Georgia Football Recruiting: Expanding the Map and Stockpiling Elite Talent
The hysteria, paranoia, and overreaction by fan bases of SEC football programs are both extreme and real. Fans often seem to look to the negatives and want to magnify them until the issue is brought to the forefront and addressed.
One of the latest pet peeves for the community surrounding the Georgia Bulldogs is that they aren't doing "very well" recruiting in-state anymore. The internet is filled with Dawg die-hards lamenting local talent crossing state lines to play their college ball.
But there's no need to worry, this is a different era. This era, the Smart Era, is about choosing, not losing.
In the 2018 class, Georgia found a lot of its answers inside the top 28 ranked players in the state. In fact, that class ended up with Georgia landing 5 of the top 6 recruits inside their own border including the saga that was - and still is for a lot of Dawg faithful - Justin Fields.
That just so happened to be a circumstance were positions of need aligned with talented young men who just so happened to live and play inside the borders of the Peach State. Nobody can complain about the haul of local talent there.
The staff saw it was there and they went and got it by pitching the University of Georgia.
WR, George Pickens was the #1 WR in Alabama.
In 2019, Georgia signed 5 of the top 27 in-state prospects. It's true that the Dawgs were unable to bring in the first and fourth-ranked players in Jaden Haselwood (WR) and Owen Pappoe (OLB/DE) respectively. However, it is also true that they countered with signing the number one receiver in the state of Alabama in George Pickens and the number one ranked player in the nation, regardless of position, in Nolan Smith (OLB/DE) who’s originally from Savannah.
Add Nakobe Dean, the number one player in the state of Mississippi, and the topped ranked offensive lineman in Alabama in the form of Clay Webb and its easy to see that Georgia recruiting is changing. It's no longer a question of who's the best in-state talent, it's now a matter of who is the best player available. Period.
HC, Kirby Smart
The 2020 class has only seen three out of the top 30 ranked Georgians put ink to paper so far. However, depending on the decision of Broderick Jones, that number could shoot up to four with the fourth being a mighty big deal.
While the overall number of players from Georgia is lower, the quality is certainly there in spades when it comes to Tate Ratledge, Nazir Stackhouse, and Justin Robinson. Also, this does not technically include Jermaine Burton, but he is out of California by way of Georgia.
It just so happens that Georgia High School Football is also one of the deepest, most richly talented resource pools in the country. Everybody recruits in Georgia! The max allotment of scholarships for a program each year is 25. I'd say years like 2018 are far more likely to be the exception rather than the norm.
As Kirby Smart continues to build a national brand, it helps the Dawgs' student-athletes build their own brands and those roster spots are going to be all the more coveted.
Georgia has been relevant in the national championship landscape all the way up until Championship Saturday for three straight seasons now. That is a ton of free media exposure and it has allowed Georgia to go out in this recruiting class of 2020 and get four out of the top 32 players in the state of Florida.
The exposure has allowed the Dawgs to go get blue-chip prospects like Mekhail Sherman and Kendall Milton who are out of Washington, D.C. and Clovis, California respectively.
Finally, that exposure allows Georgia to be in on, and the odds on favorites for, 5-star prospects such as Kelee Ringo (Scottsdale, AZ), Darnell Washington (Las Vegas, NV) and Zachary Evans (Houston, TX).
While there are no guarantees in recruiting, based on our sources, Bulldog Maven would be shocked if Zachary Evans does not announce he is a Bulldog at the Under Armour All-American Game on January 2nd. We also feel quite comfortable about Georgia's positioning with both Ringo and Washington.
Both alluded to the fact their letters of intent were signed on social media and their announcements will come at their All-American games as well.
Just go examine the current roster to see how far-reaching the talent grabs have been. D'Andre Swift is from Philadelphia. Isaiah Wilson is from Brooklyn. Divaad Wilson and Tyrique Stevenson both brought their talents up from South Beach and Cade Mays is straight out of the shadow of Neyland Stadium in Knoxville for goodness sake!
Georgia recruits more nationally now because it can.
The game, meaning the game on the field and the recruiting game, is evolving in Athens. Identifying talents across the country earlier and easier is possible due to improved technology and social media. Lastly, college football programs everywhere, and especially in Athens, have more resources and more desire to win now more than ever before.
Recruiting is a dog-eat-dog world, and the Dawgs are finding ways to stay at the top regardless of where on the map they have to go to do it.
