Talent will fix the close losses.

THIS!

Hard to argue with any of your post!! Recruit like maniacs. A few game-ready kids from the portal and suddenly we have a few more wins. One thing we witnessed across the landscape this year is a lot of teams were hot and cold. Win one week, lose the next. Surprise fans with a stellar win one week, implode the next. Crazy year.

I love where we're headed. Very excited!

Go Gators.

 

Could have lost one score games to TAM, Ole Miss and Texas (with a backup QB).

Not the regular Bama team or dominance.

 

Great question. In the recent era... could be one team out there. Clemson with Watson maybe

 

Excited to see the great DL freshmen class coming in. That is one position where a young guy can make an immediate impact.

The other positions noted, particularly linebacker, will require help from the portal next year

 

Yes, time to focus on recruiting, sorting out the kids the staff want to keep, work toward a successful bowl and a new season beyond.

 

. Did you not see the graphic of 5 star recruits during the UGA game?

 

Mcelwain never had a top3 class. That class ended #12.

 

This is a myth. Recruiting is still the lifeblood of the program. You can fill a few holes in your program with it but to use it as your main talent pipeline is folly.

 

You are 100% correct. Throw in Jacob Copeland, Emory Jones and Justin Watkins who were 3 of the 4 highest rated in our 2018 class. Throw in Chris Steele our top rated recruit in 2019. Jahari Rogers and Issiah Walker in 2020 which were no. 4 and 6 ranked in our class.

All you need to know about our recruiting is the fact that our defense has 1 RS Senior, 2 Seniors, 1 RS Jr. and 1 Junior on the entire depth chart. Experience can overcome a lot of talent deficiency coming out of high school. I know this is cherry picking but our only 5th year senior on D, Ventrell Miller, was I believe rated 570 coming out of high school.

 

Good grief I knew I forgot some but those were some of our highest recruits as well. Man we really did bomb in recruiting and star ratings be damned for whoever cites are recruiting rankings as evidence we have high end talent.

 

And that justifies losing to Kentucky, Vandy, FSU, and Tennessee? All of which we have far more stars starting

 

You didn't seem to notice that I said "as" important not "more" important. USC and LSU filled lots of holes successfully between 2021 and 2022.

 

That tells me that short term the portal is the way to go. CBN's approach is a total rebuild relying on recruiting, which is more of a long term project. Whether Riley's or CBN's approach works better in getting titles remains to be seen. It's really asinine for people to bitch while he is in the beginning stages of the rebuild. Towards the end of next season, i believe we will have a better idea on CBN's chances of success going forward.
Mullen did very well year 1 and 2 relying on the portal, however eventually the shit hit the fan as he lost everything regarding recruiting and the portal became mediocre for him.
Personally, i prefer Billy's approach as i think it will be the only way we can compete with Georgia. The portal should be used to supplement recruiting for immediate needs, not in lieu of recruiting.

 

We have some immediate needs at the moment.

Beyond that, I'm confident that he believes this too. I'm more than happy to be
patient for a few years while he does the hard work that needs to be done. No short
cuts. Do the job right and we won't have to go through this process again in 3 or 4 years.

 

Riley’s key transfer was his stud from his former school. Same as Billy.

 

I don’t agree that it’s as important.

 

Our talent level is no longer significantly above these teams so, yes, losing to them is quite possible. As you know, in football you just don’t compare total star ratings but it helps drastically if you have a significant edge.

 

Look at what fsu brought in with the portal and look who made plays for them. Their "productive talent" is on par with ours now. Benson, verse, Wilson and Pittman were transfers. Combine that with an experienced qb and I'm not seeing what some see as far as our talent "advantage " either.

 

Regarding talent, it is obvious Napes knows talent & can recruit. Think about who were our 3 best players on offense and the 4 true freshman on D that were all recruited by Napes/staff. Johnson and Torrence were his recruits from Louisiana and we know about Etienne. On D, he recruited, in his first season with very little time, at least 4 eventual starters with McClellan, Wilson, James and Mitchell (over 1/3 of the defense in 1 cycle with a player at each level). Not only can the guy recruit, he seems to have the eye to find real talent that is going to play.

 

How will this board react if Billy finishes #8 ?