2010 Football Recruits: 2 Defensive Lineman

by Tedward09 on Feb 2, 2010 8:00 AM EST

On the day before National Signing Day, we'll take a look at the last 2 defensive lineman in this class. A quick side note though... there was one comment from a reader yesterday about doing a review of last year's recruiting class to see how they'll impact the team this coming season. Fear not Techies, there has been a plan in the works (by me) the whole time to do just that. I did want to get started on it earlier, but I decided to take y'all through this class and then review last year's class closer to spring practice since that's when their names will start appearing more often.

Onto the topic of the day. The first commit we'll discuss is Shawn Green. One thing to I should say is that I incorrectly reported that Ryan Ayers was the only commit in this class to play in the Under Armour All-American game. Shawn Green was also took part in that game. Sorry for the misinformation. Shawn's a defensive tackle from Grayson HS in Loganville, GA. He's listed at 6'3" and about 275 lbs. This guy has the potential to be that man-eater in the middle of Al Groh's defense. There isn't much video available of Shawn online, but if ESPNU ever replays the UA All-American game make sure you watch it to check out both Shawn and Ryan. Because we really don't know what Groh is looking for in a DT/nose tackle, it's tough to say whether or not Shawn will see the field next year. I believe he's got the talent to do it, I think it's a matter of whether he has enough size and if he can pick up the defensive scheme quickly enough when he arrives on campus.

The next player in this class is defensive end Anthony Williams from Union Grove HS in McDonough, GA. He's listed at 6'4" and 230 lbs. Cool fact about Anthony is that he was good friends with Daryl Robertson, a former Tech DE. Interesting also because they seem like they are similar players coming out of high school. Most noticeably they are both really tall and pencil thin for their positions. Anthony has plenty of room to add muscle to his frame while not losing any speed. According to some of the analysis by the recruiting sites, Anthony isn't all that explosive off the ball and may end up being a better run stopper than pass rusher. If this holds true, I'd expect Anthony to stay at DE in our new scheme even with his lean frame. He's definitely a work in progress and will most likely red-shirt a year.

That's all for now. We'll have plenty more updates throughout the week... Hopefully we'll have a surprise commit to report on later this week (no idea if that's true, just hoping because I love the excitement).

THWG

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6 more weeks of winter

…I think the odds were pretty much guaranteed there’d be another 6 weeks.

I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third.

by BirdGT on Feb 2, 2010 8:50 AM EST reply actions

Green & Williams.....

Green is a prototype nose tackle: thick, very quick first step, good leverage. He’s the biggest sleeper of this class. Stylistically think Vince Wilfork when he was at ThugU. Williams is slated to play the “jack” linebacker in our 3-4. He’s the hybrid DE/LB. Don’t expect to see him with his hand on the ground except in obvious pass rushing situations. Denzel MCCoy will play DE from this year’s class. Tomorrow should yield a very nice class for us. Expect a nice surprise somewhere along the way.

by Hash Slinger on Feb 2, 2010 9:47 AM EST reply actions

Am I getting too excited

or are we starting to load up given this year’s surprise recruits and last year’s excellent red shirts?

by Atlanta's original team on Feb 2, 2010 9:51 AM EST up reply actions

We aren't really loading up

This class is pretty strong on the defensive side of the ball, but isn’t much else. Note that I’m not including guys who lost their redshirt, like Smith, Cross, or Burnett.

On defense, for redshirts from last year’s class, we got Sweeting (5-11, 172 lb lightning fast 4* CB), Jamea Thomas (5-10/180 S), and Watts (6-2/220 LB). Doesn’t appear we’ll be getting a lot of help behind the line. On the other hand, on the line we got a DT Lanier (6-2.5/344 monster 4* DT) and a bunch of DEs: Cummings (6-3.5/227) Dieke (6-7/220), and Crenshaw (6-3/242). Wouldn’t be surprised to see either move to OLB, given our depth issues. Either way, DLine is the heart of the class.

In 2010s class we’ve tried to shore up the LBs and DBacks, while still building depth on defense. Between Green, McCoy, and Williams, that’s another three guys who can play – giving us 7 in three years. Def a good sign we are trying to patch up the DL. We got a couple of LBs who should be able to play soon – Attaochu and Nealy. Bunch of DBs, although I suspect some of them will be moved to other positions by the time they are RS-F: Days, Skole, Johnson, Holton, and Bostic.

In sum, we’ve made some great strides the last two years recruiting a bunch of defensive players. Still could use a few more stud LBs given the 3-4,

On offense, we got 4* QB Luallen, 6-3, 192 and a 3* QB Sims (6-0/208). One of them should be heir apparent to Nesbitt. We got Drummond, 6-3/230 B-Back. Just like we got a bunch of DL, we also got a bunch of OL in that class: 4 Guards according to Scout. I wouldn’t be surprised if several of those guys end up being tackles in CPJs system though.

Didn’t get much in 2010 that will help the unit, though. Obviously Perkins is the offensive jewel of the class. Couple of other RBs who appear to be undersized on paper, but hopefully CPJ can spend their RS season coaching them up. Other than that just a few OL.

In sum, I like that we are building the Oline (6 recruits in 2 years) and I think we’ve got enough QBs between Luallen, Sims, and whoever gets moved there from this class (Days / Bostic?).

Otherwise, I’m a little disappointed in our ability to horde stud RBs. Don’t get me wrong, the video available for the ones we do have is outstanding, but it seems we only have 4-5 RBs for two years when our offense uses 3 of them at a time. Maybe we are planning a big class next year, but it seems we’ve gluttoned ourselves with a lot of relatively avg players. Particularly, I think, at B-Back, where there will be a lot of pressure on Perkins to be a stud starting next year. I’d like to see us get another great player for next year, just to take some of that pressure off.

by Howell on Feb 2, 2010 12:19 PM EST reply actions

skill position players

Only go somewhere it seems when they know they’ll get PT. If they look at our depth chart and see Roddy Jones, Peeples, Anthony Allen, Marcus Wright, and all the redshirt guys, they’ll say to themselves, “Are there enough carries for me?” You also gotta wonder if RB’s are turned off by the splitting of the load that CPJ has shown us lately with the A-backs.

Concerning QB’s, do we have a QB on the roster with an arm that can replicate Nesbitt’s passing strength for the vertical passing game? I don’t think we do right now.

I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third.

by BirdGT on Feb 2, 2010 12:58 PM EST up reply actions

Howell and Bird . . .

You make excellent points. I feel like I learn from listening to you. Is there anything to the rumor that next year is going to be bumper crop nationally for running backs and Tech may be saving a few scholarships for a big offensive push next year?

by Atlanta's original team on Feb 2, 2010 2:21 PM EST up reply actions

Gotta disagree with you Bird

on the point that players go where there is PT. Generally true, but not always. Look at Auburn. They already have a stud (Onterio McCaleb), yet locked up scout’s #2 RB. They are waiting to hear from the country’s #1 RB tomorrow and only until relatively recently got turned down by the #4 back in the country. To recap – already had a RS Freshman who’s a stud, locked in the #2 RB, almost locked in the #4 (finalist to Oregon), and may still lock in the #1 RB.

We had about 50% more rushing yards than Auburn last year. PT can’t be the only concern they have. Moreover, if quality A-Backs were ducking us because of PT concerns, why did CPJ sign 2 A-backs but not sign other needed positions, like WR, or build more depth where needed, like LB.

I understand that CPJ may not (and probably doesn’t) look for the same thing in an A-Back as those guys above (and all of them project to be A-Backs, not B-Backs). I also understand that I’m no where near the talent scout that he is.

Still, it seems that we may have whiffed on a bunch of good RBs this year and that worries me (or maybe we just decided to give our scholarships to people at the last minute). I’m not gonna make a judgment call on how good Zenon or Hill are. I haven’t seen them play or practice (although their youtube highlights are sweet). What concerns me is that we didn’t think enough of Zenon to give him a scholly from the get-go (just a grey shirt until people went pro) and Hill didn’t enter the picture until the last minute. I’m sure they will end up great players and I’m happy they decided to become Jackets, but I can’t help but feel i) they weren’t CPJ’s first choices for the position; ii) they were fortuitous that this year we had scholarships that opened up at the last minute and/or that we needed to balance out an unbalanced class (in terms of numbers); and iii) they were passed over by other schools for a reason.

All of those concerns may be unfounded. Particularly the last one, because the needs of an A-Back to block, run, and receive are unique to the system. But I’m worried about the other concern that Bird brings up – that A-Backs simply don’t get that many carries. If you are recruited as an A-Back to his system, the ceiling is 5-10 touches a game. I’m not sure we can recruit top notch players based on that. We may want to consider trying to build premiere backs, such as Dwyer and Allen, by starting them as A-Backs and later moving them to B-Back (and the feature role). I think that would help recruiting by being able to offer RBs early PT (if they earn it, the 5-10 snaps as a freshman / sophomore) and the ceiling to become a premiere back later (also if they earn it).

Rant over…

by Howell on Feb 2, 2010 5:04 PM EST up reply actions

Jordan Luallen?

Our top rated recruit from 2009’s class, he has a great arm but he redshirted last year and didn’t play much in the spring game.

by Markthejacket on Feb 3, 2010 2:05 AM EST up reply actions

I think Stephen Hill would have to take honors as top recruit from last years class… both from an immediate contribution standpoint as well as rankings, in my opinion at least.

by Tedward09 on Feb 3, 2010 2:03 PM EST up reply actions

Nice post

and I agree with some of what you’re saying. First off, Sweeting and Jemea did NOT redshirt this year. Sweeting saw significant playing time in the middle part of the season but his time faded toward the end of the season. Jemea was mainly in on special teams and mop up duty. His highlight was a pass breakup in the Duke game that was absolutely spectacular. Jemea will be playing the ROV postion (left vacant by Morgan Burnett). And from everything I’ve heard Watts is a star in the making. He’s really shined in practice this fall. I agree we’re in good shape on the DL between last and this year’s classes. Regarding offense, I agree Nesbitt’s successor will come from either Luallen or Sims… both are much better athletes than Jaybo. I really think Drummond will be that star you’re looking for at b-back. And to reply to your post regarding recruiting stud RBs, we really haven’t gone after many of the top-tier backs. All of our coaches do their own evaluations; they don’t rely on recruiting sites. Would I like to have some of these RBs rated in the top 10? Of course I would, but the truth is we honestly haven’t targeted any of these guys rated really high. For example, Charles Perkins was under the radar when he committed, but the consensus is he would have been rated much higher if he had waited until after his senior season, especially given his stats. Regarding Zenon, I was hesitant at first, but CPJ has been high on him for quite awhile. He really impressed the coaches at our camp last summer. The reason he didn’t have an offer from the get-go is because we didn’t have an offer available until JD, Morgan, Bebe and Uno announced they went pro. Zenon has been one of our top a-back targets from the get-go.

by Tedward09 on Feb 2, 2010 8:08 PM EST up reply actions

Next year...

Is a very strong year in Georgia for recruits. Not only are they strong on the field but they are strong in the classroom which helps us. Isaiah Crowell is the best of the class but he’s headed SEC all the way. There are plenty of other good backs in the class, no worries there. Add Lance Richardson to the list of redshirts from 2009 that will contribute. He’s kind of a tweener but has a chance to contribute. Crenshaw & Cummings will most likely move to OLB in the 3-4. Dieke is up to 270 & still going. He’ll be on the two-deep this spring & fall. Jackson, Finch, & Beno will all push for playing time on the O-line.
At QB, Luallen has a very good arm. He’s easily the most accomplished passer of any one on our roster. The concern is durability. He’s tall (6’3") & runs upright, making him easy to get a good lick on. After Josh leaves expect a pretty good battle between Luallen & Davis Sims. Sims is has great legs but has struggled throwing the ball. He also came from a shotgun/spread offense so getting under center has been an adjustment. The staff worked really hard with him all Fall on his throwing mechanics & it will be interesting to see the results. One advantage for Luallen is that QB is really his only position. Sims could move to A-back or maybe even B-back if needed. Jaybo will continue as an excellent backup. Tevin Washington is moving to A-back this spring. Of the 2010 kids, we recruited Synjyn Days to play QB but I expect he ends up elsewhere, although he did run the spread option throughout high school. With the addition of Louis Young to tomorrow’s class, expect Bostic to play offense. Kid is just explosive with the ball in his hands.

by Hash Slinger on Feb 2, 2010 2:54 PM EST reply actions