Georgia zeroes in on home turf
News flash: Georgia football coaches are recruiting the state hard.
Continue reading the rest of "Georgia zeroes in on home turf" by Athens Banner-Herald
OK, so that's not exactly stop the presses-type stuff.
Georgia sent out an e-mail to media last week to drum home the point that, in the words of coach Mark Richt, the Bulldogs "are really pounding the state of Georgia" during the spring evaluation period.
"I heard that the first time I met with coach Richt," said Amarlo Herrera, a four-star middle linebacker from North Clayton High School in College Park, who gave the Bulldogs a verbal commitment in February. "He said that if we can get the best players in Georgia, we can win the national championship."
Georgia signed just four of Rivals.com's top 10 in-state prospects in February, missing on Calhoun receiver Da'Rick Rogers, who switched from Georgia to Tennessee just before signing day; Warner Robins defensive tackle Jeff Whitaker (Auburn); North Gwinnett offensive lineman Jawuan James (Tennessee) and Gainesville receiver Tai-ler Jones (Notre Dame).
Georgia's nation's longest streak of eight straight top 10-recruiting classes ended this year.
Tom Luginbill, national director of recruiting for ESPN's Scouts Inc., thinks Georgia may be trying to "reinvigorate the enthusiasm and excitement" about the Bulldogs in the state and within its own program.
"While Georgia has tremendous advantages within the state from an overall talent pool, they also have tremendous challenges," Luginbill said. "Not only within the SEC, but the ACC, as well, that state just gets raided from top to bottom. There's a ton of competition out there."
To combat that, Richt said that by the end of this week, Georgia assistants will have visited more than 350 schools in the state.
"Not only are we going to say that we're recruiting Georgia first, but we're actually going to physically recruit Georgia first," Richt said.
"Within the first two weeks, I wanted us to hit the state. Not to say we won't be a little bit here and there out of state, but the great majority of our recruiting, we pounded the state of Georgia on the front end. We don't want anybody to think that we're not serious about that."
New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said after he was hired in January that one of the big factors that attracted him to the job was being able to recruit talent-rich Georgia and bordering areas.
There were 15 players, including three first-round NFL draft picks, from Georgia high schools who were picked in the NFL draft last month, according to Maxpreps.com, but only Rennie Curran (third round) and Reshad Jones (fifth round) played for Georgia.
The Bulldogs haven't had a first-round pick who hailed from Georgia since since 2005 with Thomas Davis and David Pollack.
The Bulldogs' only first-rounders since were Texan Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, from New Jersey, in 2009. Their top rated
© 2009 http://onlineathens.com - Athens Banner-Herald - All rights reserved.
Comment on "Georgia zeroes in on home turf"
Atlanta Extra
