Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep focuses on a very strong trend at work within Georgia’s dominant 2024 recruiting class.
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“Football games are won up front.”
“Championship teams are built from the inside out.”
“This is a game for big men.”
“Large humans decide football games.”
“The trenches are where it counts.”
Pick any of those tried-and-true slogans when it comes to the game of football. Bring those up around Kirby Smart or Tray Scott or Kirby Smart or Stacy Searels and they’ll start nodding.
They actually won’t even have to nod. They can just point to their work so far with the 2024 recruiting class. There’s no greater example of what the secret sauce in Athens is for building championships teams.
Get the big guys. Get the best big guys. Get more of the best big guys than anyone else.
Take a look at this piece of Intel here. If there’s a more telling example of why Georgia is doing things differently than anyone else in college football right now, this reporter would love to see it.
Let’s dive into a specific analysis of the 2024 recruiting class so far under the following criteria.
- We’re identifying the lines of scrimmages as the IOL, OL, OT, DL, DT, NT and EDGE positions as the trenches
- We’re chronicling the number of Top 200 prospects committed to playing n the trenches
- We’re also tracking the number of total commitments for the lines of scrimmage inside the nation’s top 12 recruiting classes at this time on the 247Sports Team Composite rankings.
Check out this table that charts which programs have the most top 200 overall prospects committed under those criteria for the Class of 2024.
| Rank | School | OL/DL/EDGE commits (Top 200) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UGA | 6 (2 Top 100) | 3 DL/ 3 OL |
| T-2 | Alabama | 3 (1 Top 100) | 2 DL/ 1 OL |
| T-2 | TAMU | 3 (1 Top 100) | 1 DL/ 2 OL |
| T-4 | Arkansas | 2 (1 Top 100) | 1 OL/ 1 DL |
| T-4 | Florida | 2 (1 Top 100) | 2 DL/ 0 OL |
| T-4 | Michigan | 2 (0 Top 100) | 0 DL/ 2 OL |
| T-4 | Ole Miss | 2 (0 Top 100) | 2 DL/ 0 OL |
| T-4 | Oregon | 2 (0 Top 100) | 1 DL/ 1 OL |
| T-4 | Ohio State | 2 (1 Top 100) | 1 DL/ 1 OL |
| T-4 | South Carolina | 2 (2 Top 100) | 0 DL/ 2 OL |
| T-4 | Tennessee | 2 (0 Top 100) | 1 DL/ 1 OL |
| T-4 | USC | 2 (0 Top 100) | 1 DL/ 1 OL |
| 1 | 9 other schools |
Georgia has twice as many commitments from elite players for the lines of scrimmage as any other program in the country right now.
Those elite bigs don’t grow on trees. That’s charting the 39 elite OLs/DLs and EDGE prospects that are already committed halfway through July in the 2024 cycle.
There are only 29 other prospects rated that highly in the country that are uncommitted at this time. The ‘Dawgs are pretty much done on the OL side, but they also are contending for three or four other names on the defensive front.
We didn’t lump this number into this discussion, but the ‘Dawgs also already have two TE prospects already committed. That also shows a heavy emphasis there for the lines of scrimmage with big bodies that can move people.
Of course, it doesn’t take a football Mozart or Einstein to get behind that philosophy. The difference is that the ‘Dawgs are prioritizing more of them and getting more of them. The real genius is that the ‘Dawgs are getting so many elite OL prospects to want to play together on the same team.
The Georgia brand is strong enough to off-set the thought of an immediate starting spot or clear second-team reps with another program that is among their top schools.
The following chart indicated how much the nation’s top 12 recruiting classes up to this point have emphasized the lines of scrimmage (LOS) in their recruiting classes.
| Rank | School | Commits | LOS commits | Top 200 LOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UGA | 26 | 11 | 6 |
| 2 | Ohio State | 18 | 5 | 2 |
| 3 | Florida | 19 | 9 | 2 |
| 4 | Michigan | 26 | 13 | 2 |
| 5 | USC | 17 | 6 | 2 |
| 6 | Penn State | 22 | 8 | 1 |
| 7 | Notre Dame | 20 | 7 | 1 |
| 8 | Oregon | 20 | 7 | 2 |
| 9 | Texas A&M | 17 | 5 | 3 |
| 10 | Alabama | 13 | 5 | 3 |
| 11 | LSU | 18 | 4 | 0 |
| 12 | Tennessee |
The final item we wanted to look at here was how much this year’s class either reinforces or deviates from the Georgia recruiting philosophy over the last few recruiting classes.
We will never forget Kirby Smart’s first press conference where he placed a heavy emphasis on recruiting big men to the program.
Take a look at how this year’s crop already stacks up with Smart’s recent recruiting classes in Athens.
| Year | Top 200 LOS commits | Top 100 LOS commits |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6 | 2 |
| 2023 | 7 | 6 |
| 2022 | 6 | 4 |
| 2021 | 5 | 4 |
| 2020 | 5 | 4 |
| 2019 | 5 | 3 |
| 2018 | 7 | 6 |
| 2017 | 6 | 3 |
File these charts away. If you want to know which teams are set up to contend for championships when the playoff system gets underway beginning in 2024, these teams are built to win.
That’s not bio-medical engineering here. That’s football.
As long as the programs listed above have a track record of developing the trenches, it is a safe bet to expect to see the teams which focus on lines-of-scrimmage recruiting put up seasons with double-digit wins in the future.
The University of Georgia has certainly done just that.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
