Ah, the virtual life

As an old fart myself, I know just where Rodney Garner is coming from.

When Rodney Garner became Georgia’s recruiting coordinator in 1998, video clips of high school football prospects were not readily available on the Internet.

There were no comprehensive online recruiting sites such as Rivals.com and Scout.com, nor were players announcing their decisions by wearing various hats. Garner has evolved with these publicity-driven avenues in the recruiting process, but now Facebook.com and Twitter.com have entered the mix.

“I know you’ve got to embrace some of these things, but my job is already encompassing enough,” Garner said. “I’m not going down certain roads right now until I have to.”

Some of us don’t seem to have that problem, no matter where it may lead.

“A lot of things do get out of control,” Richt said. “I talked to a guy at lunch the other day who has a plane that looks like ours or has a ‘G’ on it, and he said every time he takes off and does business, there is a report that we’re going to get a certain coach or a certain player. He took some trips to Tuscaloosa and to Knoxville, and it was craziness.”

If Jakar Hamilton is right, though, it sounds like Garner is going to have to adapt.

“Facebook is like another life,” Hamilton said. “People spend at least three or four hours a day on it, probably more than that, and a lot of recruiting gets done through that. There will be a player that coaches are trying to get, and I will go and tell them, ‘Coach is trying to get in touch with you.’ Facebook really helps a lot if you’re trying to reach out to a player.”

Three or four hours a day?  I guess I don’t feel so guilty about the time I spend on GTP now.