Georgia football: 2017-18 was more important than you realize

Georgia Tech extends Paul Johnson’s contract

Kirby Smart wasn’t the only head coach in Georgia to sign a new contract. Paul Johnson also signed an extension with the North Avenue Trade School. Why is that great? His triple-option is frustrating and he’s had more success against Georgia than Chan Gailey.

Because Johnson remaining at Tech means that Georgia still has no true recruiting rival within our own state. Tech barely recruits players we give offers to. The players they get from Georgia, are players we aren’t serious about bringing in.

We don’t have a Florida State, Clemson or Texas to compete with in our state. If the top players in Georgia want to stay home, there’s only one program to consider. And Smart is very serious about keeping the top players from Georgia. He signed six of the top 10 players from the state of Georgia in the 2018 class. And three of those 10 were quarterbacks so he was only going to sign one of them anyways.

Sure, If Georgia Tech started running a conventional offense this year, they wouldn’t have immediate success recruiting. But with the right coach, they eventually would. It’s hard to realize now, but Tech used to hang around the top of the recruiting rankings.

Going into Gailey’s last season, Tech signed the no. 15 recruiting class. That was higher than Clemson and Florida State. With all of the talent in Georgia, Tech would eventually begin to succeed at recruiting. But for now, they still run a system top recruits don’t want to play in. And that’s not going to change anytime soon.

In-state recruiting simple for UGA

Georgia doesn’t just lack of a true head-to-head recruiting rival in the state. We also don’t have a program like Central Florida or South Florida to take away the second tier recruits. There’s a number of talented players in Georgia that just aren’t ready to start immediately when they enroll. And they have to decide which they value more; starting early or waiting at a great program.

If Georgia State or Georgia Southern played in the American, won 10 or 11 games a year, and sent two or three to the NFL annually, those recruits would have a hard time making those decisions. But those two schools are in the Sun Belt, and aren’t yet winning at the FBS level or producing a lot of NFL players.

So instead, because of Smart’s emphasis on in-state recruiting, those players are going to Georgia. And that’s big for our depth. Walter Grant and Nate McBride didn’t have another school in state that they could start at as freshmen.

Instead, they gladly accepted our offers to wait a year and provide quality to the depth chart. Grant, in particular had a great year backing up the outside linebackers. McBride was a great special team player. Georgia is going to continue to get those kinds of players.

We should enjoy this while it lasts right? eventually Southern and State will climb the ladder to prominence. Not really. To do so, they’ll need to climb from the Sun Belt, to the American and then to the SEC or ACC. That’s not very likely. If you look at the logic behind the conference expansions, the biggest factor is markets. It’s a bigger factor than geography.

When the SEC and ACC begin expanding to 16 teams, they’re not going to look at either GSU. The SEC will look at schools in North Carolina, central or south Florida, Virginia and maybe even Ohio. The ACC will target Ohio as well as Tennessee or Indiana. It’s all about placing a stake in a major market. The SEC will want Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa,  and Cincinnati. They already have Atlanta and Savannah.

So, the Bulldog Nation is going to enjoy dominating in-state recruiting for a very long time.