We may very well look back on the 2015 recruiting cycle as the cycle where the state Georgia moved into the pole position as far as talent-producing states for Southeastern Conference football programs.

A few hard-data bullet points here…

  • There were 66 Peach State prospects to sign with SEC schools — more than any other state by a double-digit margin (51 from Florida).
  • Every program but two (Texas A&M and Mississippi State) signed at least one prospect from the state. The Aggies have their own huge talent base in the state of Texas and the Bulldogs have had success recruiting Georgia in the past — 2015 was an outlier for them as it relates to Georgia recruiting.
  • Auburn (11) and South Carolina (10) both had double-digit recruiting hauls from the Peach State while Tennessee was close with eight. In-state UGA, which annually signs the majority of its classes from Georgia, had 16.

When you look at the numbers, it’s clear that while the SEC’s geographic recruiting footprint contains multiple top talent-producers (Texas and Florida are two of the top three nationally), the state of Georgia is its “primary breadbasket” when it comes to attracting top football talent.

This has been building for a while. As early as the 2006 recruiting cycle, I can remember having conversations with fellow recruiting analysts about the rise of the Peach State, and Atlanta in particular. It wasn’t as if the state of Georgia wasn’t getting recruiting back then, quite the contrary, it just wasn’t perceived as being on the level of a Florida, Texas or California as far as the numbers.

There are two primary factors that have facilitated this rise.

1. There is great high school football in Georgia

Let’s be clear that there are some places in the country where there are not great high school programs, but they still produce top talent.

But when you have great coaches, great facilities and great school systems and communities that support high school football across the board, there is a great opportunity for a prospect to develop and catch the attention of college coaching staffs.

Georgia, particularly in parts of Atlanta and in communities in the southern part of the state, rivals the state of Texas in terms of the level of high school football and that generates a greater number of prospects.

2. Atlanta

It’s easy to fly into Atlanta and for most of the programs around the SEC, it’s easy to drive into Atlanta.

Fans don’t realize the logistics of recruiting at times and that coaches are limited in terms of the time they can spend on the road, going to high schools, etc. It takes a tremendous amount of coordination to make this happen. Because of the easy access to Atlanta and the vast amount of prospects within the metro area, college coaches can see more prospects in half the time. That’s why not only the SEC, but nearly every program in the country (including some Pac-12 programs) at least spot recruit Atlanta on an annual basis.

It’s also true that given the Atlanta media and the intense coverage of recruiting and high school sports within the state that there is a greater knowledge, earlier, of prospects in the Peach State. There are sleepers everywhere for sure, but the ones that come out of Georgia typically are “senior riser” types who were known and then the film tells a different story during their final year on the gridiron.

It’s not like Florida where you can find a guy that can play tucked away with no offers at a small school or like in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina or Louisiana where players just come out of nowhere. That rarely happens in the Peach State. Players in the state of Georgia are known and, as was mentioned before, time is of the essence. The more college recruiters know going in, the more apt they are to show serious interest and evaluate a prospect.

It’s not anticipated that this “Georgia trend” is going to end any time soon. Of the top 20 Georgia prospects in the 2016 cycle who are currently committed, 14 are pledged to SEC programs.