Former Georgia WR Mohamed Massaquoi stopped by the “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Tuesday for an in-studio interview. The ex-Bulldog discussed a number of topics with host Paul Finebaum, including the Mark Richt years at Georgia and how those teams compare with the teams coached by Kirby Smart, who is entering his third season in Athens.
Massaquoi said he sees one big difference between the Richt era and the Smart era: depth. Massaquoi believes the reason Georgia will enter 2018 as a likely preseason top-five team can be traced back to the recruiting trail.
“I think we (Richt’s teams from 2005-08) weren’t as deep, if you look at what Georgia is doing right now in recruiting,” Massaquoi told Finebaum. “We may have had a splash recruit every class with Coach Richt. Now, the whole class is decorated 4- or 5-stars. I mean, you have a guy leave, like a [QB Matt] Stafford leave, a Knowshon [Moreno] leave, it’s really hard to replace that. But now, you have James Cook. You have the Zamir White kid. So when Michel and Chubb leave, you have these guys that can come in.”
Smart’s first three recruiting classes at UGA have ranked No. 6 or higher nationally, with the most recent class coming in at No. 1 overall. Both Cook and White were part of that top-rated class. Cook is rated 4-stars on the 247Sports Composite and ranked the No. 3 all-purpose back of the 2018 class. White, a 5-star recruit, was rated the No. 1 running back in the class.
More from Massaquoi’s segment, including his thoughts on who should have been drafted No. 1 overall, can be
heard here.
