Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This entry takes a precise look at the player participation in Athens for the 2021 Georgia football team. Which Bulldogs are in line for a redshirt?

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Redshirts. They used to be a very big thing in college football.

There have been a few rule changes like the 4-game maximum and the bonus year for Covid-19 that render most to toss the previous eligibility clock right out the sliding back glass window of the truck.

Or at least recognize the matter is significantly complicated these days.

Redshirt freshman. Sophomore. Redshirt sophomore. Junior. Redshirt junior. Those terms don’t really mean what they used to anymore.

It is probably now easier to gauge freshmen and sophomores not by what the team roster says about class standing, but by the potential max years of eligibility remaining.

That is if they do not portal before they get to the end of their maximum eligibility.

The 2020 signing class at UGA still began this year with a maximum of four remaining seasons of eligibility left to play. It didn’t matter how many games they played in during their first fall on campus.

The classes of 2017, 2018 and 2019 are also better sorted by the number of years they have in which they could potentially play. Especially given that “Super Senior” designation which existed this year for players like Justin Shaffer, Julian Rochester and Devonte Wyatt. Those guys all signed to play for Kirby Smart’s program back in 2017.

The “Super Senior” years will still exist for 2017 signees like Latavious Brini, Robert Beal Jr., Stetson Bennett IV and Amer Speed in 2022. That’s because they can also apply both a redshirt year and the COVID-19 year to their eligibility status.

The 2021 signees won’t be that complicated to track. They will still have that five years to play four seasons staple to apply to their careers.

Do you know which players from the 2021, 2020 and 2019 classes can take a redshirt for this fall? Do you know which true freshmen played in every game? Or what about the Bulldogs which landed somewhere in the middle?

This week seems like a good week to examine all of those topics.

Georgia will still see a few 5-stars and several All-Americans that will be able to use a redshirt for the 2021 season.

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Brock Vandagriff is a freshman quarterback for the Georgia football team. He will be eligible to apply for a redshirt for the 2021 season after appearing in just two games. (Jeff Sentell) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

2021 Georgia football signing class: Redshirt Report

The 2021 class saw a lot of participation on the field this fall.

Georgia held the ranking of the nation’s No. 1 team for the majority of the season. That said, the Bulldogs still saw nine of their 20 scholarship signees play in at least eight games as true freshmen.

It bodes well for the future. That’s quite a statement on the number of players the Bulldogs found in the last signing cycle. That’s not including some of their most talented overall freshmen like Xavian Sorey Jr. and Brock Vandagriff.

There’s not just that to digest, but to also point out that the Bulldogs found a couple of gems in true freshman Brock Bowers and Jamon Dumas-Johnson. Those two guys already project to having clear ALL-SEC and All-American potential.

Bowers is already there. Dumas-Johnson shows all the signs of that same level of impact in just his first season in Athens.

The current participation report among the 2021 signees looks like this:

ILB Jamon Dumas-Johnson has been one of the most impressive true freshmen Bulldogs to take the field this season. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

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2020 Georgia football signing class: Redshirt Report

The Georgia football signees from this class are in an interesting position.

They have the COVID-19 bonus year added to their eligibility clock from last season. Consider that a free year whether or not they played a bunch at all.

There is also the chance to take the traditional redshirt this year as well. The traditional NCAA eligibility clock of five years to play four seasons morphs into something like six years to play five seasons.

Consider the tough case of former All-American OL Tate Ratledge. Ratledge was one of Georgia’s most impressive OLs coming out of fall camp. He earned his first career start against Clemson but was lost for the season on the third play of that game.

He will return next fall with a robust four full years of eligibility remaining. We won’t even get into the thought he could even apply for a medical redshirt for the 2021 season. Ratledge still looks like the type of player that will not need to be at UGA four years from now before the NFL comes calling.

Georgia is getting a lot of run from its 2020 signing class. There are only a handful of signees that still have a chance at a redshirt for the 2021 season. There are only a handful of Bulldogs here, barring an injury, that did not play in at least five games this season.

This class has also already experienced some attrition. Daran Branch and Major Burns, two DB signees from Louisiana, both transferred out prior to this season.

The only other 2020 signee who did not play in a game for the Bulldogs this fall would be former 3-star OL recruit Cameron Kinnie.

The current participation report among the 2020 signees looks like this:

Tate Ratledge earned his first career start against Clemson in the Duke's Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC. (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

2019 Georgia football signing class: Redshirt Report

It must be stated the redshirt issue is not the priority with this group. The players from this class have already spent the bulk of two spring practices, two fall camps and two full seasons in Athens, if not more than that.

If a player is due for a redshirt from this class, then something has not gone quite right during their time as a Bulldog. They should be moving into contributor status, at a minimum.

According to the participation report for the season on Georgiadogs.com, the case of former 5-star center Clay Webb stands out.

Webb was an All-American who bypassed that event in order to show up in Athens in December of 2018 and go through bowl practices. He was an accomplished state champion wrestler in high school and played in two games in 2019 and another three games in 2020. He was even named the co-winner of the Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year honor after his first season at UGA.

He has not seen any action this season.

This is a class that has felt the true oomph of the transfer portal. Junior college signee DJ Daniel left for the NFL Draft but was not selected. Jermaine Johnson, another JUCO signee, transferred to FSU to get a clear starting job and looks like a second-round NFL Draft pick. He could go even higher than that.

QB D’Wan Mathis, CB Tyrique Stevenson and WR Makiya Tongue all portal-ed out to Temple, Miami and Oregon State, respectively.

Dominick Blaylock and George Pickens, a pair of explosive NFL talents at the WR position, have been limited this year due to injury. What would the Georgia offense have looked like this fall if both of those guys had been healthy? That will always be the what-if for the 2021 season with those two impact playmakers.

The current participation report among the 2019 signees looks like this:

13 games

12 games

6 games

5 games

------ CURRENT REDSHIRT LINE ---- (4 games or fewer)

UGA receiver George Pickens catches a 37-yard pass from Stetson Bennett in the SEC Championship Game. What is there was a whole season full of plays like this from Pickens in 2021? (Hyosub Shin/AJC)Hy (Hyosub Shin/Dawgnation)

Georgia football: What about the 2018 signing class?

The 2018 signing class was the first breakthrough for Georgia.

It was the first No. 1 class and at the time established an industry record with seven signees that held the coveted 5-star ranking.

The overview of that class is such a fascinating discussion that it will be the subject of its own individual story post on DawgNation.com.

There is quite a lot to cover on that one, including an appropriate reranking of how all those signees panned out during their time in Athens.

SENTELL'S INTEL

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