Georgia Bulldogs

Editor’s note: Each day this week, we’ll ask a question that Georgia’s football team faces this spring as it moves toward the 2013 season. Today’s question: How many of the Bulldogs’ 13 midyear enrollees will play this fall?

ATHENS, Ga. -- While predicting which freshmen will play this fall is obviously an inexact science this far ahead of the regular season, Georgia coach Mark Richt on Saturday shared an easy explanation of how quickly his staff must bring along certain members of their 13-man class of midyear enrollees during spring practice.

If they play a position of particular need, Richt said, their learning curve naturally will accelerate.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Ashley Henderson has heard all of the questions about whether a player from a small private school in Georgia can make the leap to playing major college football. He believes Aulden Bynum has the physical tools and the toughness to make that transition.

“People have asked me, ‘Well, because he goes to Valwood, do you think he’s going to be able to do it?’ ” said Henderson, who coached Bynum and the Valiants to a Georgia Independent School Association (GISA) state title last fall. “I said, ‘Well, I coached O-line at Valdosta for seven years and he’s as good as I ever had there.’ ”

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Editor’s note: Over the next several weeks, we’ll take a look at each position on Georgia’s depth chart and project how it might look in the future. Today we examine Georgia’s offensive tackles:

2012 two-deep depth chart:
LT: Kenarious Gates (Jr.), Mark Beard (So.)
RT: John Theus (Fr.), Watts Dantzler (So.)

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ATHENS, Ga. -- As far as Mark Richt is concerned, it’s no more difficult for Georgia to bring in 13 early enrollees this year than it was when the Bulldogs previously had four or five newcomers join the team in a typical January.

Richt is just glad they are in Athens and ready to start spring semester classes at UGA today.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be all that different having five of them or 15 of them come in,” Richt said. “They’re all just going to start going to class and get into the offseason and start learning what to do.”

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To gear up for 2013 national signing day, DawgNation's Radi Nabulsi is breaking down every commitment in the Bulldogs' 2013 recruiting class.

Vitals: Offensive tackle Aulden Bynum, Valdosta, Ga./Valwood | 6-foot-5, 260 pounds

Committed: April 6, 2012

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ATHENS, Ga. -- The Georgia coaching staff was on the road Friday, as usual, checking in on commits and targets alike. In what had to the most fortuitous turn of events of the day, tight ends coach John Lilly and inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti just happened to be stopping by Auburn (Ala.) High School right after the nation’s No. 1 inside linebacker, Reuben Foster, decommitted from Auburn University. Both coaches met with Foster, who reopened his recruitment, citing reports that his mentor Trooper Taylor had been let go at Auburn.

Later that night, another coach would also prove lucky as defensive line coach Rodney Garner was on hand to congratulate Montravius Adams (Vienna, Ga./Dooly County) after the top-ranked defensive tackle won the chance to play for the Georgia Class A championship.

Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and running backs coach Bryan McClendon were on hand to see the Bulldogs’ top tailback target, Alvin Kamara (Norcross, Ga./Norcross), win his semifinal game as well. Alabama’s Kirby Smart was also there, and the battle for Kamara is still neck and neck.

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ESPN 150 offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil (Lake City, Fla./Columbia) watched the two schools atop his leaderboard face each other in the Georgia Dome on Saturday night. The No. 4 prospect in the nation has had Georgia and Alabama as his leaders for months and is expected to pick between the two on signing day.

So who was he rooting for in the game?

“Georgia,” Tunsil said. “I really wanted Georgia to go [to the BCS title game] to see how they were going to do. It was pretty good game.”

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I asked for questions on The Pound, DawgNation’s message board, and our readers had quite a few. This week I was asked to make a lot of predictions, projections and prognostications.

DantesInferno60: Do you think Georgia will continue to recruit Steven Nelson (Warner Robins, Ga./College of the Sequoias)?

Radi Nabulsi: I doubt it. When the coaches originally got word that the talented cornerback might be wavering a few months ago, they called Nelson immediately. He continued to remain a commit until this week. When I spoke to him prior to his Oct. 6 official visit to Oregon State, he sounded much more excited about the Beavers than the Bulldogs. I think Georgia moves on from Nelson and continues to try and flip Brendan Langley (Marietta, Ga./Kell) from South Carolina. Also, juco defensive back Riyahd Jones (Columbus, Ga./Garden City Community College) is visiting Georgia on Saturday. He might get an offer in light of Nelson’s decommitment.

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Saturday's Georgia-Florida game will not only be about determining who could win the SEC East. The animosity and eventual result of the game is of particular interestto the Georgia commits ant targets that may one day play in the showdown. DawgNation caught up with a number of them to get their takes on the game.

ESPN 150 DT target Montravius Adams (Vienna, Ga. /Dooly County) -- "If UF play like they been playing, which is as a team, they will win. But if UGA comes to play and can effectively use their balanced run and passing attack, the Bulldogs will be successful."

ESPN 150 CB commitment Shaq Wiggins (Tyrone, Ga./Sandy Creek) -- "Florida versus Georgia is the biggest game of the year for both teams. It is RIVALRY, BLOOD, BATTLES, A LOT OF DISLIKING EACH OTHER. Basically the SEC CHAMPS will come out of this game.

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DawgNation is here to take you Inside the DawgHouse -- a confidential look inside Georgia football recruiting for DawgNation subscribers only. As it will be every week, everything reported Inside the DawgHouse stays on The Pound forum. We are providing this information for our subscribers and hope that you help keep this information protected by keeping it here.

In this week's update:

• Prospects flock to Athens
• Spots filling up

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Back to square one for the Bulldogs. Last year, University of Georgia head coach Mark Richt needed to make a splash in recruiting. Coming off a six-win season in 2010 -- by far the worst of his tenure in Athens -- Richt needed an impact player at running back in the class. The Bulldogs were 73rd in the country in rushing, 10th in the SEC, but Richt was able to put the finishing touches on a top-five class -- one he dubbed the “Dream Team" -- by signing five-star running back and the top prospect in Georgia, Isaiah Crowell.

Friday, following an arrest on felony weapons charges, Crowell was dismissed from the team by Richt, ending Crowell’s career at Georgia after only one season and putting more pressure on his teammates to replace the SEC Freshman of the Year. The latest departure further depletes the overall talent on Georgia’s team, making the 2013 class even more important for the future of the program.

Big class coming in

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The Georgia Bulldogs, hoping to sign five or more offensive linemen for the 2013 class, only have one committed so far in Aulden Bynum (Valdosta, Ga./Valwood). But could commit No. 2 be coming soon?

Josh Cardiello (Buford, Ga./Buford) has taken his grandfather on visits to Florida and FSU already, and Friday he invited him to share a day in Athens.

“It was very important because he has been able to see everywhere else and he enjoys that stuff, and I really like UGA, so I wanted him to see what they had to offer,” Cardiello said.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- After picking up three verbal commitments on Friday, Georgia already has 12 players publicly lined up for its 2013 signing class.

As of Saturday afternoon, that total was the fourth most in the country, ranking behind only Michigan (16), Texas A&M (13) and Texas (13).

It’s also a significantly larger group of public commitments than Mark Richt’s staff has ever assembled so early, as the program has never had double-digit commitments prior to the G-Day game under Richt.

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