Should Georgia Tech fans be worried about low recruiting rankings?

National Signing Day came and went on Wednesday with very little fanfare for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Long-term fans of the program are (unfortunately) familiar with this under Paul Johnson, but things were fairly ugly from a “national ranking” perspective for the program.

Here’s a look at the final 2014 recruiting rankings for Tech:

• ESPN – 54th
• Scout – 47th
• Rivals – 48th

At first glance, this is a “yikes” scenario, especially when it’s easy to look across the state at UGA and envy their lofty marks. However, the 2014 class looks much better on paper when comparing it to the woeful 2013 performance.

• ESPN – 64th
• Scout – 72nd
• Rivals – 85th

It is slightly unfair to compare the two seasons on a player-to-player basis, simply because Paul Johnson signed only 14 players in 2013, but on the whole, things are looking up in Atlanta. The “jewel” of the 2014 class is Myles Autry, an “athlete” recruit from Norcross High School, and the Jackets were able to outlast Florida State for his services. Tech did have an “in” with Autry in that his brother is already on campus, but at 6-foot and 175 pounds, he is a potentially electric ball-carrier in the option system.

Aside from Autry, Tech was able to sign three more 4-star recruits (according to ESPN), and my favorite of the bunch is Terrell Lewis. Lewis is a 6-foot-2, 205-pound outside linebacker from Ocoee, Florida, and if he can put on some muscle/size, he could be an immediate impact player given his athletic ability and range.

As usual, the Jackets signed a lot of “system”-type players, and that is the single biggest knock on the Paul Johnson era from an outsider’s perspective. On one hand, recruiting rankings are largely irrelevant when you play a distinctly different system than 95% of the country (and everyone in BCS conferences), but on the other hand, the defense isn’t playing a “different” scheme, and GT was only able to wrangle one defensive player with at least a 4-star rating across all three of the major recruiting sites.

Only time will tell on this (or any) recruiting class, but it certainly looks as if Paul Johnson is still running “business as usual”, and it is certainly up to any individual’s perception as to whether that is a good thing or not.