CFB Ultimate Team Draft: Staples, Bellaire see talent at Georgia
Andy Staples and Cody Bellaire spent time recently doing their College Football “Ultimate Team Draft,” and in the process, solid scouting reports were provided on a few Georgia players. Mykel Williams, Malaki Starks, Tate Ratledge, Jared Wilson and Ben Yurosek were the five Bulldogs selected.
Keep in mind, both Andy and Cody are the coaches for their respective teams and had interesting ideas in mind about what kind of schemes they would run on both sides of the ball. It’s why a guy like Carson Beck didn’t get picked with the quarterback spots going instead to Avery Johnson (Kansas State) and Dillon Gabriel (Oregon). Regardless, the fun exercise gives a great look into a few of UGA’s top players from a national perspective. Here’s what they had to say about the Bulldogs picked…
Mykel Williams: “I see a lot of James Pearce No. 1, I see that, but I’ve seen this guy’s name floated around a couple of times too. This is one I’m extremely excited about because the way this defense operates, it allows a versatile defensive lineman to use every move in their arsenal. You can use every tool in the bag, however you want to phrase it – you could argue that the guy with the most tools in the bag is Mykel Williams out of Georgia.
“6-(foot)-5, 270 (pound), has quite literally lined up in every technique along the defensive front for Georgia throughout his career. He’s got tremendous physical and athletic tools for the position … He’s got such dominant hand usage. He can win with power, he can win with speed. He can kick inside and stuff the run. He can stand up and rush off the edge. Hell, he can even drop into coverage if you need him to. THere’s a reason he was the No. 1 defensive player in the country when he was coming out of high school.” – Cody Bellaire
Malaki Starks: “You went safety right off the bat, and I’m realizing, I do need to make sure I take this guy – since you have Caleb Downs, I need to take this guy so you don’t have both of these guys. That would be a complete failure on my part. You know exactly who I’m talking about: Georgia’s Malaki Starks.
“A lot of the things you said about Caleb Downs apply to Malaki Starks. This is a very versatile safety, ball hawk, great ball skills, just a defensive playmaker is the terminology you would use for him. We like his coverage skills. I don’t have a problem if he gets matched up against a tight end. I really feel like he gives me a lot of positional versatility here. Maybe not as much as Caleb Downs would, but it’s close and an NFL team would agree with me, if they can’t get Caleb Downs, they’re going to be really happy if they get Malaki Starks.” – Andy Staples
Tate Ratledge: “I’m going to go with the dude that I know can move people in the run game. He’s been doing it for years, and he’s also the best podcaster on this list. If you’ve never listened to Real Talk Podcast, what are you even doing? Tate Ratledge, Georgia guard … On the field, Tate Ratledge is just nails. He has been the most reliable offensive lineman Georgia’s had the last few years and he’s just going to bulldoze people in the run game.” – Staples
Jared Wilson: “For my center, I’m choosing a guy who has not yet started a game in college, but who also may also be a very high draft pick next year. He’s a fourth year college player. He’s been playing, he just hasn’t been starting. That’s Jared Wilson at Georgia who is replacing Sedrick Van Pran. Jared Wilson can out run DBs and he’s a center. He was behind a really good player. That’s the only reason he wasn’t starting, but he’s mature, he’s patient, he’s a freak athlete. The NFL people are already excited about him, and he has not started a game yet. I cannot wait to see what Jared Wilson does this season at Georgia.” – Staples
Ben Yurosek: “My last pick is another guy that I’m not sure is a household name. But if he does what his new team thinks he’s going to do, we’ll know him very quickly, that is Benjamin Yurosek, tight end from Georgia who transferred from Stanford. And essentially they said, who in college football has been the closest thing to Brock Bowers, and that is this guy.
He’s 6-(foot)-4, 240 (pounds), extremely fast. You’re happy to hand him the ball on an end around, but you also can move him around in the pass game. He was hurt a little bit last year. So you haven’t necessarily gotten to see him at full capacity. Also, he’s not been surrounded by the kind of talent he’ll be surrounded by at Georgia, but they’re very excited about what he can be. Look, nobody’s going to replace Brock Bowers, he was special. That person doesn’t come along very often. But in my offense where I know that tight end needs to be a mismatch nightmare, needs to be capable of moving around and this guy is a willing blocker as well.” – Staples
