It's not secret that Miles is looking to sign 28-30 players on signing day. That figure will cover the loss of some recruits due to non-qualifying test scores/grades and still give us our alotted 25 scholarship players. Now, I HATE to predispose some of our new recruits by labeling them as being in "grade trouble" but I'm just curious to who the rest of you really expect to be competing for playing time come the fall from this class and who do you feel will have to sit out in order to get their grades straight? It appears, through prior reports/articles, that Clemons, Teague and Crawford are possible non-qualifiers....or they're currently not qualified and need to finish the school year strong in order to do so. While losing any player to grades is soemthing everyone wants to avoid, it's nice to be able to look at our commitment list at the positions that the above mentioned players are playing, the possible loss of Teague is, IMO, the most hurtful should he not qualify for '06. What do you guys think?
I think Miles also realize the possability of us losing a guy or 2 to other schools, so we might not end up getting that high anyway.
I think this and the possibility of a couple not qualifying are the reason we look to sign 28 to 30 . Because when the dust settles after signing day it is probably 25 at that point. Good thinking in my opinion.
Looking at POTENTIAL "upsets"--either by non-qualifiers or by current committed players signing elsewhere, I believe we will surely end up with at LEAST 25 recruits this class...but there MIGHT be some last-minute manuvering: ("Definates" by position) 1.) Al Woods, DT 2.) L. Levingston, DE/DT 3.)Keiland Williams, RB 4.) Charles Scott, RB 5.) Richard Murphy, RB 6.) Jared Mitchell, WR 7.) Ricky Dixon, WR 8.) Richard Dickson, TE 9.) Lott, TE 10.) Zhamal Thomas, OL 11.) Matt Allen, OL 12.) Snyder, OL 13.) Singleton, OL 14.) Loadholt, OL 15.) Cutrera, MLB 16.) Perrish Cox, CB 17.) Trindon Halliday, RB/returner 18.) Troy Giddens, ATH 19.) Danny McCray, OLB/S 20.) Odom, OLB I'd still like to nab at LEAST 3 more "definates" this weekend (Deas? Symmonette? C.Mitchell?) POTENTIAL non-qualifiers or players that, as of recently, needed improved test scores or core averages) 1.) London Crawford, WR (might be the farthest from being qualified--not that he's all that far, but it sounds like he is further away than the two below) 2.) Shomari Clemons, OLB/S (I believe he may have become qualified) 3.) Teague, CB (I think he just needed test scores if I'm not mistaken) POTENTIAL "jumpers" 1.) Sheppard, MLB (50/50 that he'll hang on to his "commitment") 2.) Riley, OLB (I dunno...I've never felt really good about his "commitment"--seemed like he's been looking hard at Tenn. for a LONG time and is trying to enfluence Sheppard to join him...) 3.) Marcus Tillman, DE (disappointed honestly...He committed so early because he said he wanted to "end the recruiting process" and said he felt very strongly about LSU....now, with less than a week remaining, he starts taking more visits???)
Looking at BostonBengal's list there, it looks like we might actually oversign with qualifiers. If that were to happen, I guess we'd take one or two of our lower-ranked or not yet college ready oversignees & greyshirt them.
I think right now that Clemons and Crawford don't qualify, Teague comes through, and the Georgia boys jump ship. That's JMO, but it is highly unlikely that Clemons and Crawford will qualify.
WUPS! Just when you think it's DAMN NEAR impossible to "over-look" a player that's 6'9" (or however tall he is) and 300+ lbs.! ....:hihi: Fixed it and added good 'ole Phil Loadholt to the list!
If the Georgia boys jump ship, then that definately sets the stage for guys like McCray and Giddens to start preparing to play OLB because that would be a position of very little depth. Odom looks to have the potential and, more than likely, be the next Ali Highsmith--and log some serious playing time as a Freshman at OLB--which is fine because OLB is a position that we don't have a lot of experience at (as well as at "MIKE"). Also, if we lose out specifically on Sheppard (who's projected as a MLB), then Cutrera pretty much has assured himself a lot of playing time (even more so than what some projected he would already have). The loss of Sheppard (and the addition of Keiland Williams) would even gets to retract my original stance of being against switching Charles Scott to linebacker because if we lose those 2 OLB's to Tenn., then we'll have a need for bodies at the position and Scott may get to see the field a lot sooner at LB--even if it's for a short time and they eventually switch him back to RB down the road...
I don't think Giddens or McCray will be playing LB for us. They look like safety's to me. With Beckwith, Highsmith, and Odom on board at OLB that is 3 studs so I wouldn't be worried there, but someone between Cutrera and Sanders has to step up at MLB (I'd put my money on Jacob). If the Georgia boys do jump ship then it really isn't that big of a deal, the state is loaded with defensive prospects, a few who are probably better than the Stone Mountain boys already.
