Georgia football: time running out on three former blue-chips

Georgia football signed the no. 3 recruiting class in 2017. But some of those great players are yet to see the field, while the Bulldogs continued signing blue-chip talent at their positions.

Kirby Smart’s first recruiting class at Georgia football was a big one. The 2017 class featured many star players such as Jake Fromm, Isaiah Wilson, D’Andre Swift, Andrew Thomas, Richard LeCounte and J.J. Holloman. But that class also featured a bevy of other highly-touted players who are yet to have their breakout year between the hedges. We’ll give a pass to the ones who took a redshirt season, but time is running out on these three juniors to make their marks in Athens.

Jaden Hunter

Jaden Hunter was the best outside linebacker in Georgia’s 2017 class. He committed a little over a year before the 2017 National Signing Day and stayed loyal to the Dawgs to the very end. 247Sports Composite ranked him the no. 137 player in the nation and no. 9 OLB. But he’s yet to make an impact for the Bulldogs.

The son of Georgia legend Brice Hunter has only appeared in four games in his two seasons, so the coaches could redshirt him for 2018 and make him a redshirt sophomore for 2019. But you don’t see that very often.

In practice, he’s been seen playing inside linebacker and that position is stacked right now. Hunter has a tall hill to climb before he can receive meaningful playing time, but if he can begin to live up to his high school ratings and evaluations this year, he can be a true star player for the Dawgs.

Nate McBride

Nate McBride, the best inside linebacker of Georgia’s 2017 class, has appeared in all 29 games Georgia has played since he arrived. But his appearances have mostly been on special teams. He developed a great reputation in 2017 on kickoff coverage as the guy who always seemed to be near the ball. But thanks to the NCAA’s new fair catch on kickoff rules, Georgia kicked a lot more touchbacks in 2018 and that meant a lot less chances for anyone to shine on kickoff coverage.

Now it’s time for McBride to move on from being a special teams guy and earn himself some playing time at ILB behind Monty Rice and Tae Crowder. With how Georgia substitutes, he should get on the field a ton in 2019 if he can stay on the second team.

William Poole III

In two seasons at Georgia, William Poole has played in 13 games. Including eight this past season. He even started the Middle Tennessee State game. But most of his bigger moments last season were in the earlier months. But at least he has the start going for him. Increased depth in the defensive backfield should be a focus this offseason, so Poole will have numerous chances to get on the field and make an impact.