During Coach Smart’s tenure at Alabama, his defenses were known for their size, physicality and propensity for being fundamentally sound. The Tide defense annually ranked amongst the best in the nation, but when they were elite at safety, the Alabama defense was at its best. For that reason, Coach Smart has been extremely aggressive recruiting safeties in the Class of 2017.
At Alabama, Smart signed the likes of Mark Barron, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Landon Collins, Deionte Thompson and Ronnie Harrison just to name a few. In the Class of 2017, Coach Smart got off to a fast start landing 5-Star free safety Richard Lecounte, III. Watching his film from his junior seasons of football and basketball you would be very hard-pressed to find an a more explosive/fast-twitch athlete anywhere else in the country. Lecounte is the prototypical free safety for UGA’s new scheme with his elite athletic ability that will allow him to lock down a receiver in man coverage or drop into center field and play the role of the ball-hawking safety.
With Lecounte already in the fold, UGA has turned up the heat on JaCoby Stevens from Murfreesboro, TN in an attempt to potentially land the Top 2 safeties in the nation as a part of the Class of 2017. Stevens is the yin to Lecounte’s yang. Stevens has the size, strength and physical style of play to the role of enforcer in the Bulldogs secondary.
However, those two are far from the only names the Bulldogs are recruiting to play the safety position. Xavier McKinney, Isaiah Pryor and Juwan Burgess are additional names currently being aggressively pursued by the Bulldogs staff.
A return to the days of a dominant duo of safeties patrolling the field at the safety position would go a long way to bringing the Junkyard Dawg defense back Between the Hedges.
I wish we could land a bunch of kids like LeCounte
Safety is definitely a need for Georgia going forward. Georgia will have to replace Quincey Mauger, who will play his final season at Georgia this fall, and the other starter, Dominick Sanders, will be a junior. And if Sanders nabs a plethora of interceptions this season, he could potentially declare early for the draft.
There is talent behind Mauger and Sanders, but they are young and unproven.
Like Greg Poole said though, I do find it interesting that he told Keldrick Carper that he was looking for guys that could cover and wasn’t afraid to put a CB at safety in order to have the coverage he needed in the secondary.
Sounds like the coaching staff are looking for more than just a traditional safety. JaCoby Stevens, Richard LeCounte III, and Keldrick Carper are all players that could play multiple positions in the secondary.
Great write up Huck, welcome to BI and looking forward to reading many more.
MMCSDAWG IYH_BI scott_hiott BD_illustrated jacobystevens7 Kirby is elevating the recruiting intensity and effort to a whole new level in Athens. Not saying Richt was lazy but Smart is just an animal on the recruiting trail.
Greg Poole He had a lot of success with that last year at Alabama after he moved Eddie Jackson from CB to Safety and was able to take ability of his versatility and ability to cover in man situations.
IYH_BI scott_hiott BD_illustrated jacobystevens7 I like Kirby’s relentlessness on recruiting the best players in the state as well as the country. There are definitely some very good DB/S in the class of 17 and I believe we will get some very good ones by NSD! Again, welcome to BI and come join us in the recruiting chat page…
I thought it was interesting that Kirby told one of the DB recruits recently that he was recruiting cornerbacks for every position in the defensive backfield. He wants long guys who can cover and hit.
scott_hiott BD_illustrated jacobystevens7 Lecounte is doing a heck of a job. He is definitely an Alpha Dawg out there on the recruiting trail.
BD_illustrated jacobystevens7 IYH_BI Lecounte is the best recruiter in the country