will get fed up with CFB and chuck it all. An NFL head coaching job is a much easier job. However, the NFLPA would never let a team practice the way CKS likes to practice. CKS's "style" would not fit well with NFL players who have the power and security with guaranteed contracts to do whatever they want regardless to what the coach wants.
One last thing, Will Howard did not play like a 3*. Was it the 4 WR1's he was throwing to or is he really good? IDK. I didn't think he was that good but he definitely got hot for the playoffs. SBIV didn't look like a 2* when he was throwing to Bowers, Burton, McConkey, AD, DWash and MRJ. CBeck did look like a 3* throwing to the '24 group. Lends more fuel to your hypothesis fire.
@UGADad20…I do think experience at QB matters almost as much as talent when it comes to a portal QB. Howard was a 3 star out of HS, but was ranked as a 4 star transfer based on how he had played, his experience level, and what he could bring to a team. Howard worked extremely well for the Buckeyes and Chip Kelly's offense, but he might not have worked for another team. Dunno. The talent that he was surrounded with was absurd, so he was bound to do well given the chance. The team gelled well and got better as the season progressed. But honestly, the loss to Michigan lit a spark in that team and a hunger, determination, and will to win that allowed them to dominate their playoff opponents. Had they not had that "wake up call" then, just maybe, they don't win the Natty.
If Stockton is the GUY for 2025 then we'll see how an inexperienced, but clearly talented player does with the best group of WR talent around him that the team has seen in years…maybe ever. How good the O-line and RB room will be is yet to be determined. Those areas could be the Achilles heel that kills any serious chance at a Championship. We're just a really young team overall. But that may be the case more often than not going forward depending on how many guys transfer.
@MontanaDawg I agree with most of what you say. Your 1st paragraph is spot on.
"the best group of WR talent around him that the team has seen in years…maybe ever"…
I think there is a little Fantasy Football mindset creeping into your thinking there. A LOT to be proven before we anoint them. 2 or 3 freshmen have a chance to be very good in a couple of years. I heard Chuck Oliver interview an aTm guy last night and they were super excited about transfer WR Conception (NC State). Said they had no one they could count on or was especially good last year (Noah Thomas). Branch was an electric returner 2 seasons ago as a freshman. IF he can catch and hold the ball he should be an improvement over Lovett.
I think GS has to be the guy in '25. It is too late now to bring in anyone else. There is a lot to like about GS. But there are still a lot of questions. His height and his accuracy are my biggest concerns. UGA has done well w/shorter QB's. SBIV, Fromm, Murray were all pretty short. But I still remember SBIV having difficulty using the center of the field and that was with BB.
On O, RB seems thin unless RRob can stay healthy and BRob surprises me. The OL has 18 pretty massive humans training to be UGA OL. I'd say 9 are/will be ready to go out there and push some people around. The OL may be the best unit of the offense. A lot of questions to be answered on offense. You have to have an offense that can score points to win the championship.