Georgia Football keeps plucking Florida talent out of Sunshine State

Georgia Football is known for landing the top in-state talent. However, now the Dawgs can be known for plucking away the top talent from Florida.

Usually, Georgia football locks down the state of Georgia by getting all the Peach State kids to stay home. However, since Kirby Smart took over, he has not only taken over Georgia but Florida as well.

In 2016, he nabbed three out of the Sunshine state with 3-star Solomon Kindley from Jacksonville, Fla., 4-star Riley Ridley from Deerfield Beach Fla., and 5-star Isaac Nauta from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Granted Nauta’s originally from Buford, Ga., so we will go with two officially from Florida and three that played high school ball there.

For 2017, Georgia grabbed three players out of Florida. The Bulldogs signed 3-star Matt Landers from Saint Petersburg, Fla., 3-star Latavious Brini from Hialeah, Fla., and 3-star Ameer Speed from Jacksonville, Fla.

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In 2018, Georgia landed the No. 1 overall recruiting class, and of that class,  four came out of Florida.

Now, only three of those players are on the team currently, with the fourth having to go the JUCO route.

The Bulldogs signed 4-star Nadab Joseph from Miami, Florida.

He is the one that went the JUCO route and could end up back in Athens as part of the 2020 class, but we will see.

Georgia landed 4-star  teammates Divaad Wilson and 4-star James Cook from Miami, and 5-star Tyson Campbell from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Georgia finished No. 2 in the country with the 2019 class and signed six out of the state of Florida.

The Bulldogs signed grad-transfer Lawrence Cager from Miami, 3-star Brett Seither from Clearwater, Fla., 4-star Kenny McIntosh from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 4-star Rian Davis from Apopka, Fla., 4-star Tyrique Stevenson from Miami, and 5-star Nolan Smith from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

However, Smith is originally from Georgia, so the Bulldogs signed six that played in Florida and five from the state.

Now in the 2020 class, the Bulldogs currently have five out of the Sunshine State committed.

Those five players are 4-star Warren Brinson from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., 4-star Joshua Braun from Live Oak, Fla., 4-star Carson Beck from Jacksonville, Fla., 4-star Jalen Carter from Apopka, Fla., and 4-star Marcus Rosemy from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Since Smart took over, the Bulldogs have plucked 16 players out of Florida. Georgia doesn’t have to lock down its own state because sometimes the best talent isn’t in the Peach State.

Smart’s showing the world that he can go anywhere in the country and get the best player in that state, at whatever position, to commit to the Dawgs.

However, to prove a point of some Florida individuals that Georgia’s lost the power of locking down its own state, the Dawgs have signed or have currently committed since Smart took over in 2016, 42 players out of Georgia.

The reason for this argument came up because Georgia has beaten Florida out, head-to-head for three of the five currently committed Sunshine state kids. Beck had an 86 percent crystal ball prediction on his 247Sports profile that he would end up at Florida.

He attended Georgia’s Junior Day on March 2 after getting an offer from the Dawgs on Feb. 27 and committed a day later on March 3.  Before that Beck was an Alabama commit until Feb. 4 when he de-committed from the Tide right after a visit to Florida on Feb. 2.

Brinson committed to Georgia over the Gators on June 1. Like Beck, Brinson had an 80 percent Crystal Ball prediction for him to choose the Gators. The kicker here is that Brinson re-committed to the Dawgs after an unofficial visit to Florida on May 18.

Braun committed to the Dawgs over the Gators on June 10. On his 247Sports profile, the Gators held a 50 percent crystal ball advantage while the Dawgs had a 33 percent chance to land him.

He took an official visit to Florida on May 17, South Carolina on May 31 and then committed to the Dawgs.

https://twitter.com/rosemy_marcus/status/1141737504879632384

As for Rosemy and Carter, they’re from Florida, and the Gators should have shots at these two guys.

However, Carter had Georgia, Clemson, and Alabama in his top three and hadn’t visited Florida since Sept. 8, 2018.

As for Rosemy, he posted a top-ten that included the Gators along with Georgia, Ohio State, FSU, Miami, LSU, Michigan, Auburn, and Ole Miss. However, the final two seemed to be the Dawgs and the Buckeyes.

Smart and his staff continue to go into the Sunshine State and pluck out the talent they want and find a way to get them to commit.

It’s almost like they see who the Gators have high on their list that is on the Dawgs list as well and go for them.

Now I know that Smart and the staff don’t deliberately go after who the Gators are because they’re two schools that tons of kids have in their top-5, top-10 lists. But it is obvious why the Bulldogs land them over the Gators.

The Bulldogs have been to back-to-back SEC Championships, one College Football Playoff semi-final and Championship game. Now that would attract me if I was a recruit.

What have the Gators done? Well, Florida went 10-3 in 2018 and beat a talented Michigan team in the Peach Bowl for Dan Mullen’s first year as the head coach.  That’s much improvement from the 2017 4-7 record in Jim McElwain’s final season.

However, other than that, the Gators haven’t done much in the last couple years.

While some fans think that the Dawgs should stay home to find its talent, I think the Dawgs are doing what’s best for the team. Georgia seeks out the best talent, and some of them just happen to be from Florida.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Georgia continue to pluck out Sunshine State players because we all know how good the talent in Florida is on the football field.

At the same time, I think Georgia’s slowly taking over recruiting in each of the SEC states. Florida’s the first state, it won’t be long before the Dawgs start plucking kids out of South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and others.

This takeover is just the beginning.