Everybody is pretty unsure what college football is going to look like in 10 years, but from the last two-three years, I think we can see the method Coach Stoops and his Staff are headed in attacking the challenges.
We are focusing a huge effort on landing transfer players. About a quarter to one-third of new players the last two-three seasons have been transfers. Not a record, but Georgia has only one incoming transfer so far this year.
Doing this makes our freshman recruiting class look more modest in total numbers and suppresses our “score” for the recruiting class: we are 36th, right now, on Rivals, but 33 of those ranked ahead of us have more freshman signees. Eleven programs ranked ahead of us have fewer Four Star recruits. The scoring system is heavily tilted toward classes that have at least 20 or more players to include in the math.
Cumulatively it all boils down to the real math: how many quality players does your roster of 85 include?
And fueled in part by transfers, we have had an uptick in the total number of former high school 4 Star players on the roster.
We had 18 for our first Citrus Bowl trip.
We had 29 this past season.
I won’t do the math for 2023 until nearer the season, but we will likely have 30 or more out of 85 for 2023.
I know everyone is concerned that NIL is hurting us, but we seem to be progressing even with it in place. So far, we have 7 frosh signees at the Rivals 4 Star level: and four times 7 equals 28 (assuming four successive classes with seven 4 Star players) . . . then add our now annual transfer haul of 2, or 3 or 4 former four stars to the math, and you suddenly see a whole lot of top-notch players competing for slots.
How far can this method of recruiting carry us?
I don’t know for certain, but it looks like Stoops and company are playing the hand dealt them about as good as we could hope, two years and three recruiting classes into NIL.
If you’re worried the program has plateaued under Stoops’ care, for the first time in many decades, you can do something tangible about it: pony up some money to help the NIL collectives.
We are focusing a huge effort on landing transfer players. About a quarter to one-third of new players the last two-three seasons have been transfers. Not a record, but Georgia has only one incoming transfer so far this year.
Doing this makes our freshman recruiting class look more modest in total numbers and suppresses our “score” for the recruiting class: we are 36th, right now, on Rivals, but 33 of those ranked ahead of us have more freshman signees. Eleven programs ranked ahead of us have fewer Four Star recruits. The scoring system is heavily tilted toward classes that have at least 20 or more players to include in the math.
Cumulatively it all boils down to the real math: how many quality players does your roster of 85 include?
And fueled in part by transfers, we have had an uptick in the total number of former high school 4 Star players on the roster.
We had 18 for our first Citrus Bowl trip.
We had 29 this past season.
I won’t do the math for 2023 until nearer the season, but we will likely have 30 or more out of 85 for 2023.
I know everyone is concerned that NIL is hurting us, but we seem to be progressing even with it in place. So far, we have 7 frosh signees at the Rivals 4 Star level: and four times 7 equals 28 (assuming four successive classes with seven 4 Star players) . . . then add our now annual transfer haul of 2, or 3 or 4 former four stars to the math, and you suddenly see a whole lot of top-notch players competing for slots.
How far can this method of recruiting carry us?
I don’t know for certain, but it looks like Stoops and company are playing the hand dealt them about as good as we could hope, two years and three recruiting classes into NIL.
If you’re worried the program has plateaued under Stoops’ care, for the first time in many decades, you can do something tangible about it: pony up some money to help the NIL collectives.
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