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Bulldogs snag another as Jackson's Owens commits to Georgia
Submitted by Hays Carlyon on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 10:10.
Jacksonville is becoming Georgia Bulldog country.
The Bulldogs capped an amazing recruiting week on the First Coast, landing Jackson standout cornerback Derek Owens Thursday night. Owens (5 feet 11, 175 pounds) chose Georgia over Florida, Miami and South Carolina. Earlier in the week, Georgia secured commitments from blue-chip Bolles offensive tackle Brent Benedict and Orange Park linebacker Demetre Baker.
"When I visited Georgia, I didn't want to leave," said Owens, who has 15 career interceptions with the Tigers.
"I grew up without a father and when I met with (Georgia coach) Mark Richt, he seemed real similar to (Jackson) coach (Kevin) Sullivan. He seemed like a great father figure like Coach Sullivan has been to me."
Barking Dawgs
How about my Georgia Bulldogs! They are rolling. Can they land the top class in the SEC?
-- Mark from Denver
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Mark Richt and his staff are attracting some big-time out-of-state prospects to Athens.
We have been talking about how Florida and Alabama would run away with the SEC in terms of recruiting. Then you have Auburn and Tennessee making some serious noise. Meanwhile, Mark Richt's Georgia Bulldogs hadn't been making much noise, but now they are barking loud.
Last week, Georgia landed Da'Rick Rogers from Calhoun (Ga.) High. He's a big, athletic receiver who could emerge as the top player at this position in the entire 2010 class. He has size (6 feet 3/206 pounds) and speed, great hands and incredible concentration. Rogers is terrific in the air and should be a dangerous red-zone threat in Athens. Rogers picked Georgia over Florida.
Georgia also landed wide receiver Michael Bennett from Alpharetta (Ga.) High. Bennett was the most underrated prospect in Georgia and arguably the region. He has good size (6-3/186), speed and terrific hands, and he and Rogers should be a formidable duo for the Bulldogs in years to come.
What's interesting about Georgia is what it has done in Florida. Typically, Georgia has landed a great percentage of its prospects from in-state. But Richt and his coaches slowly have drifted outside the state. Matthew Stafford was from Texas and Knowshon Moreno was from New Jersey. In the 2009 class, the Bulldogs hit Florida hard and landed quarterback Aaron Murray and wide receivers Rantavious Wooten and Orson Charles. In the 2010 class, Georgia already has four commitments from Florida. The biggest is offensive line prospect Brent Benedict from The Bolles School in Jacksonville.
His commitment was significant for a few reasons. First, Benedict is one of the top offensive line prospects in the nation; he could've named his school. Second, he's a nasty lineman with great feet and athleticism who meets a huge need for Georgia. Third, Georgia beat Florida and many, many others for his commitment.
The other commitments from Florida are Orange Park High linebacker Demetre Baker (6-0/200), who may be a tad on the small size but can run and hit, similar to current Georgia 'backer Rennie Curran, and Kissimmee Osceola teammates B.J. Butler (linebacker/defensive end) and Marc Deas (safety/linebacker).
So while many of its SEC counterparts were making noise all spring, Georgia was laying the groundwork. Now, Bulldogs coaches are starting to see some results.
Everyone expects Florida, Alabama and LSU to be at or near the top of the national recruiting rankings. But Georgia will be right there with all the recruiting powers. The Bulldogs always are. We should never forget that, and the past week or so is a perfect illustration of what Georgia can do.
Alec Ogletree, state’s No. 1 prospect, picks UGA with brother’s blessing
8:52 pm June 28, 2009, by Michael Carvell
Newnan safety Alec Ogletree, who is ranked as the state’s No. 1 prospect by Scout, hopes to play college football with his brother.
However, that remains to be seen, as Alec made a surprising commitment to Georgia over more than 50 scholarship offers this weekend. His twin, Zander Ogletree, has an offer from Florida State and is under consideration from Georgia.
“We want to play together,” Alec told the AJC. “Georgia said they are serious about [Zander] and they might offer after they get to evaluate him later this summer at camp.
“If it doesn’t work out, that’s OK. He’s got other options, too. I just felt Georgia was the right place for me, and I didn’t see any reason to wait any longer.”
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Ogletree is ranked as the nation’s second-best safety by Scout. He is the most celebrated commitment of Georgia’s 2010 recruiting class, which already has 11 early pledges. The Bulldogs are expected to sign 18 players in February and are quickly filling up their scholarship slots after a slow start.
Georgia is still in solid contention for many of the state’s top rising seniors, including Douglass defensive end Garrison Smith, M.L. King tailback Mack Brown, and Jackson linebacker Neiron Ball.
With Ogletree. Georgia edged out his longtime favorite, Miami. “I got to visit both campuses to see what they are like. I really liked Georgia better. The coaching staff made me feel like I was at home.”
Zander, a 5-9, 205-pound linebacker, said he was proud of his brother. “I think it’s cool he picked Georgia. I wish the best for him. Maybe I’ll get to play with him at Georgia, maybe I won’t. Whatever happens, I’m sure it all will work out for the best.”
Maybe other coaches should do a little more praying. That’s the way Georgia coach Mark Richt says he ultimately gets the right players to become Bulldogs, and judging from some of the commitments he and his staff have recently secured, it’s working.
Southwest DeKalb running back Kendrun Malcome is the latest to join the fold, telling the AJC today that the relationships he’s forged with Richt and assistant coaches Rodney Garner and Bryan McClendon ultimately bred the winning trust.
“My trust in coaches and that I was comfortable with the atmosphere and comfortable with the other players [was the deciding factor],” Malcome told the AJC. “They run my type of offense, pro-style. The coaches told me what life would be like outside of football. They cared about how my family was doing, how my schoolwork was going.”
Malcolm, a 6-foot, 213-pound rising senior, is rated by scout.com as the nation’s 27th-best running back and the 31st-best by rivals. He joins recent coups Alec Ogletree of Newnan, Brent Benedict of the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., Da’Rick Rogers of Calhoun — all players who chose the Bulldogs over Florida.
The Gators, who have put together a rock-solid class of their own, are still battling the Dogs for an even higher-profile running back in Georgia’s back yard. M.L. King’s Mack Brown, rated the sixth-best in the nation at his position by rivals and the seventh-best by scout, has narrowed his choices to those two schools.
Malcome said his high school coach, the highly esteemed Buck Godfrey, “felt good” about his commitment. Godfrey is known to discourage players from committing early, but Malcome said, “He just wants to make sure everyone is treated right.”
im sure the coaches know what they are doing but on paper this is looking like the lowest rated recruiting class in the Richt era.
I typically put more weight into who is offering the kid versus their ranking or how many stars they have. We still have more 'big fish' on the hook so we may still end up top ten. The only question I have on this class is why are we offering so many 3 star guys out of FL?
I think the last one was to try to get Luc and I am fine with that.
Well, for what its worth, this Malcome kid had scholarship offers from Florida, Florida State, Alabama, Miami, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
yea, he looks like a 3 star kid that were used to getting. with offers like that, he may be a bit under rated and we always have a couple guys like that.
yea, he looks like a 3 star kid that were used to getting. with offers like that, he may be a bit under rated and we always have a couple guys like that.
Yeah, after all, David Pollack was a 3-star. Not saying this kid is that kind of guy, but you never know.
Its best to put more stock in the coaches' evaluations than it is in Scout or Rivals. The primary job of Scout and Rivals is to provide the FANS with a service that is in high demand right now. Their systems for ratings vary and its certainly not an exact science. Sometimes the 5 star players turn out to be studs...sometimes they are duds. Sometimes 3 star players turnout to be world beaters and sometimes they don't.
As long as the coaches continue to fill the needs of the team and bring in top notch talent, thats all that needs to be worried about. There may be something that the coaches see in a "lower rated" player that gives them a good idea that the player can blossom into a star.
Hybrid Mode
