Georgia Flips Former Ole Miss Commit, Daran Branch

Daran Branch committed to Ole Miss back in November of 2019, today he has de-committed from Ole Miss and has signed his LOI to play for Georgia.

Kirby Smart has been known for flipping current commits from other schools since his arrival in Athens as the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs. In 2017 it was Jake Fromm and Monty Rice. 2018 it was Otis Reese and Quay Walker. And last year in the 2019 recruiting cycle he managed to pull George Pickens away from Auburn and D'wan Mathis away from Ohio State. 

This year, Coach Smart flipped Jermaine Burton from LSU. The nation's 15th ranked WR was committed to the Tigers for eight months before de-committing just days after a late visit to Athens

Today, Kirby Smart and his staff continued their annual tradition of multiple flips with Daran Branch, the defensive back out of Louisiana. 

Branch committed to Ole Miss in November of 2019 under the presumption that Matt Luke was going to be his head football coach. However, just two weeks after Branch committed, Luke was fired and eventually replaced by Lane Kiffin. 

It didn't take long for Matt Luke to settle into his role at Georgia and seemingly talk Smart into offering and pursuing Branch hard. On December 26th, just two weeks after Matt Luke was brought on at Georgia, Branch received an offer from UGA. 

Branch was in town on January 24th along with several Georgia top recruits in the 2020 cycle such as Broderick Jones, Sedrick Van Pran, Tate Ratledge and several others. 

Branch seemed to enjoy his visit to Athens, and with the current starting defensive backs entering the upperclassmen stages Georgia will need more depth at the defensive back position very soon. Despite Ringo and Kimber already being in the class, Branch is a welcomed addition. 

Here's a look at Daran Branch's highlight tape: 

As you can see, Branch is a long and fluid athlete that has shown the ability to play multiple positions in the back end of the defense and has proven to be a weapon once the ball is in his hands. One can rightfully assume that Matt Luke played a large roll in the flip of Branch. 

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