Wednesday February 3, 2010 officially marked the end of the 2009 Georgia Football season and the beginning of the 2010 Georgia Football season. Georgia signed a lot of great players especially on defense (12 of 19) a lot of whom are expected to contribute right away. It was also revealed that Georgia running back Richard Samuel will switch to linebacker. I think this is great news and I also think the recruits that Georgia signed are great as well.
However this whole Da’Rick Rogers to Tennessee thing bugged me. Whether it be Roger’s actual decision to de-commit from Georgia (they don’t have a single QB worth a damn in Knoxville) but also Georgia fans overreaction to it. Please, just let it go. Listening to people talk about it and reading people’s post online all whining and complaining about it like it’s the end of the world is disappointing. It’s kind of pathetic. Da’Rick Rogers is just a high school football player. Rogers is as likely to be the next Fred Rouse or Whitney Lewis as he is the next AJ Green or Julio Jones. I don’t have a problem with Rogers choosing the Vols at the last minute because this kind of thing happens every year. This time it happened to Georgia. Rogers does not owe us ANYTHING. It’s his choice, not yours or mine. I wish him the best of luck in Knoxville.
However, what I do have a problem with is the way it was handled by the Georgia coaching staff. Let me start of by saying this idea that Georgia was some how outsmarted by Derek Dooley or that Derek Dooley was a more smooth talker than Mark Richt and that is what put the Vols over the top is a bunch of crap. It’s much simpler than that.
College Football Recruiting, in addition to being about relationships as Richt stated in the post signing day press conference, is about what you can offer a player– opportunity to play in the SEC, playing time, exposure to NFL scouts, academic programs, and on and on down the almost endless list that schools like Georgia and Tennessee can offer. Derek Dooley and Tennessee offered something that apparently Mark Richt was not willing to offer which was a scholarship to Roger’s best friend and high school QB Nash Nance. It’s that simple. This was clearly the key point in signing Da’Rick Rogers.
In the spring of 2009, long before Da’Rick Rogers torched opposing secondaries in the fall 2009 Georgia High School State Playoffs to ascend to number 1 on the AJC recruiting board, Newnan safety Alec Ogletree was the far and away the number 1 player in Georgia and was Georgia’s number 1 priority in recruiting. In the spring, based on media reports/interviews, it was obvious that Ogletree’s mother wanted both her two sons to go to the same school.
The problem was that Zander Ogletree, Alec Ogletree’s brother, was not as highly thought of by college recruiters as his brother was. Only two schools were willing to even think about offering Zander a scholarship- FSU and Georgia, and FSU offered first ( spring 2009). After Willie Martinez was fired, in an effort to secure their top recruit, UGA offered a scholarship to Zander Ogletree. Disaster averted.
So why didn’t UGA do the same thing with Nash Nance?
Unless Aaron Murray, Zach Mettenberger, and Logan Gray are all total failures, the odds of Hutson Mason starting a game in Athens in the next 4 years are SLIM. Nash Nance isn’t likely to play in Knoxville either.
This year was labeled a down year nationally for High School Quarterbacks by recruiting analysts across the board especially compared with the 2011 class which is expected to be a big year at the position. Georgia did not HAVE TO SIGN Hutson Mason. They just HAD TO sign a QB bringing their roster/depth chart total to 4. There is no overly significant difference in talent level between Nash Nance and Hutson Mason that would prove detrimental enough to affect the future of Georgia football. If Georgia wanted Da’Rick Rogers to sign and if he really was that important to them, they should have offered Nash Nance a scholarship instead of Mason. They didn’t and that is why Rogers is not a Georgia Bulldog.
I would like to close by saying that it’s not the end of the world and there is no reason to dwell on it. I am just glad it’s all over. I was ready to move on Tuesday night when I heard that it was all likely to go down the following morning. Why get upset over something that is out of your control. You never know, Hutson Mason could be a future All-SEC QB. Let’s move on.
