What difference does it make?

[GTYELLOWJACKET]

What difference does it make what state a football recruit comes from? A sizable percentage of GT students are not from GA. A sizable percentage of GT graduates leave the state of GA.

People marvel that universities from other states are coming into our state to get our high school players. Doesn't that mean that they went out of state to get their players?

I don't care where a player comes from as long as he puts in the effort and plays for GT. I am confident that our coaches are going to put in the effort to get the best players that they can get that meet our needs and can pass the course work.

Look at our basketball team. We have a player from Australia and Sweden(?). I don't hear anyone groaning at PH for getting these guys! Last I checked Australia and Sweden were not in Georgia.

Our coaches are getting acquainted with the HS coaches. It takes time. We are doing well in states that our coaches are familiar with. If we continue to win, we will get our share and next year we will have a ton of good GA players listing GT in their list of favorites.

 

[mustard]

People marvel that universities from other states are coming into our state to get our high school players. Doesn't that mean that they went out of state to get their players?[/QB]

<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">You bet. Good point.

 

[Gold Rush]

Count me in FULL agreement

As long as we win, I don'tcare if 100% of the players come from Alaska ...

Plus, as I recall, Bobby Ross recruited heavily out-of-state as well. Never heard any complaints back in '90 about out of state players

 

[CrackerJacket]

The problem is that more people are concerned
about competing with UGA for local kids and
publicity than they are about winning, regardless
of where the kids come from.

The AJC runs articles on how UGA gets interest
from the top local recruits and GT fans get in a
tizzy because they feel like UGA is having more
success. What they don't realize is that we are
getting quality interest from kids the AJC doesn't
even know about...

 

[bobby dodds ghost]

One big difference that is always overlooked is that out of state SA's cost alot more when you are handing out scholarships. Tens of thousands of dollars are used up on out of state boys when that money could arguably be spent on other things. Minor point if the out of state dude is a hoss...but if all things are equal, money is going down the drain.
.
.
.
BOO

 

[Y Jacket]

I am certainly not one that says we have to dominate in state recruiting but I think there is a need for a steady stream of recruits to come from Georgia. They should be the base of our recruits with "cherry picking" from TX, LA, FL, CA or wherever we can get them.

Georgia kids are the ones who see us and we see more often. We should be able to recruit the players who can cut it academically - and they are out there. We have an edge on most out of state schools in GA in that we have easier and more consistent access - they should be at our games and we can build a long term relationship with the HS coach a lot easier than Tennessee or ND. While I don't care if we are loaded with TX players, it is a lot riskier proposition for us to count on a steady stream of players from a far away place.

Having a core of GA players also helps us to some degree with generating local interest. Certainly it is no substitute for a winning program but all things being equal a lot of local folks (especially non-alumni) would rather see local kids playing in college.

None of this is to say that I demand 80% of the class has to come from GA or the sky is falling. And I am not worried about any single class - including this years composition. But every marketer knows you have to have a core customer base you can count on for a reasonable portion of your business. It is the brand without a core customer base who is always having to seek brand new customers that never succeeds over the long term.

For us that probably means we need to have an ability we can count on to bring in the core (not all) of our recruits most every year from the state of GA. I don't think we can reasonably expect for our core recruiting to come from TX or FL and expecting every year to bring in kids from all over the country is a high risk proposition. There are years you will fail. And the state of GA is too loaded with talent to write off.

 

[ahsoisee]

GTYellowJacket, I am in full agreement with you. It makes less difference than it did back in the old days. Colleges and Universities have full recruiting staffs and the money to recruit.

In the old days, there was much less money for recruiting and few recruiters, so the in-State recruits were more accessible and very important.

However, I feel sure our coaches will go after any recruit in Georgia highly rated, and can handle the academics at Tech. After all, the coaches realize their jobs depend on recruiting results as well as good coaching.

 

[GT98]

YJacket,

Excellent response! I think you pretty much nailed it.

 

[goldbybirth]

GA is one of the Whales of recruiting in terms of sheer number of players w/ Div-1 talent coming out of high school. TX, CA, FL, PA and GA are the big ones. So, if your school is in GA you should focus on GA instead of LA or MS or ME or where ever.

Personally, I say you develop the networks of all of your staff regardless of geography. If your OL coach has a college teammate that is now a high school coach in KS churning out good prospects and that relationship is strong enough to influence some of the kids, bring them in. Bring em from Alaska if they can play ball and the effort doesn't detract from our more mainstream recruiting efforts.

 

[goldmember]

Y Jacket - great post. It just makes too much sense to recruit GA heavily for all of the factors that you named plus the fact that a heck of a lot of good talent comes from GA each year. Certainly seasoned recruiters like Coach Wilson realize this. I think our slow start (in GA)may be attributed to our assistents not having a lot of ties to GA. It may take a couple of years to build those relationships. Continuing to win will help also.

 

[GT98]

Originally posted by goldmember:
I think our slow start (in GA)may be attributed to our assistents not having a lot of ties to GA. It may take a couple of years to build those relationships. Continuing to win will help also.

<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Actually, Patrick Nix's father is coach of a very good program in the state of GA. Also, Butch Brooks is still an employee of the AA and is helping David Wilson get acclimated and acquainted to HS in GA. A close friend of mine is a HS coach and even though GT is not recruiting anyone on his team right now, they still made an effort towards the staff to have a relationship for the future.

I think that the staff is recruiting the GA area the hardest; the difference is that a lot of people are up in arms by a comment that Gailey made regarding recruiting on a more Nat'l level. People are reading too much into what he said; he is not going to ignore the state, he realizes that all things being equal, you would rather have the player from GA for the points articulated by YJacket above.

The difference with this staff is that they are not being very public about what they are doing on the recruiting trail, which is a change of pace from the previous staff. Likewise, the "infamous GG" that so many live and die for on the Hive does not have the "scoop" that he used to get from O'leary. Further, people peruse the recruiting sites for info. and are "up in arms" because a database that has incomplete data at best and often bad information does not have enough players listing GT amongst their top 15 college choices. There are a few more committs coming over the next few weeks.

Does all of the above mean that our staff is as good of recruiters as O'leary's was? Dunno. We'll find out come Feb. In the meantime, the information that comes out about what we are doing on the recruiting trail will be a lot different from what people are used to. We'll see if the different strategy works...

 

[mustard]

I spent the last 30 years in Texas, and our recruiting there was slight at best. I think that Gailey was saying that we were increasing our interstate efforts by getting more resources to enable a wider recruiting effort.

However, I think that the statement of recruiting nationally was taken out of context and blown out of proportion and made to imply something that was never meant. Then it was kept alive on the board by people who did not realize the negative effects that were occurring from a perceived snub.

 

[goldeagle]

Well said Mustard! Actually even the great GOL and RF were on record that TV games were great for expanding name recognition and helping recruiting in other areas of the country. I also think that what CG said/meant to say was misinterpreted and was/has been overreacted upon.