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Georgia football recruiting: How UGA wins talent without huge NIL deals
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Georgia football recruiting: How UGA wins talent without huge NIL deals
Welcome to "Sentell's Intel" where Jeff Sentell not only provides you the latest recruiting information, he takes you into the homes of these students and what makes them special to the Georgia program.
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I don't think anyone knows if this will work long term. We will start finding out in 28 and 29 when the current 4 and 5 stars are mostly gone. Part of what made the team great was the competition to start between high 4 stars and 5 stars. Without competition from comparatively skilled players can you still be a top 5 team?
I have my doubts. A salary cap on team spend is the only long term solution that will work with Georgia staying at the top unless they can get a billionaire or 2 to back the program.
If these metrics from NILStandard are accurate (and I have doubts that anyone knows for sure) I would hope that Georgia should, at the very least, be in the top 10 nationally in football budget. If so, you trust in coaching to develop the raw ability to a championship level. It's amazing what has transpired over a handful of years…and not amazing in a good way
This article explains Georgia’s current recruiting strategy well enough. What it does not do is make a convincing case that the strategy will keep Georgia at the top of college football. In fact, read closely, it makes the opposite case: Georgia is conceding that it can no longer buy as many elite recruits as it once signed, and is asking fans to celebrate the discipline of shopping selectively.
So is this really analysis, or is it a pep talk for learning to feel good about being comparatively poor? The message seems to be: we may not win as many bidding wars, but when we do more with less, we can call it cultural success.
Georgia is not Dollar General. But it is clearly no longer shopping with the same freedom it enjoyed when it routinely assembled the nation’s No. 1 or No. 2 class. The Bulldogs are still recruiting at an elite level, still paying key players, still landing premium prospects, and still building rosters most programs would gladly trade for.
The issue is not whether Georgia can remain good. Georgia can remain very good.
The issue is whether Georgia can continue living in the recruiting penthouse while Texas, Texas A&M, Miami, Ohio State, Oregon, and others are treating the five-star aisle like an all-you-can-carry sale.
Culture matters. Development matters. NFL credibility matters. Georgia has all three in abundance.
But culture does not erase the math.
At some point, “we will identify better three-stars and develop them better than everyone else” stops sounding like a championship formula and starts sounding like a polite explanation for why the other team signed six five-stars at positions where games are decided.
Georgia may well make this model work. Coach Smart has earned the benefit of the doubt.
But the article does not prove that Georgia has solved the NIL problem. It argues that Georgia hopes discipline, development, and selective spending can keep it competitive while other programs increasingly purchase the top shelf.
That is not the same thing as maintaining the advantage Georgia once had. It is adapting to the loss of that advantage.
Dang I hate this!!! Go Dawgs and to hell with NIL……and GT too!!!
Sobering stats. Thanks for the detailed info. I think the Bluebonnet Bowl is thrilled!
can we get a cap on the coaching salaries too? That would probably help teams from hoarding all the coaching talent!
"Culture matters. Development matters. NFL credibility matters. Georgia has all three in abundance."….Thank you DawgfromILM…..I will tell you that "HS Stars will never trump physical attributes combined with DAWG heart & soul FIRE"…then you add Development which leads to NFL cred and the result are winning seasons/playoff contention and that defines DAWG CULTURE. Paycheck Players don't have the "right stuff" to succeed at UGA…Kirby & Company know this and consciously avoid these types despite HS Stars….UGA has more than enough "DEEP Pockets" and could easily win the dollar war each year but this model has failed time and time again….just ask Jimbo, Brian, James….Dollars will never trump Coaching/Development/Culture.
Poor Georgia
It'll be slow, but unless something changes, the big spenders will eventually win out in the long run. These aren't crappy schools, either. Future NFL is a gamble. Life-changing, upfront, guaranteed $$$ for some of these kids (and their struggling families) is hard to beat, regardless of development, culture, etc. I love my Dawgs, but it is what it is for now.
What happens when you spend big money on 5 stars and they aren't really 5 stars. JT Daniels was a 5 star, but is totally out of football.
Funny how facilities were the most important thing years ago, and now recruits say they will get dressed in a closet if you pay them enough. The genie is out of the bottle. This won't be good for the sport.
Major League Baseball has had this model forever and that is why the big spenders usually have the best teams. Not always, but usually. Look at the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers. Big money wins more often. Now the Braves are more like the current Georgia model that relies on a farm system of development and money. The Braves spend, but they don't spend the most.
We should continue to be competitive as long as we have Kirby and spend in the top 15.
Now when you look at salary cap sports like the NFL what works? The Patriots are a great example of paying a few players a lot to be the foundation and then supplementing with free agents and guys who you can get cheaper for whatever reason. Patriots did this with perfection for 15 years. Teams like the Cowboys who used to be able to spend more to make their teams great now cannot and that is why they haven't been winning super bowls.
Roster management is everything in the pros with salary cap.
NIL has changed the dynamics of college football in recruiting and retention, but the bottom line is that identifying, recruiting, and retaining the right talent at the right position(s) remains the most important part of winning a CFP championship. Indiana just won a CFP national championship with a good but not better-than-the-teams-they-beat roster, except at one key position: QB. They identified, recruited, and paid a QB who was a force multiplier, and that position is the most important position on the field. That Indiana team was good, but if we looked at recruiting ranking and even draft status, they weren't more talented than Ohio St, Oregon, or Miami, but they did have the best QB. Coaches will have to be more discerning with whom they choose to play QB and make an investment in a force multiplier at that position. The days of building a great team around a game manager QB are gone when it comes to competing for a championship.
Those budget numbers are only part of the deals . That’s what gets taxed but plenty from the lone star state that is not . Not being bitter just a fact of the times .
Great synopsis Jeff. Retaining top talent is and will continue to be the #1 priority for any team competing and winning the National Championship. All you have to do is look at the makeup of the last few teams that have won it all.
The final and just as important piece: Coaching.
I'd say Kirby and his group are among the top staffs in the country.
Jeff, you don’t talk about the top recruits that stayed a year or two then left for other schools. Look at AD Mitchell, Pops, Burton etc etc. These players helped Georgia have the top recruitment over a few years, they were developed then bolted for that greener pasture ( money). Proud of the guys who stayed and wanted to be part of the Georgia tradition.