When the college football regular season ends, you’d think things would slow down a bit, but in reality, one of the busiest times of the football calendar hits high gear once December rolls around. This time is best known as the coaching carousel.

Despite the fact there was not a single head coaching change in the SEC this offseason, 36 full-time positions across the league will be led by new faces for the 2019 season. (That number could still grow as we continue to see assistant coach movement with March looming.) Considering there are only 140 full-time assistant positions open in the SEC, the turnover means over a quarter of assistants will be in their first year serving as full-time coaches for their school in 2019.

Thanks to recent assistant movement (Ole Miss lost linebackers coach Jon Sumrall to Kentucky, Mississippi State lost linebackers coach Tem Lukabu to the NFL, Vanderbilt lost defensive line coach Nick Eason to the NFL and MSU hired away Vandy linebackers coach Chris Marve) around the league, only three openings exist around the SEC — Ole Miss and Vanderbilt has yet to hire replacements for their assistant coaches as of this posting.

No SEC program will return all 10 assistant coaches from 2018, but Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU and South Carolina each only had one position changeover. Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Missouri, and Texas A&M each had two. The SEC program with the most staff turnover? Alabama, which added seven new assistant coaches.

Now that we know nearly the entire set of finalized coaching staffs heading into spring practice, we’ve taken a closer look at the recruiting history of every assistant. If you were unaware, 247Sports lists the primary recruiter, and often times the secondary recruiter, for prospects who sign with major college programs. Those results are logged on each assistant coach’s 247Sports profile page.

Combing over that data resulted in the following information. Listed in the table below are the total number of prospects signed by each of the coaches set to serve on an SEC staff in 2019 — 2020 commitments are not listed because they aren’t official.

We’ve listed the prospects signed that rated as 5-, 4- or 3-stars coming out of high school or junior college but note that the “Total Signees” numbers listed below do include some 2-star prospects. Also note, this information does not match the talent signed by each of the 14 SEC programs listed below but the historical signings credited to the full-time assistants for each SEC coaching staff heading into spring practice of 2019.

Breakdown of prospects signed by each SEC staff

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While the table above lists complete assistant coaching staff figures, we thought it would be interesting to single out some of the best individual recruiters. The data reveals it’s hard to argue against Tee Martin being the SEC’s best individual recruiter when it comes to hauling in 5-star talent.

Longtime SEC veteran Rodney Garner isn’t far behind, and Georgia has a pair of elite up-and-coming recruiters in James Coley and Glenn Schumann. South Carolina, LSU, Alabama and Texas A&M also have at least one assistant among the SEC’s best recruiters of 5-star talent:

SEC’s best individual recruiters of 5-star talent

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Percentage of 5-star prospects signed per staff

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While many fans obsess over 5-star prospects, championship teams are often built by building a bounty of 4-star recruits together spanning several recruiting classes. Which SEC coaching staff is in the best position to build that type of roster moving forward?

Here is a table featuring the list of the best individual recruiters of 4-star recruits featuring every SEC assistant that has signed at least 15 prospects rated as 4-star recruits.

SEC’s best individual recruiters of 4-star talent

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Finally, the last table listed is the total percentage of 4-star prospects signed by each pool of assistant coaches in the SEC heading into the 2019 season. Again, these figures don’t necessarily match the talent for each school listed below, but they are a representation of the recruiting history of the assistants at each program. It’s worth noting that all the programs listed at the top are the SEC’s traditional powers — and Texas A&M, which appears to have everything required to join that club except a long history in the league.

Percentage of 4-star prospects signed per staff

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One note to make regarding 3-star prospects without listing out all those figures, the assistants from Kentucky (74.8%) and Missouri (72%) lead the league in the percentage of 3-star prospects signed. Considering both staffs have undergone few changes this offseason, and in recent offseasons for that matter, that’s a good indication that those figures match the talent on those rosters in recent seasons.

That’s not a slight. Both programs have experienced back-to-back bowl seasons while several other SEC programs have not matched that accomplishment. We may not have needed another sign that Mark Stoops and Barry Odom are doing a good job, but there it is in case you were on the fence.

We can’t completely overlook the importance head coaches play in recruiting. There’s no doubt they are the key figure in the vast majority of recruitments, but they have to surround themselves with assistants capable of leading the charge in individual recruitments. Head coaches can only make so many visits and are restricted by NCAA rules in terms of contact while assistants are out on the road every single opportunity permitted by the NCAA.

Each head coach may serve as the closer, but it’s his assistants who work the recruiting trail and lay the groundwork before their boss can even step foot in the door of a prospect’s home. Based on the data above, some fans should feel much more confident than others when it comes to the recruiting success they expect their school to have during the 2020 recruiting cycle.