Kirby Smart’s on-field success is translating to the recruiting trail
By Corey Long
Published:
The Georgia Bulldogs are putting together some dominating wins, outscoring their first two SEC opponents 72-3. And as the Bulldogs continue to win on the field, head coach Kirby Smart and his staff continue to win on the recruiting trail and work toward their primary goal – closing off the state of Georgia to outsiders.
Georgia is pretty much the epicenter of recruiting in the SEC. It’s the feeder state for several of the conference’s programs. Tennessee and South Carolina have recruited the state heavily and with success. Auburn and Alabama have had even more success getting the top talent from Georgia. Even though Florida is a recruiting gold mine, the Gators have always tried to snag a few players from south Georgia around the Valdosta area.
One of Smart’s biggest goals when he took the Georgia job was to stop the cherry picking by his competitors. Scholarship limits meant Georgia wasn’t going to get every top prospect from the state, but Smart wanted to make sure he got the prospects HE wanted and let the others fight over the rest.
Smart took the job in early December 2015, giving him less than two months to build his first class. He had to spend overtime to convince Washington state prospect Jacob Eason to stick to his commitment, and that probably hampered efforts to get the work he wanted to get done with in-state prospects. That being said, Smart landed 5-star tight end Isaac Nauta, the No. 2-rated prospect in the state, and Mecole Hardman, a former No. 3-rated prospect in the state who is now starting at receiver. The 2016 class also had defensive tackle Julian Rochester and offensive lineman Ben Cleveland, both also on the Bulldogs’ two-deep.
But it was the 2017 class where Smart really served notice. Maceo Heard Jr., a longtime coach around the Atlanta area and host of The Crush Sports Talk radio show on the Sensation Station Network, keeps his ear to the ground when it comes to recruiting in Georgia. In his opinion, Smart changed the game when he got in-state quarterback Jake Fromm to commit to the Bulldogs despite Eason’s presence on the roster. Smart’s aggressiveness with Fromm’s recruitment was a far cry from what Heard and others came to know from his predecessor, Mark Richt.
“When he flipped Jake Fromm, it got everybody’s attention,” Heard said. “Unlike Richt, Kirby offered EVERY top kid in the state. He feels he has a shot with every recruit. Richt offered the top kids too late.”
Fromm’s recruitment has proven key to Georgia’s fast start since he took over when Eason went down with an injury in Week 1.
In the 2017 class, Smart signed four of the top six prospects in the Peach State. Fromm and offensive tackle Andrew Thomas are starters, while defensive backs Richard LeCounte III and Deangelo Gibbs are both in the team’s two-deep.
And Heard feels like it’s just the beginning. He describes the Bulldogs’ potential 2019 class as “epic.” And even though the Bulldogs are likely trialing Florida State for 5-star quarterback Justin Fields, a 2018 prospect, Heard said that Smart is “the only reason Fields is even considering the Bulldogs.”
Smart doesn’t just have to chase conference competitors away from Georgia, he also has to fight off top programs from other conferences, such as the 2016 champion Clemson. The primary reason the Tigers held the College Football Playoff trophy high was the play of Deshaun Watson, a 5-star prospect from Gainesville, Ga. – less than an hour from Athens. The recruitment and success of Watson still burns Bulldogs fans around the Peach State as they wonder how a noted offensive-minded coach like Richt could have let Watson get away.
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But Heard says that Smart is working hard to close down Dabo Swinney’s free reign in Georgia. Yes, the Tigers got a commitment from 5-star quarterback Trevor Lawrence, out of Cartersville, Ga., in their 2018 class, but Smart has kept Swinney’s hands off the top three in-state prospects in 2019, wide receivers Jadon Haselwood (Ellenwood) and Dominick Blaylock (Marietta) and defensive end Nolan Smith (Savannah) – all 5-star prosepcts and early commits.
“Coach Smart has already gotten the best of Coach Swinney on the top 2019 prospects,” Heard said. “Clemson has repeatedly won Georgia in recruiting. I see coach Smart putting an end to that.”
Corey Long is a freelance writer for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyLong.
