Georgia football made a splash on early signing day by staking claim to the second-ranked recruiting class nationally. Who’ll have an instant impact?
The Bulldogs couldn’t quite pull out the win over Alabama in the SEC Championship game a few weeks ago but that may not be the biggest loss of their postseason. Georgia is set to lose 12 players in their two-deep to graduation, a possible seven early departures to the NFL, and a big hit to the quarterback room with Justin Fields set to transfer.
Luckily for the Bulldogs, they followed up their first ranked class from a year ago with a second-ranked class this year.
The Dawgs entered the day will their hats expected on many tables and secured the commitment to several big names in the process. The most glaring needs for Georgia seemed to be along the front-seven and in the receiving corps. D’Andre Walker and Juwan Taylor are both set to graduate while second-string linebackers Keyon Richardson and Natree Patrick have also exhausted their eligibility.
While Terry Godwin and Jayson Stanley are the only two receivers set to graduate, Mecole Hardman, Riley Ridley and Isaac Nauta are all names mentioned in NFL circles as guys who could declare. I would be remiss to mention center Lamont Gaillard and projected first-round cornerback Deandre Baker who are both graduating.
The Bulldogs weren’t exactly afraid to use youth over experience all season long with guys like Jeremiah Holloman, Eric Stokes, Richard LeCounte, and Monty Rice all receiving significant time and even starts for most of the season — LeCounte was the most productive of those listed. The true sophomore led the team in tackles this season with 67 total tackles and forced three turnovers this season. Rice, who is also a sophomore, beat out senior linebacker Juwan Taylor early in the season for the WILL spot on the outside and followed behind LeCounte in total tackles with 59 total tackles.
On top of using their younger guys, the Bulldogs retained a lot of their coaching staff and maintained continuity by keeping some bigger named coaches on board. Jim Chaney remains the offensive coordinator for the Dawgs while Mel Tucker took the head coaching job at Colorado.
Glenn Schumann, who is one of the key recruiters for Kirby Smart, remains on staff and is a name thrown out for the defensive coordinator position in some circles. Successful continuity works well for getting kids in and keeping on a guy like Schumann on board helped the Dawgs tremendously in 2019.
Georgia isn’t bringing in the largest of classes, but they undoubtedly bring in talent that will see the field early and often. With that being said, which of these student-athletes will make the biggest impacts in their freshman seasons?