Georgia Recruiting: Taking a moment to honor Sam Pittman

Georgia Recruiting has hit new levels the past few years. One of the reasons for that is Sam Pittman, the OL coach who has transformed that position group.

After such an incredible start to the early signing period yesterday, Georgia fans now have a chance to breathe. With 6 5-star prospects now signed to the 2018 class, this could well be the best group of players UGA has ever signed. While Georgia Recruiting isn’t done by any means this year, I thought that today would be a good chance to look at a couple of UGA’s best recruiters.

There are several coaches who helped Kirby really build this class and they deserve some credit. I’m going to start with the man of the hour, offensive line coach Sam Pittman. Pittman has been one of Smart’s most important hires. He has brought a level of O-line play that we have simply not seen at UGA for some time. He has also brought with him a tonne of top talent which is why right now, he is the nations number 2 recruiter.

How he came to Georgia:

In 2012, Sam Pittman has what most would agree was a pretty up and down year. He left North Carolina, the school he had really made a name for himself at for his first job in the SEC. The conference seemed like a natural fit for a coach who had a reputation for recruiting great linemen and training them up.

Pittman is a hard-nosed coach who doesn’t sugar-coat things to his players. His style of coaching is perfectly suited to the SEC. No other conference in America relies more on the line of scrimmage. Pittman was hired by Derek Dooley, the son of the former UGA great and took the OL job at Tennessee.

But things didn’t work out quite the way people thought. The season went badly all over the field for the Vols and they fired Dooley in mid-November. After interviewing around, Tennessee decided to hire Butch Jones and he immediately cleared house, firing Pittman and offensive coordinator Jim Chaney.

Pittman followed Chaney to Arkansas where he was hired as OL coach in Brett Bielema’s first staff. It was there that he cemented his reputation as a builder of top linemen and a recruiter. For 3 straight seasons, his line was rated as the best in the SEC. That’s an incredible accomplishment and he did it without 5-star players as Arkansas lacks the recruiting footprint of some larger schools.

In 2016, Kirby Smart hired Jim Chaney to be offensive coordinator and to bring Sam Pittman over to Athens. It worked and Pittman has continued to thrive. His ability to develop players combined with the fertile recruiting ground of Georgia has helped Pittman become one of the top recruiters in the nation.