Why did we lose who we lost?

Earlier I was over at Paul Westerdawg's blog (georgiasports.blogspot.com) where he was talking about "border defense." Apparently, one of the biggest problem for people with class is that UGA didn't lock down its top talent. Below is my response as to factors that may have come into play.

I can give you a couple of reasons for what we "lost out on" on the offensive side of the ball.

1) QB - Richt made it clear for a long time that he wasn't going to take a QB in this class. That means, many prime quarterbacks no longer looked at UGA. When Richt finally said, "we're gonna need a quarterback," many decisions had already been made (mentally, if not publicly). But Hutson Mason, always a Dawg fan, was immediately interested. The guy was a record breaker and a winner. I don't know the level of competition, and when I saw him in the North-South game I didn't know what to think. He didn't amaze me, but he kept plays alive, and he had very little practice time. Anyway, that's QB.

2) RB - First off, Ken Malcome is a 4-star recruit, the same as the two Georgia running backs rated above him who went to Miami and FL. His rating is an "81" while theirs is an "83". What's the difference? I certainly don't know. It could be as simple as a 40 time. Now, how can we "let" these players get away? Well, we certainly weren't going to take three running backs. Storm Johnson, the highest ranked back of the bunch, wasn't even offered by the SEC. He signed with Miami after looking at Michigan State, Penn State, Oregon and UNC. His 40 time is 4.54, so I'm guessing the SEC schools thought he was too slow. OR, they decided that he won't perform well against the top defensive talent in this conference. He likes to run east-west a great deal...something not great against a speed defense.
As for Mack Brown, he was offered by UGA, FL, OU and AL...just like Ken Malcome. We got one, FL got the other. Sorry if I don't feel terrible about the loss.

3)WR - Da'Rick Rogers was the guy. I think that story has been beat to death. I've seen many comments saying he's a slacker, he gives up on plays, he's all flash and has attitude problems, etc. I don't know about any of that. I know the guy was stuck hip-to-hip with his QB, and when TN knew they could get a top WR by offering a weak QB, they did it. Personally, I'm glad UGA didn't take that approach.

4)OT - Let's look at where Ju'Wuan James (83) ended up - Tennessee. The 2009 UT team had two kinds of tackles, Seniors and Freshmen. The Seniors are gone. The Freshmen are sophomores. James has 4-year starter potential, and there's not a long list of experienced players in front of him. If he's the guy who wants to play NOW, UT is a better choice. UGA has a much more experienced roster at tackle, and a 2010 OT coming in knows he's probably headed for a redshirt. That may not have sat well with James, but it was apparently ok with Brent Benedict, another top 150 recruit.