John Garcia and Jim Mora break downtrends in the college football recruiting class of 2021 as SI All-American candidates are unveiled.
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00:00During the process of SI All-American
00:03establishing its first list of potential All-Americans
00:06in the class of 2021, we stumbled upon some interesting
00:09trends.
00:10For more, we bring in former NFL and collegiate coach Jim
00:14Mora.
00:14Jim, obviously this class of 2021
00:17is set apart by itself because of COVID
00:20and so many other circumstances.
00:22But within that, we're starting to find some trends
00:24with this rising senior group, mainly the volume.
00:28Over 800 already committed.
00:31How tied in do you think that is to COVID
00:33and maybe kids feeling like they need to claim
00:35a spot on a certain roster?
00:38I think if you look at years past,
00:41we're seeing a trend towards more early commits.
00:44Now, this is an awfully large number,
00:46and I'm sure it is influenced to a large degree by the fact
00:49that there is so much uncertainty going
00:51into a senior year.
00:54It'll be interesting to see as we go through the fall what
00:57happens, first of all, with high school football,
00:59but what happens with these commits.
01:00How many of them stick or how many of them
01:03decommit and keep looking around and maybe
01:06end up committing elsewhere?
01:09Yes, certainly a lot of elements lead
01:11you to think that they could make some change of heart
01:14decisions there.
01:15But hey, one of the things that we normally
01:17see as a catalyst for something like that
01:19is the on-campus visit, something that obviously
01:21has not happened since early March.
01:24So we'll see if that happens during the regular season
01:26or should there be a regular season in 2020.
01:30Another big trend, Jim, is the state of Georgia.
01:33I think over the last few years, everyone
01:35has recognized how elite it is.
01:37But at this point in our calculation,
01:39more SI All-American candidates in Georgia
01:42than the state of California.
01:44Typically, the big three is California, Texas,
01:46and of course, Florida.
01:48So now Georgia is in that conversation,
01:50at least for this class.
01:52Is this a trend?
01:53Is this something you see having staying power?
01:55And why is the state of Georgia all of a sudden
01:58producing more talent?
01:59I think it does have staying power, John.
02:01I think that Georgia is a great football state.
02:04I think it always has been.
02:06And now I think that there's more really good players being
02:10recognized as to coming out of the state of Georgia.
02:13I see on the West Coast at some level
02:17maybe a little bit of falling off in great interest
02:21in playing football.
02:22I don't know that it's as important as it is down South.
02:27On the West Coast, there seems to be so many options
02:29for young men, where in the South,
02:31football is like a religion.
02:33So it doesn't surprise me that Georgia's entered the picture.
02:38It won't surprise me if some of the other Southern states
02:41start to really, really make a defined impact as well.
02:47As we all know that have been in coaching,
02:48that have been in recruiting, there
02:51are some great players all across this country.
02:54But when you go down South, John,
02:57you find a different type of mindset
03:01than maybe you do in any other part of the country.
03:04And it's a mindset of toughness and determination.
03:07It's a mindset of grit, of trying
03:12to achieve something special in the football field,
03:15and really a rare, rare toughness in my opinion.
03:19Yeah, other states in the South, North Carolina, Alabama
03:22also heavily involved in the top 10.
03:23And then the DMV, DC, Maryland, Virginia,
03:26another one that is seemingly on the rise
03:29over the last few years.
03:30For all the latest SI All-American candidates,
03:33check out siallamerican.com.