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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00:00 During the process of SI All-American
00:03 establishing its first list of potential All-Americans
00:06 in the class of 2021, we stumbled upon some interesting
00:09 trends.
00:10 For more, we bring in former NFL and collegiate coach Jim
00:14 Mora.
00:14 Jim, obviously this class of 2021
00:17 is set apart by itself because of COVID
00:20 and so many other circumstances.
00:22 But within that, we're starting to find some trends
00:24 with this rising senior group, mainly the volume.
00:28 Over 800 already committed.
00:31 How tied in do you think that is to COVID
00:33 and maybe kids feeling like they need to claim
00:35 a spot on a certain roster?
00:38 I think if you look at years past,
00:41 we're seeing a trend towards more early commits.
00:44 Now, this is an awfully large number.
00:46 And I'm sure it is influenced to a large degree by the fact
00:49 that there is so much uncertainty going
00:51 into a senior year.
00:54 It'll be interesting to see as we go through the fall what
00:57 happens, first of all, with high school football,
00:59 but what happens with these commits.
01:00 How many of them stick or how many of them
01:03 decommit and keep looking around and maybe
01:06 end up committing elsewhere?
01:09 Yeah, certainly a lot of elements
01:10 leads you to think that they could make some change of heart
01:14 decisions there.
01:15 But hey, one of the things that we normally
01:17 see as a catalyst for something like that
01:19 is the on-campus visit, something that obviously has
01:21 not happened since early March.
01:24 So we'll see if that happens during the regular season
01:26 should there be a regular season in 2020.
01:30 Another big trend, Jim, is the state of Georgia.
01:33 I think over the last few years, everyone
01:35 has recognized how elite it is.
01:37 But at this point in our calculation,
01:39 more SI All-American candidates in Georgia
01:42 than the state of California.
01:44 Typically, the big three is California, Texas,
01:46 and of course, Florida.
01:48 So now Georgia is in that conversation,
01:50 at least for this class.
01:52 Is this a trend?
01:53 Is this something you see having staying power?
01:55 And why is the state of Georgia all of a sudden
01:58 producing more talent?
01:59 I think it does have staying power, John.
02:01 I think that Georgia is a great football state.
02:04 I think it always has been.
02:06 And now I think that there's more really good players being
02:10 recognized as to coming out of the state of Georgia.
02:13 I see on the West Coast at some level
02:17 maybe a little bit of falling off in great interest
02:21 in playing football.
02:22 I don't know that it's as important as it is down South.
02:27 On the West Coast, there seems to be so many options
02:29 for young men, where in the South,
02:31 football is like a religion.
02:33 So it doesn't surprise me that Georgia's entered the picture.
02:38 It won't surprise me if some of the other Southern states
02:41 start to really, really make a defined impact as well.
02:47 As we all know that have been in coaching,
02:48 that have been in recruiting, there
02:51 are some great players all across this country.
02:54 But when you go down South, John,
02:57 you find a different type of mindset
03:01 than maybe you do in any other part of the country.
03:04 And it's a mindset of toughness and determination.
03:07 It's a mindset of grit, of trying
03:12 to achieve something special in the football field,
03:15 and really a rare, rare toughness in my opinion.
03:19 Yeah, other states in the South, North Carolina, Alabama
03:22 also heavily involved in the top 10.
03:23 And then the DMV, DC, Maryland, Virginia,
03:26 another one that is seemingly on the rise
03:29 over the last few years.
03:30 For all the latest SI All-American candidates,
03:33 check out siallamerican.com.
03:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]