Future Roster Tidbits
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First, Richt reports that Chris Little (OL) has dropped his
weight from a terrifyingly large 380 lbs. to 330. It's a little
scary to me that he might have dropped half a hundred in that
short a time frame; however, it is good to see him getting into
shape. Coming into his senior year of high school he looked like
a dominating prospect, but injuries and grazing kept him out of
the playing time discussion this year. It's hard to put on
muscle while you're dropping that much fat, but he'll have time
to rebuild his body this off season.
Secondly, Richt mentioned that we're losing seven scholarship
wide receivers in the next two graduating classes. That's why
recruiting stud WRs has been such a priority this year. The
departing WRs are:
2007 Class:
S. Bailey: Our best WR since Reggie Brown graduated in '04
TJ Gartrell: Less than 10 career catches. Plagued by injuries
M. Henderson: Strong senior season. Frequently injured.
AJ Bryant: ~25 career catches. Plagued by injures.
2008 Class:
M. Massaquoi: Strong player.
K. Harris: Limited PT this year.
D. Goodman: Late bloomer. Has potential.
I appreciate the contributions of all of those kids, but
realistically there are
only two guys in that group that have avoided the injury bug long enough to really make a consistent impact. The departure of these seven may leave a leadership void, but it does free up scholarships and give us the
opportunity to bring our roster more into balance. Entering this
season we had 11 or 12 returning scholarship wideouts but only
five scholarship OL (not including Tater Salad Smith). That
imbalance should be resolved now.
Also, imagine being an NFL General Manager for a minute.
Imagine being told, you're going to lose two starters, but you
get to replace them with
seven draft picks. That's a dream come true.
Again - I appreciate the contributions and hard work of those
kids, but
the future looks very interesting with guys like AJ Green, Tavarres King, Israel Troupe, and Walter Hill behind
them. I also have to imagine that WR recruiting will be critical
in the 2009 class as well.