Tag: vols football news

4-star UGA TE target releases top-four schools days before commitment date

4-star UGA TE target Moliki Matavao has released his top-four schools just two days before his commitment date.

4-star 2021 tight end Moliki Matavao has released his top-four schools just two days before he will announce his commitment.

Matavao (Henderson, Nevada) released a top-four of Georgia, Oregon, Penn State and UCLA.

Washington and Tennessee both were included in his top-six last month but did not make it into the final four.

Matavao (6-foot-6, 240-pounds) will announce his college decision on May 27th at 9 p.m. ET.

He ranks as the nation’s No. 151 overall player, No. 4 tight end and as the top player in Nevada.

The Liberty High School prospect holds 30+ scholarship offers and is predicted to sign with the Oregon Ducks, according to 247Sports’ Crystal Ball predictions.

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Ranking SEC head coaches heading into 2020 CFB season

We ranked all the SEC head coaches, from Georgia football’s Kirby Smart, to Arkansas’ Sam Pittman, to Florida’s Dan Mullen.

The SEC is loaded with head coaching talent as we head into the 2020 college football season.

You have your usuals – Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Gus Malzahn, Ed Orgeron, etc.

But then you have your familiar, or in some cases not-so-familiar, yet new faces: Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach, Sam Pittman, Eli Drinkwitz.

Ranking the SEC head coaches heading into the 2020 season is as hard as it’s ever been, and that’s because of all these new hirings. But it’s also because Jeremy Pruitt waited until October to start winning games in Tennessee last year. It’s because Ed Orgeron took a loaded roster and won a national title. Because Gus Malzahn and Auburn always have the talent but can’t seem to win the big ones. Or because, despite a 4-8 season, Will Muschamp was able to knock off Kirby Smart and Georgia.

Related: 2020 Georgia schedule with game-by-game score predictions

With all of this taken into consideration, here’s our SEC head coaching power rankings for the 2020 college football season:

14. Sam Pittman, Arkansas

I would have loved to get Pittman into a higher spot on this list, but what is there to go off of? His last head coaching job came in 1992 and 1993 when he led Hutchinson Community College to an 11–9–1 record over two seasons.

I am 100% rooting for Pittman to succeed in his first season as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It won’t be easy, and this is a team that will likely finish with at least five losses for the first few years, but that’s not necessarily a terrible thing as long as they play hard.

Arkansas may not field the most talented teams in the SEC, but if there’s one thing I’m certain of it’s that the former UGA O-Line coach will make sure his guys fight harder than anybody.

13. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri

Drinkwitz gets the No. 13 spot because of what he was able to do at App State last year. In his first season as a head coach, he led the Mountaineers to a 12-1 record and a Sun Belt championship.

But that’s not the SEC. It’s going to be a rocky road ahead for Drinkwitz, as Mizzou will definitely not be one of the more talented teams in the league for a few years.

12. Derek Mason, Vanderbilt

I often find myself rooting for Vanderbilt and Mason.

He took over at Vandy when James Franklin left for Penn State, and though it’s been tough at times, you get the feeling that Commodore fans actually look forward to their seasons.

11. Will Muschamp, South Carolina

If Muschamp had not beaten Georgia last year, he maybe would not even be on this list at all.

But he won and that probably saved his job. He coaches up a good defense, but South Carolina will need to crank up its recruiting efforts if it wants to start contending in the SEC East. Another season with no bowl game may put an end to Muschamp’s head coaching career with the Gamecocks.

10. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Kiffin is a good football coach, there’s no denying that. No. 10 is pretty low for an offensive genius like him. But this conference is simply loaded.

Kiffin did a great job at Florida Atlantic, but I still need to see him win consistently at a Power 5 school.

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2021 recruiting: Tennessee fans, stop bragging. Georgia fans, stop panicking.

Looking at the 2021 recruiting class, Tennessee Vols fans should stop bragging and Georgia football fans need to stop panicking.

Georgia football’s 2021 recruiting class is as follows (all rankings via 247Sports)

5-star QB Brock Vandagriff: No. 2 QB, No. 12 overall

4-star OT Micah Morris: No. 9 OT, No. 61 overall

4-star ATH David Daniel: No. 4 ATH, No. 78 overall

4-star RB Lovasea Carroll: No. 7 RB, No. 117 overall

4-star SDE Jonathan Jefferson: No. 13 SDE, No. 145 overall

4-star WDE Elijah Jeudy: No. 10 WDE, No. 170 overall

3-star DT Marlin Dean: No. 28 DT, No. 447 overall

Right now, this is the nation’s 20th ranked class. Given the fact that Georgia has only seven commitments, being ranked No. 20 is just fine. It’s clear that Georgia is going for quality over quantity in this class, with its commits carrying an average rating of 94.52, which is third in the country.

For comparison purposes, Tennessee has the No. 2 class in the nation. But Jeremy Pruitt is certainly going for quantity in this class. With 23 verbals, Tennessee commits carry an average rating of 89.84. That’s the lowest in the top-five.

(Fun fact: Florida, which has the nation’s No. 7 ranked class, has an average rating of 87.41, which is the lowest in the top-10 and the second-lowest in the top-15).

Georgia commits, fans and coaches all know that Kirby Smart has plenty of time to work his magic and climb the rankings by the time the early signing period rolls around in December. Maybe enlisting a little help from current players and commits on Twitter is what it takes to expedite that process, which is something we’ve seen a lot of this month. 5-star quarterback commit Brock Vandagriff has led the surge, tweeting at a number of top players in the 2021 class recruiting them to Georgia.

It’s too early to start doing two things: Bragging and panicking.

Look at Alabama. Nick Saban currently has the nation’s No. 46 raked class for the 2021 cycle. Nobody thinks for a second that the Tide will finish outside of the top-five when all is said and done. There’s just too much time and too many elite players remaining.

And let’s stick with Tennessee for a moment. The No. 2 class is nice, but in the end I’d prefer a class of around 22 players filled with elite commits than a class consisting of 30+ players where a majority of them are three-stars.

Tennessee’s 23 commitments broken down by star rating:

  • One 5-star
  • Nine 4-stars
  • Thirteen 3-stars

Georgia has plenty of highly ranked uncommitted recruits still on its board, not to mention the ones that Kirby will try to flip to UGA.

NEXT…Georgia’s top remaining targets in the 2021 class

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Athlon Sports releases 2020 CFB rankings: Projects Florida ahead of Georgia

Athlon Sports released its 2020 college football top-25 and projected the Florida Gators to finish above the Georgia Bulldogs.

Athlon Sports recently released its list of the top-25 college football teams going into the 2020 football season, saying the list specifically represents where they think these teams will finish the season.

From Athlon:

This is not a preseason ranking of teams going into the season. Instead, this ranking takes into account where we project teams to finish after the national championship in January

The SEC is represented six times. Alabama is at No. 2 behind projected national champion Clemson. LSU is at No. 8, Texas A&M No. 11 and Auburn at No. 13.

Most notably, Georgia, the three-time SEC East defending champion, is ranked at No. 7, behind Florida at No. 6.

Athlon Sports stated its reason for putting the Gators ahead of the Bulldogs, even though Florida hasn’t won in Jacksonville in three years, is because of the SEC crossover games and staff continuity.

“Georgia has an edge in overall roster talent,” Athlon Sports wrote. “But the Gators have a small advantage in crossover play (at home versus LSU compared to at Alabama for the Bulldogs) and coach Dan Mullen’s team has more continuity in staff and scheme.”

I suppose Athlon Sports has a point, a Joe Burrow-less LSU at home won’t be as tough as Alabama in Tuscaloosa. However, the SEC East runs through Jacksonville and Georgia has held the keys for the last three years.

And as far as continuity goes, the Bulldogs came into the 2019 season with a new offensive coordinator and still took care of business in Jacksonville.

Georgia and Florida meet this year on Halloween from TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida.

Here is Athlon Sports’ projected top-10 teams in college football for 2020:

Athlon Sports’ 2020 Projected top-10

#1 Clemson

#2 Alabama

#3 Ohio State

#4 Oklahoma

#5 Penn State

#6 Florida

#7 Georgia

#8 LSU

#9 Notre Dame

#10 Oregon

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Top Georgia TE picks Vols

2021 3-star TE Miles Campbell committed to Tennessee in an announcement on Twitter. Details here.

The Tennessee Volunteers receive another 3-star commitment, this time from Miles Campbell, one of the top tight ends in Georgia.

All rankings via 247Sports:

This brings the No. 2 ranked Vols 2021 recruiting class to 21 total commits with an average player rating of 0.8962, less than the 0.8992 average of the Vols 2020 No. 10 ranked recruiting class.

Campbell (6-3, 234) plays at South Paulding High School in Douglasville, Georgia, and is ranked as the No. 37 player in Georgia and the No. 20 TE overall. Campbell holds 32 offers, including one from Georgia, Florida, Miami and Auburn, but chose the Vols in an announcement on Twitter.

The Bulldogs currently sit at No. 18 in the 2021 recruiting class rankings with an average player rating of 0.954 and only seven commits. The low number of hard commits so far should tell you that Georgia coach Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs staff are only getting started — after all, Georgia is coming off of three No. 1 classes in a row.

Georgia recruiting target JJ Jones moves up decision date

JJ Jones, a Georgia football recruiting target, has moved up his decision date.

Earlier in May, 2021 four-star wide receiver JJ Jones announced his top five schools on Twitter.

North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Georgia made the cut for the Myrtle Beach High School prospect.

He had planned to announce his final decision on his birthday, August 5, but tweeted on Wednesday night that he will now be committing sometime next week.

Per the 247Sports Composite Rankings, Jones ranks as the nation’s 68 wide receiver, No. 3 player in South Carolina and No. 417 overall player in America.

Right now, 247Sports sees North Carolina as the favorite to land Jones, with South Carolina in second place.

In 2019, as a junior, Jones caught 45 passes for 707 yards and 15 touchdowns while being named to the All-Region team and third-team All State.

 

Tennessee on recent recruiting surge; a look at Vols 2021 class

The Tennessee Volunteers now boast the No. 1 class in the SEC for the 2021 recruiting cycle

Coach Jeremy Pruitt and the Tennessee Volunteers coaching staff have been busy recruiting during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Vols have received 11 commitments in the 2021 recruiting class in the last two months, including six in the last two weeks.

Georgia fans remember Pruitt’s time as UGA’s defensive coordinator (2014-2015) under Mark Richt. Although the relationship did not work out, Pruitt was a very successful recruiter for the Bulldogs.

Fast forward to the 2021 recruiting cycle and Tennessee now has the No. 1 ranked class in the SEC and the 3rd best in the country behind Ohio State at No. 1 and Mack Brown’s North Carolina Tar Heels at No. 2.

Pruitt is a part of the same Nick Saban coaching tree that produced coaches like South Carolina’s Will Muschamp and Georgia’s Kirby Smart. Saban disciples are known for a strong defensive strategy and a knack for signing elite defensive talent. So far, the Vols have received commitments from two of the top defensive players in the country: 5-star outside linebacker Terence Lewis and 5-star weak-side defensive end Dylan Brooks.

Lewis (Opa Locka, Florida) is rated as the nation’s No. 9 overall player and as the No. 1 OLB in the country. Brooks (Roanoke, AL) is rated as the No. 1 WDE and the 29th best recruit overall. Other than Lewis and Brooks, Tennessee holds commitments from 15 more recruits, four of which are 4-stars.

On Sunday, the Vols also picked up a commitment from 4-star running back Cody Brown out of Lilburn, Georgia. A few days prior to that, they received a commitment from Roswell, Georgia native 4-star wide receiver Julian Nixon.

Tennessee’s 2021 class broken down by stars:

Two 5-star commits

Four 4-star commits

Eleven 3-star commits

Tennessee finished with the No. 10 ranked recruiting class in 2020, which unfortunately for the Vols, meant a No. 7 finish in the SEC.

That should prove to be Pruitt’s biggest obstacle while at Tennessee. Georgia, LSU, Florida, Alabama and Auburn are some of college football’s best recruiting programs.

However, if Tennessee can continue to take advantage of the down time and bring in more 5-stars, it may be able to compete for the top spot when the 2021 recruiting cycle comes to an end next year.

As for Georgia, Kirby Smart has the Bulldogs sitting at No. 16 in the country, but we are not nearly close enough to signing day to think about hitting the panic button. Kirby has finished with the No. 1 class for three consecutive seasons now, so it’s safe to bet on the Dawgs turning up the heat as we creep closer to December’s early signing day.

Tennessee commit fires back at Florida coach’s poor troll attempt

Monday, 4-star safety Kamar Wilcoxson committed to Tennessee in a video he posted on Twitter and a Florida assistant coach responded.

Monday, Georgia target and 2021 4-star safety Kamar Wilcoxson tweeted a video revealing his commitment to Tennessee for the 2021 recruiting class.

Wilcoxson attends IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and has had commitment issues to say the least.

Wilcoxson was committed to Florida during his freshman season until backing out of his commitment a short time later.

Then, last June, Wilcoxson decided that he really did want to play for the Gators and re-committed, which lasted about 9 months until de-committing from Florida for the second time in March of this year.

Here’s his Vols commitment tweet:

It seems that the Florida coaching staff hasn’t forgotten all the drama surrounding the Atlanta native, because the Gators’ offensive assistant director of player personnel subtweeted Wilcoxson following his commitment video – something you don’t usually see.

Wilcoxson then tweeted back calling out the Florida assistant for “throwing shots.”

He deleted the tweet, but his response read:

“Lol, you mad jit ? you grown throwing shots, I can’t wait til I see y’all boys!”

Even though Georgia missed out on the 4-star safety, I’m interested to see how the rest of this drama plays out, especially when Florida travels to Tennessee in the fall.

Report: UNC expected to hire longtime Georgia football assistant coach

UNC is expected to hire a former Georgia football assistant coach.

Per a report from Bruce Feldman of the Athletic, the North Carolina Tar Heels are expected to hire former Georgia tight end coach John Lilly to the same position in Chapel Hill.

Lilly, who spent eight seasons in Athens as the Dawgs’ tight ends coach and offensive special teams’ coordinator, left UGA in 2015.

In 2016, Lilly was the tight ends coach for the Los Angeles Rams. After taking 2017 off, Lilly joined Jeremy Pruitt’s staff in Knoxville as Tennessee’s Executive Assistant to Head Coach.

Most recently, Lilly spent the 2019 football season as the tight ends coach for the Cleveland Browns and was not retained when the franchise fired Freddie Kitchens.

Lilly will take over at UNC for Tim Brewster, who left to become the tight ends coach at Florida.

Assistant coaches live a bit of a nomadic life, and for Lilly to have eight years in the Classic City was a treat for DawgNation.

During his time with the Bulldogs, Lilly was part of several record-setting seasons: 72 touchdowns in 2012, 484.14 yards per game in 2013 and 41.3 points per game in 2014. All were the best marks in school history. He served as the Bulldogs’ interim offensive coordinator during the 37-14 win over Louisville in the 2014 Belk Bowl and the 24-17 victory over Penn State in the 2016 Tax Slayer Bowl. Both Louisville and Penn State had top 15 nationally-ranked defenses.

He coached star tight ends Arthur Lynch, an All-SEC First Team honoree and fifth-round NFL draft pick; Orson Charles, a fourth-round selection by the Cincinnati Bengals; and Aron White, the Most Outstanding Offensive Player at the 2009 Independence Bowl. He guided Georgia’s punt unit, which included Ray Guy Award winner Drew Butler.

Lilly brings a wealth of knowledge to Carolina and may possibly be a secret weapon for Heels. He is highly respected and has a knack for exploiting a defensive team’s weakness.

Where Georgia football ranks in terms of returning production in 2020

Here’s where Georgia football ranks in terms of returning production in all of CFB.

Georgia football returns 10 starters from a team that came oh so close from making a trip to the College Football Playoff last year.

Unfortunately, the Dawgs ran into eventual national champ LSU in the SEC Championship and there was never really a question as to how that game was going to go.

But with 10 returning starters, the Dawgs are primed to make another run at the SEC Championship and hopefully the CFP.

With the returning talent that Georgia has, it puts the Bulldogs at 59th in the country according to Bill Connely of ESPN, who ranked the college football teams with the most returning production in 2020.

The offense returns 50% of its production (different than starters), which is 98th overall. The defense returns 80% production, good for 21st in America.

Connely explained how he differentiates returning production from returning starters.

I have for a few years been deriving what I call a team’s returning production percentage as an alternative to returning starters. It looks at the most predictive key personnel stats — percentage of your QB’s passing yards returning, percentage of your secondary’s passes defensed returning, and everything in between — and is weighted based on what correlates most strongly with year-to-year improvement and regression. It is a major factor in my annual SP+ projections, which will be released next week. (The other primary factors: recent recruiting and weighted five-year history.)

With 80% of production returning to a defense that ranked No. 1 in America last year, the Dawgs will be making life difficult for opposing offense next season. The losses of safety J.R. Reed, defensive tackle Michael Barnett, defensive linemen David Marshall and Tyler Clark and linebacker Tae Crowder hurt, but with the way Kirby Smart has been recruiting for the past three years, the defense will be just fine, likely even better, next season.

In terms of returning starters, Dawgs247 searched through players who started seven or more games in 2019 and came up with this list of returning defensive starters:

NG Jordan Davis

DE Malik Herring

OLB Azeez Ojulari

ILB Monty Rice

CB Eric Stokes

DB Mark Webb

DB DJ Daniel

S Richard LeCounte

The offensive guys include center Trey Hill and versatile offensive lineman Ben Cleveland.

There’s also George Pickens coming back, who was not on 247’s list as a result of their criteria, but he may make a bigger impact on offense than any returning player next season.

Back to ESPN’s list of returning production — regarding total production returning to the program, here are some notable rankings throughout college football:

(Out of 130 teams)

2. Georgia Tech

32. South Carolina

50. Tennessee

59. Georgia

61. Florida

78. Auburn

126. LSU

127. Alabama