Analyzing The 2007 UGA Recruiting Class: Linebacker

This is the fifth installment of a six-part series analyzing a Georgia recruiting class currently ranked No. 8 nationally by Rivals.com.

Georgia fans are concerned, because the SEC has an absurd six schools (1. Florida, 2. Tennessee, 5. LSU, 7. South Carolina, 8. Georgia, 9. Auburn) in the current Rivals.com national team recruiting rankings and a record eight of the top 17 classes (add No. 16 Alabama and No. 17 Ole Miss) in the entire country. No conference has ever dominated recruiting in one season to the extent the SEC has this year.

But the 23 players the Bulldogs are expecting to sign Wednesday will keep Georgia competitive for the foreseeable future and no one school will dominate a conference with this type of athletic talent.

This is why all remotely intelligent fan from any SEC school know we need a 16- or 24-team playoff in NCAA DI-A football. Otherwise the SEC will continue to be screwed out of opportunities to win national titles, even though the conference has easily won its last four appearances in the national championship game and would have had two other national championship squads in the last 11 years had there been a playoff system.

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to get that off my chest since the vast majority of national bloggers argued Michigan was more deserving of playing for the national title last year than Florida. One of whom - I kid you not - wrote that the Big 12 South was better than the SEC East. Idiots.

• Linebacker

Need: The Bulldogs signed four extremely athletic linebackers last year, redshirting three of them. However, Georgia was still hoping to sign 2-3 quality linebackers in this class, with the lure of early playing time a possibility since the Bulldogs graduated its entire starting linebacker corp from the Peach Bowl.

Committed: Rennie Curran (5-10, 220), Charles White (6-0, 210)

Analysis: They may appear small on paper, but Curran and White are strapping players, great fundamental tacklers and both possess tremendous linebacker instincts. These two are a perfect compliment to the four players signed last year.

Curran is a natural mike linebacker and White can play mike or the will linebacker spot, which has similar responsibilities to the mike in Willie Martinez's defense.

From last year's class, Darius Dewberry and Akeem Dent are both sam linebackers, and neither Akeem Hebron or Darryl Gamble are top-heavy enough for the mike spot, although Gamble was still evidently very impressive at that position on the scout team last fall.

In other words, this class of linebackers fits in well with last year's group, which is what you want in recruiting. Losing Allen Bailey was not a big loss, since he would have mistakenly stayed at linebacker at Georgia.

Truthfully, Curran and White would be better college linebackers than Bailey, although Bailey could end up a stud at Miami if he moves to defensive end and does not turn up on the police blotter like most small-town kids who make the mistake of choosing that criminal program in Coral Gables.

Grade: B+