Georgia Football lost a commitment from one of the top wide receivers in the country in Jadon Haselwood last night, but don’t count Kirby Smart and his coaches out of his recruitment process.
Jadon Haselwood had been committed to the Georgia Football team for over 18 months. He made his initial decision back in his sophomore season and has stuck to it for a really long time. However, since then, Haselwood has really blown up on the recruitment front and now he’s considered to be one of the best receivers to ever have come out of Georgia. That seems to have led to him to decide to reopen his recruitment and look more at some other schools.
Thank you and no interviews at this time... pic.twitter.com/pAd8yPZjwz
— Jadon Haselwood 🎱 (@jadon_haselwood) October 3, 2018
Haselwood has been getting a lot of attention from Miami, Auburn, and Oklahoma over the past few months. His father is a Sooner graduate and Miami has been selling him the fact that former UGA coach Mark Richt coaches AJ Green who Haselwood models himself after.
All of these three programs are selling Haselwood as coming into their program and instantly becoming ‘the guy’ in their program. That’s not the way that UGA operates. Former top recruits such as Justin Fields, Brenton Cox, and others have all had to accept that being at Georgia means that you are a part of a team and UGA comes first.
Demetris Robertson has only touched the ball three times since arriving in Athens and he had the same sort of reputation as Haselwood. Other schools will focus everything around a single offensive weapon and make them the sole focus of the program. That’s just not the way things go under Kirby Smart. You’ve got to fight to beat out other players and even if you do, there is no player more important than anyone else at UGA. That’s just not how they operate. You can’t fault Haselwood for wanting to check out other places and give them a fair shot to recruit him.
This has happened before to Kirby Smart. Adam Anderson decommitted, then came back into the fold on signing day. Brenton Cox was heading to Ohio State until he flipped last December. All of the rival fans out there who think that Georgia has lost Haselwood underestimate just how good Kirby and his coaching staff are at recruiting. This will not be a shock to them and they will likely now try even harder to make sure Jadon ends up in Athens.
If Haselwood still wants to win championships, I think that he ends up in Athens in January. If he instead decides that being ‘the guy’ at another school is what’s best for him and his future then all you can do is wish him the best and move on. He’s a rare talent and one Georgia absolutely wants to bring in, but he deserves the chance to make his own decision. Hopefully, this is just a small detour in his eventual path to Athens.