Four Georgia games included among top 100 college football games of 2016

Georgia tight end Isaac Nauta

Brant Sanderlin/AJC

Posted 4 years ago

Welcome to your one-stop shop for all the relevant UGA football news and takes every Monday through Friday. SB Nation released its ranking of the top 100 games of 2016, and Georgia claims four spots on the list. But these won’t all be happy memories for Bulldogs fans. Happy Friday.

UGA holds spots among SB Nation’s top 100 games

Bill Connelly of SB Nation is one of the best college football writers around, and he did God’s work this week with ‘The Top 100 College Football Games of 2016.‘

IT’S THE TOP 100 COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES OF 2016.https://t.co/s6LL7dw5ur

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) January 24, 2017

You should go in there and relive all the best games from this season, and maybe find a few you missed completely. And bookmark that thing. It’ll come in handy as the long months of the offseason drone on. It is an indispensable tool that can help you through even the darkest college football withdrawals. Trust me. I kept a link of last season’s list on my bookmark bar until mid-September.

But since we talk about UGA here, I went through and picked out the games involving the Bulldogs that Connelly ranked in his top 100. The Bulldogs had four entries, two wins and two losses, ranging from 63rd to sixth.

63. NOV. 5: GEORGIA 27, KENTUCKY 24

62. SEP. 17: GEORGIA 28, MISSOURI 27

39. NOV. 26: GEORGIA TECH 28, GEORGIA 27

6. OCT. 1: TENNESSEE 34, GEORGIA 31

All deserving entries, in my opinion, and all ranked approximately where I think they should go. Although, I might move the Missouri game up just a touch into the 50s. And the Vanderbilt game maybe should’ve snuck in somewhere in the 90s, if only for its amazing display of train wreck anti-football. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what happened in that one.

What do you think? Are UGA’s games ranked about where they’re supposed to be? Are there any games you think deserve a spot and didn’t get one? Let me know in the comments.

Here’s the kicker

Georgia has finally nailed down a kicker for the Class of 2017. Norcross, Ga., kicker Brooks Buce committed to the Bulldogs on Thursday, making him the first, and likely only, specialist in this class. He’ll join the team as a preferred walk-on, so he won’t be claiming any scholarship that could go to UGA’s current starting kicker and constant focus of scholarship speculation, Rodrigo Blankenship.

Go Dawgs!?? pic.twitter.com/0y273aZZO3

— Brooks Buce (@brooksbuce) January 27, 2017

Looking back on 2013

Sam Khan Jr. at ESPN had a piece this week regrading the SEC’s recruiting classes of 2013. At the time, Georgia’s class was considered one of the best in the conference and the nation. As we all know now, it turned into a huge bust, with many of the top prospects transferring and others just not shaking out.

13. Georgia

2013 grade: A

2017 grade: D-

Top signees: C Brandon Kublanow, DE/LB Leonard Floyd, DE Davin Bellamy, WR Reggie Carter, S Quincy Mauger.

This class was ranked 10th at the time of signing and it turned out to be a disaster. Of the 33 signees, only two were bona fide, multi-year starters (Kublanow and Floyd), and 16 players transferred, left the team or didn’t suit up for the Bulldogs. Several others who are on the team haven’t panned out. About 11 players have contributed a respectable amount, but Georgia’s depth issues are evident because of this class.

Run the state

Don’t get down about the class of 2013, though. That only serves as a reminder to how far Georgia has come in recruiting in only a few short years. As I noted Thursday, the driving force behind UGA’s recruiting renaissance is Smart’s ability to sign players from the state of Georgia, one of the top states at producing college football talent.

Part of my point was that UGA has fewer competitors in-state vying for players than the other most talent-rich states such as Texas, Florida and California. In another post by DawgNation on Thursday, unbeknownst to me when I wrote my post, Connor Riley illustrated the point perfectly for me, comparing the number of players UGA has secured from the Peach State to the number the Florida Gators have pulled from the Sunshine State.

Of the top 20 recruits in Florida, the Gators have one commitment, while Alabama, Ohio State, Florida State, Miami and Auburn all have more. The Gators’ highest-rated commit, Zachary Carter, is the No. 14 recruit in the state.

The good news for Jim McElwain and the Gators is there are more undecided prospects in the top 20 in Florida than in Georgia. If the Gators can close strong on National Signing Day, they may be able to close the gap.

As for the top 20 prospects in Georgia, the Bulldogs dominate the competition. Of the top 20 recruits in the state, 12 have either signed or committed to Georgia. The Bulldogs are also very much in the running for the state’s top three uncommitted players.

Georgia also has done a better job of landing the top prospects in the state. While Florida has zero players in the top 10 of the Florida state rankings, Smart has five of the top 10. And that’s with 5-star defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon still available.

And that’s only comparing UGA to Florida. But pull the scope out even further and what the Bulldogs are doing on the recruiting trail becomes even more impressive.

"My goal is to outwork everybody in recruiting, sign the best players in the state & turn these guys into the best team we can." Kirby Smart pic.twitter.com/u0zVkFnAnR

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 27, 2017

A dose of Floridenfreude

If the Gator Hatin’ in the previous section wasn’t enough for you, I’ve got another dose. This comes from college football’s resident Florida fan, Spencer Hall aka EDSBS, who isn’t worried at all about Florida’s abysmal recruiting class.

[L]et’s randomly list teams ranked ahead of the Florida Gators in Rivals’ 2017 recruiting rankings.

Pitt

Maryland

Kentucky

Arizona

Mississippi State

Baylor

Miami

Florida State

Virginia Tech

Stanford

Georgia

SOUTH CAROLINA

No reason, just randomly listing schools recruiting better than Florida, but that’s fine because recruiting is less important than feeling good about yourself.

And that was today’s dose of Floridenfreude.

PSA

With a little less than a week to go, I figured I’d provide this helpful chart to anyone thinking about tweeting at recruits in the run up to National Signing Day.

I made this last year, but it will apply for eternity. A flowchart for whether or not you should tweet at recruits. pic.twitter.com/CK6ke7NOyv

— Gray Hardison (@BellyoftheBeast) December 17, 2014