Georgia football continues to foster a specific recruiting trend over the last few years in out-recruiting its SEC East rivals, if not the rest of the country.

That will be the case again with a strong Florida program again this week. Do the plays matter? Or are these big-time football games decided by which sideline has signed and developed their rosters into better football players over the last few years?

Let’s acknowledge two things with this narrative: 1) Star ratings do not equate to talent, heart, desire and ability. Or the work ethic to continue to get better once they arrive on campus and; 2) These two programs compete annually to sign the best talent in the country. The more prospects they sign at the top of their wish lists, the better raw materials they start out with trying to produce the best players and football teams, respectively.

It seems that Kirby Smart and the Georgia staff also believe in two things: 1) Signing the best possible players each year and 2) Star ratings do not mean a thing to them in the long run.

“It boils down to players more than the Xs and Os,” Kirby Smart said today at his Monday press briefing previewing the matchup with Florida.

That said, the recruiting industry continues to get better and better at identifying and ranking the nation’s best players with every passing cycle.

The star ratings can tell us something in terms of identifying which programs have been better at signing the most-wanted players in the nation on an annual basis.

The recruiting industry recognizes the 4 and 5-star recruits as those “blue-chip” recruits that every program seeks. What do those numbers look like for Georgia and Florida dating back to the class of 2016?

The players each program signed that year are now either seniors or redshirt juniors in this week’s game. The bulk of each roster contains the players signed from those four classes.

Blue-chip ratio of signees over the last four cycles

(Total of 4 and 5-star signees off the 247Sports Composite ratings)

  • 2016: Georgia 13, Florida 9
  • 2017: Georgia 19, Florida 11
  • 2018: Georgia 21, Florida 13
  • 2019: Georgia 20, Florida 13
  • Current totals heading into this week’s game: Georgia 73, Florida 46

Top 100 signees over the last four cycles

(Rankings derived from the 247Sports Composite ratings)

  • 2016: Georgia 5, Florida 4
  • 2017: Georgia 7, Florida 1
  • 2018: Georgia 12, Florida 4
  • 2019: Georgia 9, Florida 4
  • Current totals heading into this week’s game: Georgia 33, Florida 13

Blue-chip ratios in the starting lineup for the game

(4 and 5-stars based on the depth charts heading into this week’s game)

  • Blue chips starting on offense (projected): Georgia 9, Florida 5
  • Blue chips staring on defense (projected): Georgia 7,  Florida 5
  • Current totals heading into this week’s game: Georgia 16, Florida 10

247Sports Team Composite Ratings over the last four cycles

  • 2016: Georgia (6th); Florida (12th)
  • 2017: Georgia (3rd); Florida (11th)
  • 2018: Georgia (1st); Florida (14th)
  • 2019:  Georgia (2nd); Florida (9th)
  • 4-year averages: Georgia (3rd); Florida (12th)

5-star signees over the last four cycles

(based on the 247Sports Composite ratings)

  • 2016: Georgia 3, Florida 0
  • 2017: Georgia 3, Florida 0
  • 2018: Georgia 7, Florida o
  • 2019: Georgia 5, Florida 0
  • Current 5-star totals on each roster: Georgia 15, Florida 1 (Brenton Cox transfer)

Georgia-Florida week on DawgNation