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LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) — Based on recruitment rankings alone, this national championship game between No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU was the most lopsided in the nine-year history of the college football playoffs.
The Bulldogs are a recruiting juggernaut brimming with 4- and 5-star high school players.
Horned Frogs have some good players, but they are more likely to rely on players who outperform their prospective pedigree.
“Hey, in football, stars don’t matter at all,” said TCU star cornerback Tre Hodges-Tomlinson during Saturday’s media day of the CFP title game. “It’s all about growth after entering college.”
The defending national champion Bulldogs (14-1) will face up-and-comers the Horned Frogs (13-1) on Monday night at Sophie Stadium in Inglewood, CA. While their rosters are recruited differently, both teams take pride in their player development.
Using Recruiting Ratings to rank college football rosters, Georgia had the nation’s second most talented roster in 2022, behind Alabama, according to 247 Sports’ Talent Composite.
No surprises there. Kirby Smart’s team has pulled a top-five ranked recruiting class since returning to his alma mater as head coach in 2016. Performer.
According to the complex, TCU’s roster is the 32nd most talented player in the nation, just behind Georgia Tech and Missouri and just above Utah and Michigan State. His one player for the Horned Frogs, who was a five-star recruit, is reserve his linebacker Marcel Brooks, who transferred from LSU.
The difference in talent recruited between Georgia and TCU is the largest of any CFP title game matchup since 247 launched their talent composite in 2015, and it’s not even small.
The previous largest disparity was in 2015, with Alabama at 1st and Clemson at 13th.
Georgia is an elite recruitment program and TCU is a development program, right?
“I think the truth lies somewhere in between,” Smart said. “That’s the story that’s put out there. But I talk to my players about it all the time. The best players on our team aren’t[necessarily]the most rated players.”
Quarterback Stetson Bennett is the most obvious example. Bennett, a former walk-on at the University of Georgia, left to play for Junior College, and Heisman made him a trophy finalist.
Bennett was the offensive MVP in the semifinal victory over Ohio State in the Peach Bowl. Defensive MVP was safety Javon Bullard, a three-star recruit.
What attracts top recruits to Georgia is its track record of developing players who will eventually play in the NFL.
Four-star freshman defensive tackle Bea Alexander, who played his senior year at IMG Academy in Florida, said he was forced to play college football at his hometown of Texas A&M. But Georgia’s track record of development shook him.
Georgia’s starting defensive tackles from last year’s team, Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt, are both first-round draft picks, and Carter could be in the top 10 this year.
“Of course, JD, Jordan Davis was a three-star from Charlotte,” said Alexander. “So just watching them grow, I don’t want to get lost in recruiting, I don’t want to take the growth part more seriously.”
On TCU’s roster, receiver Quentin Johnston is the strongest player in the recruit, a top 100 national recruit who chose the Horned Frogs over Texas.
Quarterback Max Duggan was also a four-star recruit and one of TCU’s 16 recruits.
Both Duggan and Johnston were recruited to TCU by former coach Gary Patterson, and after the school’s winningest coach was kicked out at the end of the 2021 season, decided to stick with the Frogs and not transfer.
The Frogs’ new coach, Sonny Dykes, who faced TCU three times in four seasons while at SMU, had a lot to work with when he moved from Dallas to Fort Worth.
“I knew they had good players,” Dykes said. “I felt like they weren’t reaching their potential for some reason. It was appealing to me just because I knew the team had talent.”
Hodges Tomlinson is, in many ways, the epitome of TCU football over the past two decades.
A former three-star recruit who turned from safety to cornerback in college and became a star. Hodges, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and TCU great LaDainian nephew of his Tomlinson, won the Thorpe Award for being the best defensive his back in the country this season.
TCU guard Steve Avila was three-star, redshirted as a freshman, and made an All-American as a fifth grader.
Linebacker Dee Winter was a high school receiver who TCU decided was better off on the other side of the ball. He developed into his 230-pound linebacker and was the defensive MVP in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal win over Michigan.
“First of all, it’s measurable,” said internal recipient Doug Meacham, who took over from the Paterson staff. Do not know. Think of him as an athlete and think about it later. ”
Whatever the hiring rankings might suggest, Smart knows what he’s seen in the movies.
“TCU is a team with a lot of really good football players,” he said. It’s important to. Who cares?”
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com.
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AP College Football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25
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