This is starting to look more and more like a “begin with a bang, end with a whimper” recruiting cycle.

Last night I heard from some sources that we’re out on Moore, Daniel Green, TJ Green, and only 50/50 on Cotton. This source is wrong a lot of the time (but shouldn’t be, given their stature), so take it for what it’s worth. This person also thinks we land Judson, which makes no sense.

My feelings:

Cotton 70%

Daniel Green 40%

Judson 10%

TJ Green 1%

Moore 1%

There’s a mad scramble to pickup linemen, etc. It just seems like a few dominoes feel and now it’s on to the C-list to fill out the class. I don’t think we reach top 35 yet again. I thought GA would have us in the top 35 or even top 30 by year 3. He was on pace for that, but couldn’t close. Those criticizing the staff for inability to close have merit as of today, but let’s see how things shake out in a few days before cementing that notion.

Edit: also heard one of the QBs will transfer or change positions. Sounds like it’s Moran since every other P5 school recruited him at safety, and I expected this all along since he can’t throw.

It peeked just a few weeks ago with the Calvin commit, hitting in the high 20s on some sites. We were ahead of Oregon and Nebraska at one point. I was raving it would be our bets class ever. Since then, we lost Calvin (and TJ Green, our other 4-star, visited Utah, and things have been mum on him since the visit). Also, the guys we have signed in that time have been B-list guys (guys we never heard much about until now, 2 stars, preferred walk-ons). It seems like typical OSU where the class fades at the end. We’ll see in a week, but I’d much rather hear about us poaching guys right now instead of clinging to hang on to some of our best recruits.

If we end up ranked in the 40s like we are now, it’s  no better than Riley. He was usually 40-50, even in down years. On the plus side, an Andersen 2 or 3 star looks much better than a Riley 2 or 3 star. But still, I’d like to see a bump. I don’t care about the 4 win thing because every recruit saw the Civil War and knows GA is a master builder. So it’s not that.

What I need to see to feel excited:

1. Hang on to the guys we have.
2. Hear stories of poaching rather than being poached.
3. Land 2 more big time (high 3 star or 4 star) guys.

Right now it’s a fine class, but one that’s been diminished since earlier when it was looking like the best class ever.