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Georgia soccer winners and losers after the 2021 Early Signing Period
Winner: Kirby Smart is recruiting the state of Georgia
The goal of recruiting shouldn’t be to find the best players who are near your school. It should be to get the best players wherever they are in the country.
So it never made much sense to hire Kirby Smart and how he recruited the state of Georgia over the last two recruitment cycles. Sure, Georgia has seen its fair share of talent leave the state. But it has also been inducted into recruiting classes # 2 and # 1 in the last two cycles.
That trend was reversed in the 2021 cycle when Georgia missed some of its extra-state goals – Maason Smith and Donovan Edwards both chose to play for schools in their home state instead of the Bulldogs – but cleaned up the state.
The Bulldogs have signed seven of the eleven best players from the state of Georgia. And if you remove Miami quarterback Jake Garcia, who doesn’t even come here after being transferred to the state from California to play his senior season, the Bulldogs have signed seven of the top 10.
Connected: Kirby Smart ‘excited’ about Brock Vandagriff, the future of the Georgia quarterback position
The 2021 recruiting class also marked the first time Georgia signed the best prospect in the state since taking over Kirby Smart. Offensive Tackle Amarius Mims received this award this year as he is ranked number 7 overall in the country. This narrative is definitely dead.
When asked how this came about, Smart made it clear that the geography or proximity to Georgia had little to do with the heavy class of Bulldogs.
“I want the best soccer players. I want high profile people who are interested in the team and love UGA. If that’s a kid 15 minutes or 15 hours away, I feel very comfortable with it. “
Smart added that while Georgia was hurt by the lack of out-of-state visits, it also prevented many children in the state from attending schools outside of Georgia.
The Bulldogs have signed another top 3 recruitment class. Last year most of these children came from outside the state. This year, more of them were from the state of Georgia.
The reality is that Smart and his coaching staff are able to attract the best players in the country no matter where they come from.
Loser: Georgia’s 2021 cornerback depth
In Georgia there was only one waiver of the commitment on Wednesday. It didn’t come from a top perspective, but it happened in a critical position of need.
De’Jahn Warren, the nation’s best JUCO cornerback and a 4-star prospect, moved from Georgia to Jackson State.
You’re probably scratching your head as to why a defensive back would leave Georgia for a school that doesn’t even play at the FBS level. It is worth remembering here that Deion Sanders is now the head coach in the state of Jackson. The Hall of Famer defender clearly has a strong pull with fellow defenders.
Georgia signed two more prospects who are expected to be in college cornerbacks when the Bulldogs landed 4-star Nyland Green and 4-star Kamari Lassiter. Both prospects are valued higher than Warren, but with Warren from the JUCO ranks he was more ready for the college game.
Connected: Georgia’s No. 3 rank in 2021 meets needs, more work and attrition
The Bulldogs may now need Green and / or Lassiter to play early, depending on what Eric Stokes and Tyson Campbell are up to. With both picking a pro, a very real possibility, Georgia will have some big questions at the cornerback position for the first time in a while.
It’s worth noting that Smart is one of the best defensive coaches in the country. And Georgia has options that it can go to in the Doomsday scenario, like taking Tyrique Stevenson to one of those places. There are also talented 2020 signatories in Kelee Ringo and Jalen Kimber eager to make a difference.
But on a day of little drama, Warren stands out for Georgia.
Winner: Matt Luke
After Georgia signed seven offensive linemen in the 2020 recruitment cycle, Georgia didn’t have to bring in a massive amount of offensive linemen.
But offensive coach Matt Luke made those limited spots count. In his first year in Georgia, Luke signed a total of four offensive linemen. Three of them ranked in the top 100 prospects, with Mims coming in 7th, Micah Morris in 63rd and Dylan Fairchild in 97th. All three of these offensive linemen are also from the state of Georgia.
“I am very happy about this group. You are athletic. They are a great size. They’re really smart, good kids, ”said Smart. “All of these people, I cannot say enough about each of them. Matt Luke looks forward to winning these guys and coaching them. “
The fourth recruit is the 3-star prospect Jared Wilson, who should not be forgotten either. He was good enough to play for Sam Pittman when he first signed up for the program while today’s Arkansas head coach was still in Georgia.
“Jared Wilson was one of the guys we aimed for early on – height, width, hand size, athleticism – a really good target and working really hard,” said Smart. “He comes from a really sporty family. He’s a great kid. “
In the 247Sports Recruiter rankings, Georgia’s top-ranked assistant coach was none other than Luke. With two strong classes in a row, Luke will have a hard time following this in the 2022 recruitment cycle. But it should be fun to see him try to top the list.
Losers: non-elite teams
From a recruiting perspective, there are five elite teams: Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, and Clemson. Maybe you can throw Oklahoma in, too, though its success has largely been limited to recruits on the offensive side of the ball.
But the first five teams named have dominated college football, and it almost always starts with recruiting. These five teams have been responsible for all but one playoff win since the College Football Playoffs began in 2014.
And all these teams have even more distance to themselves and the very good teams like Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame and USC.
Of the top 100 recruits in the county, 47 attended these first five schools. Alabama had 13 and Ohio State is just behind at 12. The Bulldogs and LSU both had eight, while Clemson came into play at six.
That means the rest of the country has 53 of those top 100 prospects.
The gap between the elite and the rest of college football is widening. We see this on the field as Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State are routinely featured in the playoff picture. Georgia usually lurks around too. Notre Dame has figured out how to make things interesting as they have signed four top 100 recruits this cycle and appear ready to play the college football playoffs for the second time in two seasons.
The college football playoffs fundamentally broke the sport. It has enabled the rich and powerful schools that Georgia is to continue to care for the best talent as it is one of the few schools that can consistently sell that they can fight for a spot in the college football playoffs. Until the college football playoffs expand, this trend of super recruiting teams will only continue. Much to the detriment of the sport.
More Georgia soccer stories from the DawgNation area
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