Head coach Mark Richt faces the likelihood that he will begin the season without his projected starting tailback, who has been dismissed from the team, and up to four defensive starters who all could be suspended. Now Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Jeff Schultz writes that recruiting mistakes could derail a promising season before it starts.
The problem now is that too many of the players Georgia is recruiting should be red-lined. The line of risk needs to be pulled back.
Maybe that statement is true if you are coaching in the ACC or some other conference, but this is the SEC, and to suggest otherwise is the biggest double standard of them all.
It is forgotten that Isaiah Crowell picked the Bulldogs over Alabama, which just happens to be last season's National Champion. No the Tide didn't pull back from Crowell in recruiting; they battled to the end, but Richt won out. Now sometimes it sounds like the Bulldogs were the only team recruiting the nation's No. 1 running back prospect and it was a mistake to do so.
It's a double standard because media types like Schultz put Richt on the hot seat in 2011 and then criticize him for being desperate in recruiting. Is it possible to have it both ways? Also not taken into account is the uneven playing field that is the UGA drug policy. Several of these same players that are facing multiple-game suspensions for the Bulldogs would be facing lesser penalties if they played for their conference rivals.
In this case Richt should be applauded because suspending or dismissing players in a season where the team is picked to win the division is a fast track back to being on the hot seat. How many coaches in today's game have enough integrity to do that to themselves?
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