2011 Georgia Football Recruiting: Christian LeMay Leads A Class With Room To Grow

The Georgia Bulldogs 2011 recruiting class includes a few studs, but a string of near-misses on a number of five-star prospects has put the Dawgs in line for their second-straight finish in the teens among the nation's recruiting hauls. Most programs would be happy to finish anywhere near the top ten, but UGA's standard during Mark Richt's career as head coach has been top-ten classes -- eight in a row from 2002 to 2009 according to Rivals, in fact.

The prize of Georgia's class so far is North Carolina quarterback Christian LeMay, a top-100, six-foot-two dropback passer who also had offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and ten other major schools. He committed to the Dawgs early, back in April. Some have expressed concerns about him taking his game elsewhere after Aaron Murray's lights-out first year as a starter, especially since he'd said back in May that he wouldn't want to sit for three years as a backup a la D.J. Shockley. But all is apparently well on that front, as LeMay is still scheduled to enroll in January.

Rivals currently has the Dawgs ranked fifth in the SEC behind the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Gators, LSU Tigers, and Mississippi Rebels, though two of those have unique circumstances at play.

Florida just changed head coaches, prompting several commits to consider a change of plans -- though Will Muschamp is an energetic and devoted recruiter, Florida could still lose some talent. And Ole Miss is hauling in their usual swelling congregation of players, with more commits rated three stars or less than Georgia has commits.

If you go by quality, not quantity, Georgia's class is just a hair behind Florida's, with UGA commits averaging a Rivals rating of 3.44 stars each to Florida's 3.47, and would move ahead if the Gators were to lose a highly ranked player.

Here's a very brief glance at each 2011 commit, with much more to come on each soon. Ratings, as always, via Rivals.com.