As another class of coveted high school football performers are officially ushered in to become the Bulldog greats of tomorrow, many of the questions that have bounced around Georgia football message boards since the end of the 2009 campaign will begin to be answered.

BARRY EVERY

Have Mark Richt and company done enough through recruiting to shore up a Georgia defense that gave up an SEC East-high 26.4 points per game in 2009?

Will the Bulldogs’ new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham pick up the pieces he needs to field the kind of aggressive, ball-hawking 3-4 defense he has promised will be harassing opposing quarterbacks next season?

Did the Bulldogs successfully recruit players that can plug the holes on defense left by the departures of NFL Draft-bound juniors Rennie Curran and Reshad Jones and defensive linemen Jeff Owens, Kade Weston and Geno Atkins?

We asked two of the Southeast’s best informed recruiting analysts to tell us where the Bulldogs will stand after all is said and done on signing day.

Defense.

If played poorly, it will without a doubt lose you games.

Such was the lesson learned by Georgia football in the 2009 season and predictably, it is defense that has been the focal point for the Bulldogs’ army of recruiters over the last 12 months.

Going into signing day, however, questions abound about this 2010 class.

Barry Every — national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com — feels Georgia, simply put, “dropped the ball” this recruiting season.

Every previously worked under Mark Richt in the University of Georgia’s recruiting offices and was instrumental in bringing former Bulldog greats Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno to Athens.

“I don’t think they did fulfill their needs on the defensive side of the ball, especially if they don’t get both [Jeffrey] Whitaker and [Mike] Thornton,” Every said in a phone interview Monday.

Whitaker, a powerful, 295-pound defensive tackle out of Warner Robins, announced Monday afternoon that he will be playing his college ball at Auburn.

By Every’s estimation, the Bulldogs still have a decent shot of landing Thornton, a surprisingly athletic 280-pound defensive lineman from Stone Mountain’s Stephenson High School.

However, it’s anyone’s guess where Thornton will actually sign today, as he continues to weigh offers from Southern California, Miami, Georgia Tech and Auburn, among others.

A failure by the Bulldogs to pick up either of these big men could deal a major blow to new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s 3-4 scheme.

Crucial in any 3-4 system is a sizeable defensive lineman who can play the central noseguard position and is able to push opposing offensive lineman into the backfield to allow other defenders to pursue the quarterback.

Also vital to a 3-4 defense are linebackers, and four of them are needed on the field in Grantham’s scheme.

But entering signing day, the Bulldogs have just one linebacker recruit, Orange Park, Fla.’s Demetre Baker, verbally committed to Georgia’s 2010 class.

In Every’s opinion, the firing of former defensive coordinator Willie Martinez and most of the defensive staff that led the lengthy search for a replacement might explain the cool response the Bulldogs have received in courting defensive prospects.

“While they were trying to close this year, they limited it to ‘X’ number of players, and they didn’t really open the scope and go after other players or plan B’s,” Every said.

“Granted there was a lot of, I don’t know if you can call it controversy, but when they fired the defensive coaches they went several weeks without three defensive coaches. They still don’t have a linebacker coach so maybe that’s part of the reason they don’t have any linebackers.”

To Every, the Bulldogs also made the mistake of looking out-of state for recruits, when equally capable athletes are consistently right in Georgia’s backyard.

“The thing that gets me is they got a lot of kids from in-state, but they also went out-of-state and got kids that they could have gotten in-state,” Every said.

“Georgia produces over 140 Division-1 football players a year and they’ve got those kind of players in Georgia.”

The Bulldogs, by some accounts, seem to be limping towards the signing day finish line.

However, Chad Simmons, South regional recruiting manager for Fox Sports recruiting branch, Scout.com, said Georgia’s 2010 recruiting class should fill out nicely by this afternoon. But it will be key for the Bulldogs to be able to ink a big defensive lineman to anchor their 3-4 defensive front such as Whitaker or Thorton.

“I think they’ve done pretty well so far. I think getting either [Jeffrey Whitaker or Mike Thornton] is a key for this class obviously for depth reasons and because they’re going to a new 3-4 scheme,” Simmons said.

Simmons also pointed to commits such as Jakar “The Hitman” Hamilton and verbal commit Alec Ogletree, a hard-hitting defensive back out of Newnan, as bright spots of the 2010 Bulldog class.

“I think overall they’ve done a good job. They’ve got a very good secondary group headlined by Jakar Hamilton … and obviously Alec Ogletree, arguably the top player or at least one of the top two players in the state of Georgia and a five-star [recruit] for us on Scout.com,” said Simmons. “They’ve needed defense, and this class is very defensive heavy.”

Even though the Bulldogs are poised to add some talented defensive players, Simmons said there may be reason for angst amongst the Georgia faithful, especially concerning prized recruit Da’Rick Rogers.

The speedy wideout out of Calhoun, Ga., seemed to be a solid verbal commitment for the Bulldogs just a few weeks ago.

However, in the past two weeks, newly named Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley and his recruiting cohorts seem to have climbed their way back into the Da’Rick Rogers sweepstakes.

As late as Monday evening, Rogers’ profile picture on his Facebook page was a photograph of Rogers sporting a faux-hawk and planting a kiss on the Volunteers 1998 National Championship trophy.

Several blogs were already claiming last night  that Rogers called Coach Richt late Monday or early Tuesday to inform him that he plans to sign with the Volunteers.

“He’s cut off all communications, so nobody’s going to know anything,” Simmons said. “I don’t even think the Georgia coaching staff will know until Wednesday morning. I don’t think Tennessee will know until Wednesday morning so if they don’t know, we’re definitely not going to know.”