Certain recruiting classes are touchstones for those who follow Georgia recruiting. 1982. 1998. 2011. It will be a while before we can place the 2017 class in the proper context (hello, 2013), but at first glance Kirby Smart’s first full class was a blockbuster. Rivals considers the class the nation’s third-best, and other recruiting services are in the same neighborhood.

The class is anchored by one of Georgia’s best offensive line hauls in program history. Massive 5* offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson and guard Netori Johnson are the headliners, but it’s a deep group of six with several future starters. Wilson and JUCO signee D’Marcus Hayes have the opportunity to help out immediately at either tackle position.

You don’t get a top-five class without quality across the board. The offensive line stands out, but Georgia landed blue chip players at quarterback (Jake Fromm), tailback (D’Andre Swift), receiver (Jeremiah Holloman, Trey Blount, and Mark Webb), defensive end (Robert Beal and Malik Herring), linebacker (Nate McBride and Jaden Hunter), and defensive back (Richard LeCounte and Deangelo Gibbs). Not everyone from the class will pan out – such is the nature of recruiting – but there aren’t many reaches in the group.

Could the class have been even better? Sure. Jamyest Williams and Aubrey Solomon heading elsewhere rates as a disappointment mainly for wishful thinkers. It would have been nice to land either – or both – but Georgia shouldn’t have been considered the favorite for a player committed to another school or one for whom Georgia didn’t rate an in-home visit. If there was one surprise that went against Georgia, it was Markaviest Bryant heading to Auburn. Georgia was a near-lock for Bryant for much of the process and still an overwhelming favorite until just recently. Some even expected Bryant to go public with a commitment to Georgia around the time McBride did, but LSU and eventually Auburn were able to muddy the waters and capture his attention.

In some years a decision by a player of Bryant’s caliber would put a serious dent in the overall quality of the class. This year, while a mild disappointment, Bryant’s decision hardly moved the needle to the extent that, say, Derrick Brown did a year ago. That speaks to the magnitude of the rest of the group, but the disappointment is also mitigated by the return of Bellamy and Carter. The team still needs to stockpile outside linebackers in future classes, but 2017 will be fine with those two veterans leading the position.

The departure of Rico McGraw and Juwuan Briscoe made the depth situation at defensive back a little more dire, so it’s no surprise that the team also loaded up there. Gibbs and LeCounte jump off the highlight reel, but William Poole III, Latavious Brini, and Ameer Speed will provide nice depth over the next four years. Georgia should have an experienced group starting at defensive back, but with McGraw and Briscoe gone several newcomers could see the field in reserve roles.

One surprising name from Signing Day was David Marvin. Though he won’t show up on the list of signees, Marvin is a graduate transfer from Wofford who expects to compete for placekicking duties. Georgia has had graduate transfers step into starting roles since 2015, and Marvin might be the player who kicks off the 2017 season.

A stellar signing class can form the core of some memorable teams. Mark Richt’s initial success in 2001 and 2002 wouldn’t have been possible without the buy-in, leadership, and ability of the standout 1998 class. Georgia has seen exceptional classes before, but Smart can distinguish himself by making the quality of the 2017 class the rule rather than the exception. We’ve seen what a recruiting lapse of a couple of years can do to a program (and its coach). Smart was brought in to improve on a fairly high level of success. It’s going to take more recruiting classes like this one to get there. Smart, at least in his first full recruiting cycle, has proven his ability to deliver such a class.

Since most of Georgia’s 2017 signing class is either already committed or waiting until Signing Day to announce, it’s been a fairly quiet couple of weeks. There have been some important visitors each of the past two weekends, but the biggest splash has come from a 2019 commitment.

With the nice-to-have problem of finding enough spots in a stellar recruiting class, this is the time of year when we start to hear all of those “roster management” terms that we use as shorthand to talk about how teams allocate their 85 scholarships. At Georgia, the past week has brought a flurry of “preferred walk-ons.” What makes certain players preferred walk-ons?

The important thing: “preferred walk-on” (PWO) is meaningless as far as the NCAA is concerned. They’re simply non-scholarship players. It’s a term without any kind of formal or standard definition. It’s up to each school how they distinguish one walk-on from another – if at all. Each school runs its own walk-on program differently guided only by the limits of 85 scholarship players and 105 total players on the roster. Though most coaches are up-front about the path to a scholarship, some choose to avoid creating a distinction among their walk-ons. Depending on the program, being a PWO might mean:

• They are recruited and invited by the staff. The PWO is recruited like any scholarship player but with the understanding that he will not be on scholarship. Coaches may promise the opportunity to earn a scholarship down the road if one becomes available.
• They are all but guaranteed to make the 105-man roster. Not every walk-on who comes out for the team will last, but preferred walk-ons don’t have to go through a cattle-call tryout. This seems to be the minimum consensus definition of a PWO.
• They are involved in all team activities – meetings, community service, Fan Day, etc.
• They have access to team perks. This includes gear, access to the weight room and training facilities, and academic support. They also have access to team meals and the dining hall but must pay for meals.
• They may travel to the bowl game. Walk-ons (and even some scholarship players) don’t travel with the team to road games. The rules are looser for bowls, and walk-ons receive the same travel stipend, per-diem distributions, and bowl swag as the scholarship players.

Kirby Smart identified Georgia’s walk-on program for improvement back in the spring. True to his word, Smart has been very active lately adding walk-ons to the 2017 class. Vince Dooley’s grandson is among them. There will even be another Frank Sinkwich on the team. The Dawgs added another pair of walk-ons on Sunday, and they continue to roll in on the eve of Signing Day.

We’ve seen PWOs at nearly every position at Georgia. This year alone the Dawgs have used PWOs to add to their depth at linebacker, punter, fullback, quarterback, and receiver. They even hosted an offensive lineman currently committed to Harvard as a possible walk-on addition. This year, thanks in some part to the visibility of the Blankenship story, the most high-profile PWO commitment to date might be that of Greater Atlanta Christian kicker Brooks Buce. Georgia had interest in several kickers who were weighing walk-on offers against scholarship offers at smaller programs, and Buce signed on. He’ll compete with Blankenship and the rest of the kickers on the roster, but his best chance to make an early impact is as a kickoff specialist.

When you see this past weekend called “Georgia’s biggest remaining official visit weekend” and hear about the awful weather going on across the state, it’s a good time to let Georgia’s new IPF have its first big moment.

The IPF won’t be officially dedicated until mid-February, but it’s already getting plenty of use. There were walk-throughs during bowl practices, and offseason workouts are going on there almost daily. Now it’s also available to host some of the most important prospects remaining on Georgia’s board.

Yes, the prospects had a lot of stops across campus and across Athens that put them out into weather that wasn’t nearly as nice as last weekend’s. It’s still nice to bring them back by the showpiece facility and hand out in the program’s new home.

PS…Georgia’s football program isn’t the only team using the IPF to get better during their offseason.

I thought the game itself came down to two things: first was Bama failing to capitalize on Clemson turnovers. Alabama’s ability to convert turnovers into scores (often without the offense taking the field!) became the stuff of legends this year. They created two turnovers in this game – both on Clemson’s end of the field. But not only did Clemson prevent those non-offense touchdowns that had become Alabama’s calling card; they also kept Alabama’s offense out of the endzone after those turnovers. The Tide had to settle for a net of three points off those two turnovers, and that wasn’t nearly enough of a knockout blow.

The last Clemson turnover came early in the third quarter, and Alabama led 17-7. From there the story was Clemson’s offense wearing down the Alabama defense. With Bo Scarbrough injured, the Tide found it difficult to sustain drives, and the Alabama defense was called on again and again until it broke down to the tune of 21 fourth quarter points for the Tigers. Clemson ended up running 99 plays due in large part to an effective defense of their own and an Alabama offense that couldn’t put together any kind of a sustained drive until they fell behind.

Georgia fans naturally thought of the end of the 2012 SEC Championship. This time the Tide didn’t stop the last-minute drive. The difference of course is that the 2012 Dawgs had to have a touchdown while this Clemson team would have survived with a chip shot field goal if it came to that. I think that difference changes playcalling quite a bit, and of course the issue of the running clock in 2012 also factors in.

I supported the Tide in this game. It wasn’t out of any SEC loyalty, a concept I’ll never understand fully. I saw a Bama win as the best outcome for Georgia. We’ve more or less become numb to Alabama titles, and I didn’t want Clemson adding a national title to their recruiting pitch. The Dawgs have enough of a challenge recruiting against their SEC rivals, but two of the last four national champs are ACC schools from neighboring states. That doesn’t make Kirby Smart’s job any easier.

Clemson won though, and three of the last four national champions border Georgia to the south, west, and now the northeast. It’s not news that the recruiting competition in this part of the country is cutthroat, and Clemson’s win will only make it moreso. Seeing yet another neighbor hoist the trophy, especially one with whom Georgia has such deep history, only increases the desperation of Georgia fans to see their program win a title. Clemson had waited since 1981, but Bulldog fans can do them one better.

Dabo’s path to the top hasn’t been linear and certainly hasn’t been conventional. His elevation from interim coach in 2008 wasn’t seen as a home run, and his program was nearly short-circuited after a disappointing 2010. Swinney made some changes and brought in outstanding coordinators – first Chad Morris to overhaul the offense and then Brent Venables to build the defense. The turning point was Clemson’s comeback upset of LSU in the 2012 Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Tigers have lost only seven games in the four seasons since. More, they’ve survived and even improved after the departure of Morris and a wave of talent that salvaged Swinney’s career.

Georgia’s 2013 and 2014 games against Clemson were battles of fairly evenly-matched teams. Clemson won a tight game in 2013 as Tajh Boyd bested Aaron Murray in a contest of senior quarterbacks. Georgia’s dominant running game was the story in 2014 as Gurley and Chubb took over and blew open a close game. A secondary story of that 2014 was how both teams managed to replace Murray and Boyd. Georgia was positioned better in the short term with Hutson Mason, but it took one throw to realize that Clemson’s long term answer was a very special true freshman.

I was surprised but certainly also glad that Clemson didn’t stick with Watson in that game. We had our own experience breaking in a true freshman quarterback this season, and I’m sure Swinney had his own developmental plan for Watson in mind. It didn’t take long for Watson to win the starting job, and he came back from a knee injury to lead his team to consecutive national title games. He’s been an outstanding player and has to be in the discussion of the best players who never won the Heisman.

No one imagined after that 2014 game in Sanford Stadium that Georgia had run all over a team that would play for a national title the next year and win it just one one year later. I also doubt many expected the two programs to head in such different trajectories.

As Kirby Smart rebuilds the Georgia program, he knows that the team’s foundation is as important as the superstars. That realization is evident in the current recruiting class, especially on the offensive line. It’s true that Georgia also must keep top talent like Watson in state, but Georgia has had exceptional individuals like Stafford, Green, and Gurley with no titles to show for it. It’s the supporting cast that needs the most work, and it isn’t hard to imagine how much better even a true freshman like Eason would look having a target like Williams or a left tackle like Hyatt.

What we saw last night was an outstanding player in Watson that could push a program over the top as well as a program in a position to take full advantage when that player came along. Swinney did well to land a transformational player like Watson, but he’s a championship coach because the rest of the ingredients were in place and came together. Even Watson couldn’t do it alone, and it took a fleet of receivers like Williams, Renfrow, and Leggett making tough catches along with a line that largely held their own against Alabama’s standard pass rush to produce those magical fourth quarter drives.