College Football
Beating The Odds
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
McKenzie Milton had quite the college football journey. After breaking out at UCF, Milton suffered a gruesome leg injury and was thought to be in danger of never playing again.
However, he recovered and ended up transferring to Florida State, playing the 2021 season.
Milton had a unique helmet for the Hula Bowl, a postseason college football all-star game. Ironically, it is held in Orlando, Florida, home of the UCF Knights. Milton debuted his helmet, sporting both the UCF and Florida State logo on each side. As far as Milton’s future in football, he said he was holding out hope to make it in the NFL.
“Honestly I have no idea,” Milton told reporters when asked what is next for him. “To me, I shoot for the NFL. Hoping that opportunity will come, but we’ll see. It just depends..”
Later the reporter asked if a coaching career is in his future, Milton said his current focus is on playing at the next level, though he does anticipate entering the coaching industry when the time comes for him to hang up his cleats.
In total, Milton finished his college career with 9,458 yards, 75 touchdowns, 28 interceptions, a 61.3% completion percentage, 1,065 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.
He led the Knights to a 27-6 record as a starter, including an undefeated 2017 season, and two American Athletic Conference championships.
The Hawaiian high school star suffered a catastrophic knee injury during the regular-season finale in 2018 which forced him to miss the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
After multiple surgeries and several years of rehabilitation, Milton took over as quarterback for UCF’s scout team.
After graduating from UCF and completing a long road to recovery, Milton transferred to Florida State to close out his college campaign. Appearing in 6 games for the Seminoles, Milton threw for 775 yards and 3 touchdowns to go along with 6 interceptions while making 4 starts.
Milton was named the ACC’s Brian Piccolo Award winner, which honors the league’s ‘most courageous’ football player and is named for the former Wake Forest and Chicago Bears running back.
Florida State quarterback McKenzie Milton capped off a stellar college career by being named one of three winners of the 2021 Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year Award on Tuesday.
Milton’s focus is now on the future, particularly one in the NFL, as he looks to make an impression on some of the 100 scouts on hand for this week’s game.
“You’ve just got to go out there and be yourself,” Milton said. “Perform as if thousands of people are watching, which is how it is in the game. So, it’s nothing different. “Everything you put on film is your job interview as well. So, it’s just trying to maximize every rep, even when I’m not in there, get mental reps, too. But it’s been a good learning experience for sure.”
Milton has no idea what’s in store for him, but he plans to participate in FSU’s Pro Day and possibly one at UCF. “I’m just hoping that opportunity comes,” he said. “It just depends on if it’s right for me and if it’s right for my family, so we’ll see.”
McKenzie Milton will be finishing his college football career where it all began: the Bounce House.
The Legend of Stetson Bennett
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken told Stetson Bennett IV that he wasn’t going to be in the Bulldogs’ plans for the starting quarterback in 2020.
He’s never entered any season as the guy. Georgia was supposed to lean on USC five-star transfer JT Daniels this year. 2021 was supposed to be Daniels’ season with Bennett in the rear-view mirror.
But football has a way of throwing well-laid plans out the window. Daniels’ lat injury opened the door for Bennett to take over, and “The Mailman” didn’t look back.
Even through rocky moments, Bennett had his gems. Bennett threw for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to rally Georgia for a 33-18 victory over Alabama in the National Championship Game.
Bennett shook off a gut-wrenching turnover that allowed Alabama to temporarily take the lead.
“I just knew there was going to be no way to let a turnover like that stop us from winning a National Championship,” Bennett said in his postgame interview. “No way that I was going to let that happen. I was not going to be the reason we lost.”
Here’s what we witnessed of Bennett’s heroic effort.
Bennett’s remarkable fourth-quarter performance will go down in Georgia Football lore. Bennett dreamed of playing quarterback for Georgia. His dream came true and he led the Bulldogs to a performance no one will ever forget.
But it wasn’t pretty. The Georgia offense went three-and-out in each of their first two drives. On Georgia’s third play of the game, Bennett scrambled for a 14-yard gain, but he fumbled. Thankfully for the Bulldogs, he was able to recover and avoid what could’ve been a champion-breaking early turnover. But with more and more struggles, the calls for Daniels grew louder.
But Bennett’s fumble early in the fourth quarter nearly spelled doom for Georgia. Alabama’s Christian Harris was a menace all night long, and he sacked Bennett on 3rd and 8. Bennett tried to throw the ball away, but it was ruled a fumble. Alabama’s Brian Branch nonchalantly recovered the ball with his foot inbounds by mere millimeters.
With his back against the wall, Bennett responded with the drive of his life. He was determined not to be the reason that Georgia lost the national title. Is a not losing motivation stronger than a winning motivation?
Bennett marched Georgia down to the Alabama 40-yard line and then used a free play to take his shot. He delivered a gorgeous deep ball down the right sideline and Adonai Mitchell hauled it in for a majestic 40-yard touchdown to give Georgia a 19-18 lead with 8:09 left in the fourth quarter.
Bennett did what everyone told him he couldn’t do. He heard the noise. He heard the doubters. He heard the majority say that he wasn’t the best option to lead Georgia past Alabama. “Georgia can’t beat Alabama with Stetson Bennett at QB” was a widely-used narrative, and he conquered it head on.
Stetson Bennett was named the Offensive Player of the Game. He is a national champion and a Georgia Bulldog Football Legend!
Dawgs Eat
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Something I thought I’d never see in my lifetime happened.
Georgia won their first national championship since 1980. I’m not a UGA fan at all so I was shocked they finally beat Alabama.
Kirby Smart lost his previous four meetings to his old boss, Nick Saban. In his case the fifth time was a charm. It was a close game through three quarters, but Georgia won 33- 18.
“I told the guys in the locker room, just take a picture of this, because I think back to the ’80 championship picture and seeing all those players and the Frank Walkers and the Herschel Walkers and all these people that have reached out and said things,” Smart said. “Our guys have accomplished that, something special, and as they say, they’ve become legendary, and I want that for them.”
The teams traded field goals in the first half and Alabama took a 9 – 6 lead into the locker room at halftime. In the SEC Championship win, the Crimson Tide lost wide receiver John Metchie III with a torn ACL. He leads the team in receptions with 96 and he was second in receiving yards with 1,142.
The other star receiver, Jameson Williams suffered a knee injury in the first half after catching a 40-yard pass. Williams is the team leader in receiving yard with 1,507 yards.
The first touchdown came with 1:20 left in the third quarter. James Cook broke a 67-yard run to get the Bulldogs in the red zone. Three more running plays and a facemask penalty by Alabama got them into the end zone. Zamir White went in standing up from a yard out. It gave Georgia their first lead, 13 – 9.
Alabama added another field goal after that. They got the ball back on a play that was ruled a Stetson Bennett fumble. It looked like he was trying to throw the ball away and the ball rolled out of bounds. Bama’s Drew Sanders casually caught it jogging out of bounds.
They got the ball in the red zone and Bryce Young threw a 3-yard touchdown to give them an 18 – 13 lead.
Bennett was 13 for 22 for 141 yards as the next drive started. He completed all three of his passes for 68 yards, including a long strike to Mitchell for a touchdown with 8:09 left that gave the Bulldogs a one-point lead after a failed 2-point conversion.
The Georgia defense forced a three and out and got the ball back for the offense to seal the win. UGA scored 20 points in the fourth quarter.
With less than a minute remaining in the game, UGA corner, back Kelee Ringo intercepted Young and returned it 79 yards for a touchdown.
“I hadn’t cried in — I don’t know, years — but that just came over me,” said Bennett, who was named the offensive player of the game. “That’s what — when you put as much time as we do into this thing, blood, sweat, tears, it means something.”
In the SEC Championship Georgia didn’t sack Young. Last night he was sacked four times and threw two interceptions.
“We had a lot of opportunities, moved the ball relatively well. We did some stuff well. We didn’t execute, and at the end of the day, that’s on me,” said Young.
“We played a heck of a game against a heck of a team for the first three quarters of the game,” said Saban. “Nobody can take the SEC championship away from this team, the Cotton Bowl championship.”
Three Wise Men
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
During the most magical time of the year, we all love the traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation.
While we all feel a lift in our spirits by surrounding ourselves with our friends & family that also embrace the season, the memories of those who have passed on makes us reminisce about them and wonder how they would feel about this season if they were still with us.
For those of us who have been raised right, we specifically think about the three wise men. Of course, I’m talking about UGA football season, and the three wise men are Lewis, Larry, and Jack.
For them to have never taken the field, no other triumvirate makes me think of Georgia Football more than Lewis Grizzard, Larry Munson, and Jack Davis.
To me, they are just as important to Georgia lore as Vince & Herschel, and their skills in their chosen fields have inspired and influenced me tremendously in three of my favorite hobbies over the years.
Lewis Grizzard was one of the first newspaper columnists I ever followed. He talked about things that were relevant to me (growing up in rural Georgia, southern cooking, the pains of being a Dawg fan) and things that would one day become relevant (politics, divorce, the pains of being a Dawg fan).
His columns in the AJC and his best-selling novels added so much to the southern lexicon that many of his quips have become standards. While he ruffled more than a few feathers in his tragically brief career, his writing style was instantly recognizable and it was more often than not as comfortable as a pair of grey sweatpants & a threadbare 2002 SEC Championship t-shirt.
Passing away in 1994, Lewis thankfully only had to suffer through 13 seasons of the UGA Championship drought and completely avoided the Jim Donnan years. If we all could have been so lucky…
If you search for Grizzard quotes about Georgia football, one of the first you will find mentions another of my three wise men; “listening to Larry Munson was better than being there.”
For a lot of us South Georgia Dawgs, Larry was the only way we could be there. A Saturday trip to Athens wasn’t as relatively easy as it was for our North Georgia brethren, and believe it or not, back in those days it wasn’t guaranteed that the game would be on TV.
Even when it was, it didn’t feel right if you listened to the network commentator. They didn’t have the established relationship with the team the way that Larry did, so it became a longstanding tradition to turn down the TV and turn up the radio. Because of that, Larry Munson *was* Georgia football for generations. You could tell from his voice in those legendary calls that Larry loved Georgia football as much as we did. You could feel the anxiety, the tension, the elation in every game. He had ownership of the Dawgs. He had buy-in, just as much as every fan, be they students, graduates, or “tailgate alumni” like myself.
Then there’s Jack Davis. I was a MAD Magazine fan before I realized I was a Dawg fan, so I got a steady diet of Jack Davis art before I could barely say “What, Me Worry?” or “Hunker Down.”
Growing up in Glynn County, I didn’t get the Game Day Saturday editions of the Athens Banner-Herald with a Jack cartoon on the front page.
What I did get (as did most of the rest of the state) was the 1980 commemorative Coca-Cola bottle, and I’m lucky enough to have mine signed by the man himself. Much like Larry & Lewis, you could tell Jack loved UGA just as much as we did with every sepia-toned stroke of his brush that brought Hairy Dawg to life long before he roamed the sidelines between the hedges.
Another Shot
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Happy New Year!
Well, maybe it’s not so happy for some unlucky college football fans. They have seen this movie before, and they don’t like it.
Alabama (13-1 and ranked No. 1) defeated Cincinnati, 27-6, and Georgia (13-1) downed Michigan, 34-11, in the College Football Playoff semifinal games in the Cotton and Orange bowls, respectively.
Thus, the two teams that had held the number one spots in college football polls all season earned spots in the CFP national championship game in Indianapolis on Jan. 10.
While there can be no doubt that these are the two best teams in college football this year, it likely wears on fans of other schools to know that the Southeastern Conference will have the national championship for the third consecutive season; and for the 12th time in the last 16 years. Alabama alone will be seeking their seventh title in the past 13 seasons.
Will this rematch be different? After all, Bryce Young carved Georgia for 421 yards and 3 TDs in the SEC championship game, and the Crimson Tide were the underdogs the first time around.
Alabama remains that psychological hurdle for Georgia, one that comes with seven straight victories in the series. That includes three SEC championship games and the 26-23 overtime thriller in the CFP championship game in Atlanta on Jan. 8, 2018.
Alabama won’t have star receiver John Metchie III, who suffered a torn ACL in the last matchup. Indianapolis is the most unnatural setting possible for both fan-bases, and keep in mind the Bulldogs led 10-0 in the SEC championship game before things went south. Georgia is favored by 2.5 points in the CFP championship.
The Bulldogs will play under much more pressure than the Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs’ coaches and players will say over and over, the SEC Championship game does not matter.
It does matter because it was the seventh straight win for the Tide over the Dawgs. The Crimson Tide will be stronger in the 2022 season and Kirby Smart cannot afford to lose an eighth straight game.
The talent levels are too comparable to expect another one-sided game. Unless the Tide injury situation warrants it, and no one can knows yet if it does, there is no reason to believe the outcome will change.
The Bulldogs showed enough in the semifinal where 190 rushing yards was overlooked. Bennett is fine. So is the defense. Georgia played like a team that learned from that loss and might just be ready to break the national championship curse that extends back to Herschel Walker in 1980.
But even though Saban is 25-1 against his former assistant coaches — including 4-0 against Smart, who spent 11 years with him in Tuscaloosa — history says a rematch for the national title is a great sign for the Bulldogs.
In the 2011 season, LSU beat Alabama in the regular season. Alabama won the rematch for the Bowl Championship Series national title.
In 1996, Florida State topped Florida in the regular season. The Gators rolled past the Seminoles for the national title in what was then called the Bowl Alliance.
Now, it’s Georgia with a shot at turning the tide.
That’s what happens when you press the reset button.
Georgia 34 Alabama 20.
And The Winner Is?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia has been the most dominant team in college football in 2021 and on December 31st the Dawgs have one more team to tackle to reach the College Football Championship Game.
We all know what Georgia has to do to win this game, but what does Michigan have to do?
Pretty simple, smother the Bulldogs offense. This is arguably the best defense Georgia will face. Statistically, Clemson is better, but half the ACC offenses are hot garbage, and the other half are mostly gimmicky like Wake Forest, so less impressive than SEC and Big Ten defenses.
- Holding Georgia to 20-24 points should give Michigan ample opportunity to win, and I don’t think it’s out of the question that they keep them to well less than that.
- Efficient start on offense. This is my biggest concern, because Michigan tends to start a bit slower. It’s gotten better, no doubt about it, but it’s still not consistently coming out swinging. The first two drives against PSU were 3-and-out’s, the first two drives against Wisconsin produced 37 yards on 14 plays.
- If they come out and start like they did against Ohio State and put a touchdown on the board, you can get Georgia away from their strength (running the ball) and make them put the game in Stetson Bennett’s hands, which is how you beat them.
Michigan doesn’t need to run for 297 yards like it did against OSU, but they do need to average above 4.0 ypc, and throw the ball fairly well.
- No big mistakes. No interceptions, no turnovers, no shanked punts, etc. A defensive slugfest = field position and possession. Be clean with the football and don’t give Georgia anything they can’t earn themselves. Do the little things right and you can make it happen.
Prediction: You know, I’m very torn. Spread here is about a touchdown in Georgia’s favor depending on where you look.
I think it’s much closer to a toss-up than a no-brainer. I think Georgia has more talent and speed, but I think this Michigan team is as gritty and tough as they come, and Georgia has not dealt with much competition this season.
When Alabama punched UGA in the mouth, they faltered and fell behind. Can Michigan do the same?
Additionally, Michigan’s thrived with the chip on their shoulder, everyone’s doubting them this year. The Wolverines have heard non-stop about how they can’t match up with Georgia’s front seven, while Georgia comes in with a lot of questions and uncertainty.
Obviously, no one really is looking ahead in the playoffs, but Georgia’s probably got more reason to forecast than Michigan.
I think the intangibles favor Michigan, and the talent favors Georgia. The other major factor is coaching, and again, think we’re pretty split here.
Defensive Coordinators Lanning and MacDonald could be identical twins in terms of coaching profiles.
Michigan offensively, however, has been more creative than Todd Monken’s group, though to his defense, he simply hasn’t needed to be. I think that one is a slight edge to Michigan.
I’ll add this. Michigan is an underdog here. Do not flip out because some people may be less confident than you are.
Yes, Michigan has defied expectations and reversed some narratives, but that does not mean you always ride them if you don’t think they’ll win. It’s totally fine if you think Michigan loses. It’s totally fine if you think Michigan wins.
None of us are as prophetic as we like to think we are. The only opinions that matter are those of the two hundred or so coaches and players on the sideline that New Year’s Eve.
Not yours, not anyone’s here. I have had a perfect string predicting these games this season, and that includes a bunch of people flipping out because I picked Alabama to win earlier this year.
We all have wrong takes, it doesn’t matter. Win or lose, this season was a major success for the Michigan Wolverines and the Georgia Bulldogs.
Now, enough stalling….Can I see Michigan winning it? Yup!
Can I see Georgia winning it? You bet!
Can I see Georgia running away with it? Probably more likely than vice versa. But I think there’s enough to go with the Dawgs, and that’s what I’m going to do:
Final Score: Georgia 31 Michigan 13.
Wreck In Atlanta
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
William Geoffrey Collins has finished his third season as the head coach at Georgia Tech.
So far Geoff Collins hasn’t had much success in Atlanta, but should we be surprised? Collins only has head coaching experience at one school prior to Tech, which is Temple. In his two seasons in Philadelphia coaching the Owls his record was 15–10. Not very impressive but he’s looked at as more of a recruiter.
So far three is his magic number in Atlanta because that’s how many games they win each season. They lost the season opener by one point to Northern Illinois. The Huskies did win nine games, but they aren’t from a major conference. This should have been an easy win.
They were fairly competitive in most games, losing three games by one-score. They lost to Clemson 14–8, Virginia 48–40 and Miami 33–30. If they can figure out how to focus and have better attention to detail, they should have better success in close games.
They finished the season with two consecutive shutout loses. Notre Dame won 55 – 0 and Georgia 45 – 0. Both teams are drastically better but that’s embarrassing.
Once the season ended Collins fired several assistant coaches. He gave pink slips to offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude, co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Nathan Burton and cornerbacks coach Jeff Popovich. Collins gave insight into how he plans on turning things around.
“As I began the deep dive into everything we need to fix to take the next steps to get the product on the field and the results on the field at the highest level possible,” Collins said, “the things that I’ve realized is, less branding, more coaching. Less worrying about culture, more worried about ball.”
That strikes me as interesting because that’s what it looks like from the outside. I always see social media posts of pregame outfits, uniforms and doing things for the 404 (an Atlanta area code). I kept thinking is he coaching or making social media posts? The fact he had to address plans to focus on coaching now, three years into being at Tech is frightening. That should have been the only focus.
“We’re to the point now where it’s time to work,” Collins said. “The brand is set, the culture is set, all of those things. Now it’s time to coach. Now it’s time to work.”
Collins needs to get to work with the defense that finished tied for 111th in scoring defense, 117th in total defense, 117th in third-down conversion rate and tied for 112th in plays allowed of 20 yards or more.
He was asked if they should change the defensive formation or fire defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker and he did not directly answer those questions.
“I know Andrew Thacker would be the first person to say that we didn’t play to the standard that we’ve had playing defense wherever we’ve been,” Collins said. “His main focus is to do everything in his power to make sure we’re doing that.”
Chip Long has been hired as offensive coordinator and Travares Tillman as defensive backs coach and defensive pass-game coordinator.
Collins was defensive coordinator at Florida from 2015-16 and he led the Gators to consecutive top-10 finishes in total defense.
So far, the Yellow Jackets have the No. 40 recruiting class in 2022. They are getting better players than Paul Johnson did but not winning.
Next season they have non-conference games against Ole Miss and UCF so things won’t be easy. I don’t expect Tech to get drastically better next year and not make a bowl game.
QB1?
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
On early signing day this year, the University of Georgia once again racked up some serious commitments.
The Dawgs are currently the #3 recruiting class for the year, behind Texas A&M and Alabama.
The majority of the top signees were on the defensive side of the ball – including the much-heralded Marvin Jones, Jr. – but arguably the top prospect was five-star in-state QB Gunner Stockton.
Normally, a top-rated signal-caller signing with your school would be cause for hope, if not outright celebration. For Georgia fans in the Kirby Smart era, it’s cause for measured concern.
The University of Georgia has had five 5-star quarterback commits in their locker room since Kirby Smart took over between the hedges in in December of 2015; Jacob Eason, Justin Fields, JT Daniels, Brock Vandagriff, and the previously mentioned Stockton.
For someone not familiar with UGA football, this statistic looks amazing. One would think that the offense over the last six seasons would have been stellar. While the Dawgs have put up decent offensive numbers – and have improved every year over the last three – they haven’t been coming from those highly-touted players.
To a large number of UGA fans, therein lies the greatest concern they have with Coach Smart.
The story of Jake Fromm is well known in Georgia lore. He took over for the injured Eason in 2017 and never looked back, taking the Dawgs to the National Championship Game.
Eason would transfer after that season. In 2018, Fromm held off the advances of Fields (and the cries from Dawg Nation to give Fields more snaps), contributing significantly to the latter’s transfer to Ohio State.
One four-star dispensing of two five-stars. One must wonder if history is repeating itself and must worry if it can repeat itself again in the future.
JT Daniels was supposed to be the starter this year. Coach Smart said it multiple times in the offseason, and the fact that Daniels was healthy had many mentioning him in early Heisman talk.
Alas, he didn’t stay healthy, and his status as starter was brief. Stetson Bennett’s performance has been well-documented for both good and bad throughout the year, and the fact that with Daniels and Vandagriff on the sidelines leads many to question Coach Smart’s decision process when it comes to his field generals.
Regardless of what happens in the Michigan matchup in the Orange Bowl and beyond, Coach Smart will have some big decisions to make for 2022.
With the arrival of Stockton, Daniels and Bennett still having a year of eligibility left, and Vandagriff and Carson Beck still on scholarship, the Georgia Quarterback room will be a crowded one.
With the NCAA installing a one-time limit on the transfer portal, and Bennett’s well-documented love of all things red & black, you would expect “The Mailman” and JT to still be around next year unless they decide to test the waters in the NFL draft.
Honestly, I don’t see either of them doing so after this season. Do Beck and Vandagriff hang around? Hard to say.
Don’t get me wrong; I love what Kirby Smart has done for football at UGA. I love what Stetson Bennett has done this year, save for the SEC Championship, obviously. The fact that our quarterback situation is an embarrassment of riches is a problem that 99.44% of all CFB programs would love to have.
Kirby Smart knows how to recruit quarterbacks. He has shown it multiple times in his tenure in the Classic City and continues to show it with the rising 2022 class of recruits.
To me, the big question that I really don’t want to ask is “why?”
And it’s a question I’m fine with not having the answer to.
Prime Time Recruiting
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Travis Hunter, the country’s top recruit, spurned Florida State during the early-signing period. The prodigious athlete abandoned his long-time commitment to FSU in the final hours of his recruitment for Jackson State, an FCS program led by Seminoles’ legend Deion Sanders.
Sanders, who’s led the HBCU in Jackson (Miss.) since 2020, promised to shock the world during the Early Signing Period.
He didn’t disappoint, but broke the hearts of the FSU fan base in the process. Hunter announced his decision on Wednesday during a signing ceremony at his school, tossing an FSU hat to the side while putting on a Jackson State hat and shirt.
Hunter, the five-star prospect out of Collins Hill (Suwanee, Ga.) was one of the highest-ranked recruits in the history of recruiting services with a Composite Grade of 0.9999. He grew up an FSU fan and was committed to the Seminoles since the spring of 2020.
But Jackson State’s late push, believed to be backed by Name Image Likeness, doomed FSU’s chances late.
It’s a critical blow to the recruiting efforts of Mike Norvell and the 2022 recruiting cycle. FSU was pushing for a Top 10 class, but losing the prodigious prospect derails that hope and puts the future of the Norvell Era in a tenuous position.
FSU’s staff was viewing Hunter as a two-year player, who could help out immediately on either side of the ball as a true freshman.
In the last three seasons, Hunter had 19 interceptions while also scoring 46 receiving touchdowns (in addition to recording 3,807 receiving yards).
In addition to bolstering FSU’s class rank, Hunter was an alpha dog for FSU on the recruiting trail as he helped guide various prospects to the Seminoles — including five-star defensive back Sam McCall — and weather the storm after an 0-4 start to the season.
McCall has already requested out of his National Letter of Intent and will be back on the market soon enough. Florida State is asking him to take a few days to consider.
The NLI is pointless at this point as it costs a counter if you force the kid to enroll and, until they enroll, it does not count as a transfer. Likewise, they can transfer anywhere immediately so it’s a mutually assured destruction situation where no one wins. This is what happened famously with Zach Evans and UGA.
More bad news for Seminole fans, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Dillard four-star wide receiver Devaughn Mortimer has flipped his commitment from Florida State to Louisville and Tift County four-star defensive tackle Tyree West flipped to Tennessee.
Again, FSU is 5-7 and likely going to sign the best class for a team with a losing record in the early signing period.
This class is beyond impressive once you realize the hurdles the staff had to overcome, even if those hurdles were somewhat self-imposed. The jury is still out if this staff can recruit and it will be interesting to see what they can do on-field in 2020.
My final thoughts: has he done more damage to the FSU program in the last 4 months than he did to help FSU in the previous 35 years? Is Deion’s contribution to FSU now officially a net negative or a net positive?
Ill Play There
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
National Early Signing Day has come and gone for college football and here is what the top 10 looked like:
1.Texas A&M
2.Alabama
3.Georgia
4.Ohio State
5.Texas
6.Penn State
7.Notre Dame
8.North Carolina
9.Michigan
10.Oklahoma
Here are some of my take aways from National Early Signing Day:
Texas A&M-This is Jimbo Fisher’s first #1 class, however A&M has consistently been in the top 10 over the last few years. This has not translated into being relevant in the National Championship picture or even in the SEC West.
Notre Dame and Oklahoma-Both of these programs did well to finish in the top 10, considering they both lost their head coaches weeks before National Early Signing Day.
North Carolina-The Tar Heels once again finished inside the Top 10, second straight year. Possibly a rising ACC power?
Kentucky-The Wildcats finished with the 11th class in the country. Yes, you read that right, 11th! Kentucky is making a case to replace Florida as the second-best team in the SEC East.
Florida State and Tennessee-Two blue bloods hoping to wake up the echoes. Their recruiting classes will help. FSU finished 13th and Tennessee 14th.
Clemson-The Tigers were a perennial Top 5 program when it came to recruiting for a decade. Looks like the guard is changing in the ACC as the Tigers finished 17th.
Georgia Tech-The Yellow Jackets have recruited well the last few years under Geoff Collins, without a lot of wins to show for it. Tech finished 25th last year, but dipped to 41 this season. A bad omen for Geoff Collins.
UCF and Cincinnati-These two soon-to-be Big 12 teams have been the flies in the ointment of the college football playoff and you would think that would translate to better recruiting classes, it hasn’t. Cincinnati finished 38th and UCF 42nd.
Vanderbilt-Something must be in the water in Nashville as the Commodores netted a top 40 class for the first time in… who knows how long. 38th
Florida-The Gators’ dumpster fire only gets worse. The mighty Gators ended up with the 50th ranked class in the country. New Hire Billy Napier was left with a mess. Recruit after recruit decommitted from the swamp. Good luck, Billy.
Miami-Another big mess to clean up in the state of Florida. Mario Cristobal will have his work cut out for him too. The Hurricanes finished 62nd.
USC-The mighty Trojans finished with only 6 commits. SIX! Good enough for 81st.
Georgia State-The Panthers must get credit. They cracked the top 100 with the 84th class. This program keeps getting better.
Georgia Southern-The Eagles must improve from being outside of the top 100 to compete. They reeled in the 109th class.
