Nevada Dawg

It is a bit early in my opinion, but I should note that first year coaches typically have a brain fricken--t or two that cost them games. Kirby Smart had 2-3 his first year that were very costly. But he has managed pretty well since then and so will Lanning. Sometimes early extensions also have the effect of convincing recruits who like the Head Coach that he is likely to be around throughout their tenure should the commit to the program. In this sense, the extension is a strategic move that can later be undone should disaster strike for some reason which I don't foresee with a salt-of-the-earth guy like Lanning.

5-star recruits usually pan out although their likelihood of becoming a first-round NFL recruit for a composite 5-star (as is the prediction for a composite 5-star) is not very good. 4-stars are a wide class of young men. The people who follow recruiting extensively tell me that all are very good high school players but maybe one-third to one-half of them achieve that same level of "stardom" in college, and many never play much. Noah was a 5-star recruit (don't remember if he was a composite but I think he was).. The recruiting freaks on the Georgia boards said that he was by far the best ILB in the country that year. Kirby and ILB coach Glenn Schuman wanted him bad, but playing with his brother won out. Yet, I often wonder what Noah would have become had he came to Georgia and had been developed by Coach Schumann. As for portal additions at ILB, I know that the very strong Georgia preference is to get great guys out of high school and coach them up. One potential problem with portal additions is they may not fit the emerging/existing team culture, and I'm guessing that team culture is very important to Dan Lanning. Georgia took three portal additions this year, all from the SEC and one of those guys is already gone for not fitting in. Georgia has had some great portal additions, but they are extensively vetted and are more likely to be taken if they are a plug and play option.

Georgia is hard to go against in the ILB sweepstakes because of the almost ridiculous success Glenn Schuman has had developing his charges and getting them drafted highly in the NFL. He has two preseason All-SEC backers this year (three if you count Jalon Walker on the 3rd team, a guy who will play a lot but maybe never start a game this year). They also have three incoming (now on campus) ILBs all of whom were in the top 6 ILB recruits in the 2023 class. And they have another 5-star ILB recruit in this class, although speculation has it that he will decommit now that JW has committed to the Dawgs. However, there is absolutely no reason for fellow Duck fans to be down in the dumps about Duck recruiting. Consider that this is only Lanning's second year upcoming. Also, I have been impressed with the number of absolute stud recruits that Georgia has gone hard after this year that have the Ducks in their top four or five when they drop their top schools. That is a very good sign for the future, particularly after the Ducks make the playoffs a couple of times in the next 3-4 years. Both me and SoGaDawg think OT Baker is very likely a Duck. If so, rejoice, for championships are won up front and the Ducks badly need more trench monsters.

SoGaDawg is quite correct IMO that big games among elite teams are usually won in the trenches. These guys largely go unnoticed by the average fan unless they are racking up sacks or throwing devastating blocks, but Georgia's domination of both LOS the last couple of years is a major reason they have gone back to back. Hopefully the Ducks have several of these trench monsters ready to emerge. If so, winning this conference is hardly out of the question. Yet, Wrathis's analyses of the Trojans and the Huskies aptly illustrates just how tough a slough this is likely to be for anyone to win the PAC this year. I just hope that the winner is able to take home the trophy without having suffered two losses.

Welcome back SoGaDawg. I am also a Dawg partisan who has the Ducks as my #2. My history with the Ducks goes way back as I grew up on the West Coast and rooted passionately for PAC teams against anyone else. I became a Dawg fan as a young adult and 42 years living in the Athens area will almost ensure that you remain one. This is a great site. I contribute whenever I have something I think will interest Duck fans and have been very warmly received here. t here are a number of very knowledgeable contributors on this site whom I learn a great deal from. It is a fun place to hang out. So stick around. The Ducks fans appreciate good football, seem to want to know how Kirby and the Dawgs operate, and would probably appreciate a wider variety of opinions from that fan base other than my own.

This is a really thoughtful post Jon and I could really see these events coming to pass.

Interesting analysis ChicoDuck 1. I haven't seen Frazier's film and might not properly interpret it had I seen it. My enthusiasm for the kid comes from the Georgia recruitniks who swear by the kid and think he fits the Dawgs system just fine. I am not trying to be argumentative, but those guys rarely miss on the merits of running backs. And Frazier was recently elevated to the number 1 RB recruit for the 2024 class. On the other hand, I can think of several instances in recent memory where #1 recruits at RB ended up having rather unremarkable college success. Maybe Frazier is one of those.

The most interesting thing about Steph's ace was his run down the fairway to the green, bouncing all the way. He looked more excited about it than if he had sunk a buzzer-beater 3 in an NBA playoff game.

I just saw this evening that Georgia was now the heavy favorite to land Frazier with the Ducks a distant second. The biggest fear in Dawg land is that Frazier will get an enormous NIL offer from aTm that might be hard to turn down. The information as to who leads comes from the national recruiting analysts "crystal ball" projections. The fear of an enormous NIL offer comes from past ATM recruiting behavior and Dawg paranoia about it. I am just passing along what I have run across this evening and have no direct insider information.

Not certain this will be of interest, but the Georgia crowd generally has very little respect for PFF, often claiming that their assessments of many issues are off the wall. Personally, I was shocked to see Oregon on the easiest schedule list. Even if one had the thought that the PAC-12 is "soft" which I don't, Oregon is going against the best of the conference, and I'll add that road games in Lubbock are a struggle, even for Big-12 powers. Texas has had their hearts broken in the Panhandle more often than they care to remember. If the Ducks get er done there, that is a quality win in my book.

Thank you Charles for the invite. That is meaningful to me. And thank you NJ Duck for the information. I will be visiting with my Duck buddy on Wednesday and will see if he wants to drive up for the game (provided we get tickets of course).

That was indeed a fun game to watch and I practically yelled myself hoarse pullling for the Ducks to hold on. Annie, now don't dwell too long on the past. Look to the future with a fair degree of optimism as I feel that the Ducks are on the verge of playing big games again and will see the playoffs, if not this year, in the near future. In fact, I am counting on it. Go Ducks!

I feel that I have come to know some of the regular posters a little bit over the past year and it would be great to meet them in this kind of gathering among rabid college football fans. Unfortunately Northern Nevada is a long way to drive for an evening gathering, and the chances of me scoring a ticket for the USC game are about as likely as Vanderbilt winning the SEC Championship this year and playing Colorado in the Natty, although wouldn't that make a heck of a story?

Someone lining up as a 5T is supposed to contain the edge, and Jordan is doing a great job of it in this clip. I knew when he pledged to the Ducks that you guys were going to like him. Lets hope that he stays healthy and has a great season. He certainly has the talent to become a significant asset.

Jon, I nearly died choking while chuckling about the Bama-Haley's comet reference while eating a hand-held burrito. Georgia hasn't been out west lately either for an OOC but have one coming up soon with UCLA. In a similar article on Dawgs fans requests for new OOC games, Oregon and Washington are always on the list, and many would also like to find out what a Riley USC team and Utah are all about.

Impact of game: Really indeterminant at this time on college football in general but possibly huge. In Eugene I'd guess: HUGE no matter what the circumstances. True Duck fans age going to want to stick it to the traitorous Trojans no matter what the teams' won-loss records. Autzen should be rocking este noche!

Thanks Charles for the kudos on staff evaluations over mere star ratings. Those of us who carefully follow Georgia recruiting have been amazed about how quick Kirby offers 3-stars and passes on higher rated players because the staff evaluates the 3-star as the better player with a higher upside. Not only have several of these kids become starters on an elite squad, but several have become first-round NFL draft choices as well. A while back a thread was posted showing that Georgia has a bigger recruiting budget than any other Power-5 school. I noted earlier at this is because the staff travels to scout more prospects than anyone else and that scouting so widely helps them to uncover the hidden gems out there. Its a great approach IMHO if you can afford it.

Indeed, for that next matchup: Me too!!! That tells us that both teams had a great season in whatever year the matchup occurs. And while honesty compels me to admit that I would pull for the Dawgs, should Oregon advance, I'd feel that I hadn't actually lost and would be screaming like crazy for the Ducks to vanquish their next foe.

You are telling me nothing that I didn't already know AMC Dawg and have been saying as much on this blog all this recruiting season whenever I had any meaningful information to add. But hey, all is good and Duck fans will enjoy and appreciate the feedback on Lanning's recruiting prowess from a Dawg fan in addition to me.

I agree Charles that this is an interesting case. Georgia's inside linebacker room is absolutely stacked with top talent and the path to significant playing time is likely much shorter in Eugene. Oregon will have the higher NIL offer I'd bet, but Georgia has the proven road to NFL draft success for MLBs that is hard to match. Indeed, the Tampa Bay Bucks head coach sent his own MLB son to Georgia for its developmental potential with talented MLBs. Is Justin Williams per chance an outside LB? If so that may favor the Ducks for that is what Lanning coached in an on-hands manner in Athens. This is the time of the year that tries the souls of LB recruiters (and recruitnik fans) as kids take their officials and have more and to think about. This is why so many recruits become more uncertain about where they are going and do more thinking about what is best for them as individuals. Trying to guess and feel confident about the mental machinations of 18-year-old kids can almost drive the hard-core recruitnik to drink.

Just Ducky you aren't imagining anything. My sources in Tuscaloosa contend that it is crystal clear that the Tuscaloosa police apply one set of laws to football and basketball players and another set of laws to the rank and file public. Interestingly, many posters on the Georgia blogs believe that both the Athens and the University police have it out for Georgia football players by arresting them for various forms of misconduct. They also think that the AJC is biased against the football team for investigating allegations. I have argued on these aforementioned blogs that both the cops and the AJC investigative reporters are simply doing their jobs and need to continue to do it. That brings me a hell of a lotta down votes from fellow commenters, but if you can't count on the police and the free press, we are all in trouble. Having said that, there is little evidence that Kirby looks the other way on sexual and domestic violence incidents and ample evidence to the contrary. And...the latest incident involving the 16-year-old recruit and the older women who solicited contact with him far in advance of the evening in question has been overblown by the AJC. An Athens friend who is an attorney and hardly a protector of football players, told me that more damning charge that could have been levied in this incident was soliciting or even statutory rape against the woman. The Athens police, wisely in my opinion, elected to file no charges in this "he said, she said" incident. Having said all this, I would still prefer to see stronger sanctions applied to misbehaving athletes and have them be public rather than internal. And believe me, I am in NO way tolerant of sexual misconduct of any kind.

I read the AJC story and was dismayed by the behavior of the Georgia recruit in question who exhibited thuggish behavior in my opinion. But this one case hardly means that Kirby has lost control of the program or doesn't take sexual and/or domestic violence cases seriously. When charged in 2018 I believe for domestic violence Kirby immediately dismissed the Dawgs top wide receiver. Last year, he immediately dismissed Georgia's top sack master and almost certain first-round draft pick who was indicted for rape and immediately dismissed from the team Two earlier domestic violators were immediately dismissed and welcomed with open arms by Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa.. By the way, my friend, who is a rabid Bama fan is very critical of the Bama staff for its permissiveness and the Tuscaloosa police for looking the other way at violations by Alabama football and basketball players. You don't hear a lot from Tuscaloosa because nobody comes down on the players. Auto racing and driving misconduct: Yeah Georgia has a big problem. But I'll say this about the recruit who was not charged for his conduct: He is on a very short leash and will be gone if there is any repetition of the allegations made, whether or not he is formally charged by the police.

Scuttlebutt on one of the Dawgs recruiting blogs tonight is that OT Baker is most likely a Duck. Congrats!

IMHO McRoy was a great get for the Ducks. Incidentally, I saw on one of the Dawgs recruiting blogs this evening that several OL recruits are ready to pop for Georgia and OT Baker is not one of them. The consensus is that Baker is a Duck all the way. If so, another great OL pickup in Eugene! Your understudy to Nix should have the makings of a great protective front in 25 and 26.

I concur that Sewell never reached his potential although he became a good player. It seemed as if he was asked to be mainly a run stopper in the Oregon scheme and he was good at it. As for Flowe, I think that he was badly overrated as a 5-star high school recruit. This is heresay so take it for what it is worth, but at least two people with alleged insider information said that Georgia quit recruiting Flowe after a couple workouts because the belief that he wasn't good enough to be a first-line contributor there and there were multiple guys that they liked better. As Georgia recruited Sewell hard and wanted him, Flowe was almost never mentioned that year.