At some point the 2022 class deserves a retrospective. It’s kind of weird - the OL haul played a major role in our return to prominence, but the rest of the class busted pretty hard and has left us young and inexperienced.
The only non-OL/ST that contributed as juniors or remain on the roster for their senior years are Jaydon Blue, Jaylon Guilbeau, and Ethan Burke. Hitting on 3 of 19 non-OL/ST is pretty poor. A lot of coaches wouldn’t have been able to survive such a high bust rate in their first class.
Just a weird class with a lot of interesting dynamics. Sark’s first full class, last class before the full SEC and NIL effects, highly ranked but immediately followed by a class that could go down as an all-time great, etc.
Something more relevant to current transfer discussions is high school WR recruiting under Sark. It’s probably the second worst position haul in his tenure. I think it’s fair to say it’s disappointed compared to initial expectations given the reputation of Sark’s offense and the accolades his WRs have won.
2021 (transition): Xavier Worthy, Jaden Alexis, Keithron Lee, Casey Cain
2022: Brenen Thompson, Savion Red
2023: Johntay Cook, Ryan Niblett, DeAndre Moore
2024: Ryan Wingo, Aaron Butler, Freddie Dubose, Parker Livingstone
2025: Kaliq Lockett, Jaime Ffrench, Michael Terry III, Daylan McCutcheon
The ‘21 class can be entirely excused imo. The only guy that was really his was an all-time great for us. ‘22 was horrific. Only 1 of the 3 in ‘23 is still playing the position for us. ‘24 looks like it could be really good, with one guy looking primed for a huge year and Ryan Wingo looking good too. Early returns on the ‘25 class seem better than the ‘21 - ‘23 classes, at least.
There are some mitigating factors, of course. WR coaching issues the first two years, NIL allocation decisions across positions, the portal, etc. These just aren’t the results we were expecting when we hired Sark.