Here is the Dec. 10 edition of The Daily Recap presented by JFQ Lending.
Camarda puts the team first
Punter Jake Camarda would definitely love adding another individual trophy to Georgia’s legacy. Just last year, Rodrigo Blankenship brought home the Lou Groza Award, given to the nation's best place-kicker.
Camarda was recently named a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, an honor that goes to the best punter in the country.
This year, Camarda has a net punting average of 45.6 yards, which leads the nation. His overall average of 47.8 yards per attempt ranks third. While Camarda would welcome an honor like the Ray Guy Award, that’s not his main focus.
“Would it be cool to bring another piece of hardware to Athens?” Camarda said. “Yes, absolutely. But when it comes to my goals, my goal this year was just to come in and just be as consistent as I possibly could and help our team win football games.”
Camarda was asked if he knew who Guy—the first punter ever to be selected in the first round of the NFL draft—was.
“I know that Ray Guy was a very good punter,” Camarda said. “My knowledge probably isn’t what everybody would expect, but Ray Guy was a very, very good punter, a very respected punter.”
Foxworthy talks UGA
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy joined Brent Rollins and Dayne Young to discuss his love for Georgia football and how he and his friends have a group text dedicated to Georgia recruiting. He shares why Florida is his most hated opponent and how he stays connected with Kirby Smart and the athletic department.
Will the nation’s top player end up at UGA?
Both Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney are in agreement when it comes to whether five-star defensive tackle Maason Smith (Terrebonne/Houma, La.) will end up at Georgia.
Both think the nation’s top player will commit to LSU.
“There is a lot of momentum here for UGA with the LSU chatter around NCAA sanctions regarding sexual assault, but I still believe Smith stays in state,” Farrell said. “People don’t understand how hard it is and how much pressure is on kids from Louisiana to stay home, and Smith can be an instant difference-maker for his home-state school. That’s hard to beat. It will be close, but I still have LSU.”
“I would not be surprised if Smith ends up at Georgia one bit,” Gorney said. “The situation at LSU is something he is watching very closely, and the Bulldogs are ramping up their efforts with Smith and they feel like they have a real shot to get him. But I’m going to side with history here. Every No. 1 player in the state of Louisiana – dating back to Landon Collins in 2012 – has signed with the Tigers. Through the good and the bad, kids from that state just go to LSU.
Will there be room?
Smart said he is concerned whether there will be enough spots for each of the incoming recruits who plan to be early enrollees. With the NCAA allowing seniors to come back for one more year of eligibility due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Smart is unsure if the program will be able to accommodate the current batch of mid-year recruits .
“You assume those guys are going to be gone, but they’ve got the flexibility to come back. That's great. That's the right thing to do,” Smart said. “I think that’s super, but trying to make decisions for your organization mid-year is a different circumstance.
“Let's say we have five mid-years, which isn’t the case at all. But let's say we have five that want to come. We have to have a spot for every one of them to come, so every senior who elects to stay, we don’t have a mid-year spot,” Smart said. “So, even though (seniors) won’t count towards the 85, we don’t have a spot for (mid-years) to come.”
Smart noted that there is no control as for which seniors stay and which ones either head to the NFL, transfer elsewhere or call it a football career. While Smart likes the fact that seniors have the option to return given the bizarre 2020 season, it has led to unintended consequences for the program.
“We don’t really control which seniors stay, and we’ll certainly give them the flexibility. But if we have more mid-years that want to come than seniors who want to leave, we have a problem,” Smart said. “I don’t think all the things mesh really well, especially if you’re a program that has a shot at a lot of mid-years.”
Dean, Johnson share recruiting stories
Near the end of his recruitment, linebacker Nakobe Dean told every coach in his top five that he wasn’t coming to their school to get them to stop contacting him. And even with that space he requested, he still didn’t know which school he would commit to when he woke up on signing day in December of 2018.
“I decided in the car on my way to the high school where I actually did it (the ceremony) at,” he said. “I didn’t tell the Georgia coaches I was coming until after I had signed, so I think it surprised them too.”
Linebacker Jermaine Johnson was fairly certain where he wanted to go when he was a JUCO prospect at Independence Community College. Georgia started recruiting him early, which helped gain Johnson’s trust in the program.
“Georgia came in pretty early. They recruited me hard,” Johnson said. “I’m a pretty big guy on loyalty. And for a big program like Georgia to come after me so early on, it was kind of all I really needed. I told the other coaches that the ‘G’ had my heart from the beginning and I just went with what my heart wanted me to. And you can’t really get mad at a recruit for an answer like that.”
One of seven
LBU
Brock Vandagriff honored
Outside the Vent
The Big Ten reverses course (again) and will allow Ohio State to play in the conference championship.
LSU has self-imposed a one-year postseason ban due to an ongoing NCAA case.
For the first time since 1919, Indiana and Purdue won’t play against one another.
“The average person has no idea how hard it’s been.”
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