There are lots of ways to recruit negatively. You don’t have to come right and say this program sucks, or that coach is gone.
Sage Hardin, a 3-star offensive lineman from Marist high school, said he was offered by Ole Miss on Tuesday night. Hardin has been committed to UGA since earning a camp offer last summer.
“I would have appreciated the offer from Ole Miss earlier,” Hardin told the AJC. “Once Coach Bobo and Coach Friend left, Ole Miss started getting in contact with me again. I wanted to be polite. They were always one of my favorite teams before I committed to Georgia. I had a very strong relationship with Coach Freeze and some of the other coaches. I listened to what they had to say.
“They were respectful of my decision. They were saying a lot of ifs — ‘If I was to de-commit’ or ‘If the new OL coach doesn’t like you as much as we do’ … it was just a bunch of possibilities that are highly unlikely to happen. And that’s basically why they extended the offer. They loved the way I played. I think they have a fear that one or two of their offensive linemen might de-commit (from Ole Miss). And I think they just wanted to come back after me with Coach Friend and Coach Bobo leaving.”
I kinda like the reverse flip there about Ole Miss’ fear of de-commitment. It goes to show that two can play at the “if” game.
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UPDATE: And here’s an interesting variation on a theme. Georgia is negatively recruiting against itself.
“The (UGA coach) was like, ‘I don’t want you to be mad at Georgia or anything like that. The new coaches are getting situated here. We’ve looked at a lot of film, and we want you.’ They said they couldn’t see how the old coaching staff didn’t offer me.”
I’ve gotta admit that’s different.
Get The Picture 
“And IF there happens to be $500 laying in your gym bag after weight training one day, you just enjoy it and don’t ask any questions.”
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Can he at least ask why his well worn Puma bag was replaced with a $700 leather Filson?
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Nothing surprises me about recruiting. Nothing. It’s some crazy crap.
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When the Ole Miss coaches visit him at Marist this Friday, I’d suggest that Sage’s girlfriend/sister/whomever also attends the meeting while totally decked out in UGA gear (ala Bobo’s, ahem, meeting surprise with Tunsil a few years back that spread like wildfire throughout the recruiting world).
I don’t know much, if anything about Freeze and the Ole Miss program, but they just ‘feel’ dirty to me. Like the used car salesman who offers to throw in free clear coat protection and rust proofing if I buy immediately.
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Chad Kelly. That kid got tossed out of Clemson for getting into a fight with the coaching staff about play calling-during the spring game. Then he got his ass kicked and got arrested in Buffalo, reportedly telling folks he was coming back to the bar with his AK, then resisted arrest. And Ole Miss is still definitely keeping him. That’s all you need to know about Freeze.
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Gonna be funny when he sucker punches Freeze late in the fourth qtr. one night after a play call Freeze makes that gets him sacked and leads to a loss. Would be even better if against Clempson in a bowl game.
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“Machine Gun” Kelly? His cake tough guy antics can’t be good for his disease addled Dad.
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I’ll check but I’m almost certain Jim is his uncle not his father.
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The good news: the girlfriend / sister / whomever could all get free scholarships out ot the deal.
The bad news: they are just Ole Miss scholarships.
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True. On second thought, its probably better that they stay home.
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I like that. If you are going after a guy that the last group didn’t want or didn’t see as their top 5, but now you do want them, then why not sell the last guys out?
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Makes you wonder what one group of guys sees in someone that the other group didn’t, right?
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Yeah, definitely. Hope Sale’s a good judge of talent, obviously.
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Did anybody else notice this at the bottom of the article:
*Georgia’s Top 10 OL for 2015
Mitch Hyatt, North Gwinnett (Clemson)
Chuma Edoga, McEachern (USC)
Chidi Valentine-Okeke, Faith Christian (Alabama & Auburn lead)
Marquel Harrell, Creekside (Auburn)
Dallas Warmack, Mays (Alabama)
Kaleb Kim, Mill Creek (Auburn)
Bailey Sharp, Sprayberry (Auburn)
Venzell Boulware, Creekside (Tennessee)
Sage Hardin, Marist (UGA)
Cole Minshew, Coffee (FSU)
* Posted in exact ranking order from 247sports composite rankings
We have just one commit from the top 10… I’m not a recruiting guy, so is that because we have better commitments from out of state or is this just a leaky borders situation?
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Maybe we should see if these guys are available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goiVNxeX624
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We were courting this badass out of Maryland but he decommited after friend and Bobo left; we will probably be able to get back in the running. We also have an outside shot at flipping chuma from usc. Mostly, though, it’s a leaky borders situation. We usually do well signing centers, and we can usually get a good out of state tackle, but we never get the depth we need. Always starting too many freshmen.
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Let’s go down the list:
Hyatt is a Clemson legacy so no shot there
Edoga was leaning heavily toward UGA and then got “religion” (and his Mom a job) when he got back from USC.
We lead for Chidi until Bobo/Friend left
Warmack and Kim have family connections to Alabama and Auburn
Minshew was a possibility for awhile but decided on FSU.
You also have to remember Metro Atlanta are mostly transplants and have very little loyalty to UGA or the state of GA
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When the previous staff was here, it looked like Pat Allen and Chidi were going to be Dawgs. That would have been an awesome haul at the OT position. Playing catchup now.
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There has been a major deficiency in in-state OL recruiting ever since 2001. Not sure why. I have have a hard time believing that UGA can’t get 3-4 solid OLs OUT OF GA every year. Any thoughts people?
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My thought is that you are 100% correct. This is, and continues to be, Georgia’s one glaring weakness when it comes to identifying and recruiting players. Even when it seems we’ve caught up numbers-wise, we backslide (like it seems we are doing again this year by our paltry OL commitment numbers) and are left having to sign big numbers and take more chances in a later, single class just to get back up to where we should be. Seriously, this happens every couple years.
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The lackluster OL recruiting is another one of those issues that never seems to be high enough on Richt’s agenda to get serious attention. It’s been going on through OL coaches Callaway, Searels, and Friend, and with recruiting coordinators Garner and McClendon. Lets hope Schotty and Sale finally break us out of the slump.
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Right, I am sure it isn’t high on the agenda of a man who might think it would be helpful to have a quality OL opening holes for his RBs and protecting his QB. Nice, well thought out comment. Saying we need to get better at a weakness we have had for years is one thing, acting like it is an oversight is beyond belief. Sorry for you man if that is how you see things.
Having recruited Tunsil a couple of years ago and landed Sims and Wynn, I think they know how to identify top talent, just have to get them in the boat. The real question for me is how so many in-state kids don’t feel pressure to attend the state’s flagship school. Maybe they see/hear all the negative fans, it makes more sense than just choosing Clemson, Auburn, TN, or Alabama.
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Actually Mac he.s somewhat correct…. Richt has always believed he could win with great skill players and doesn’t think you need a great OLine to be successful – just kill them with blazing speed and an awesome QB.
That has always been his MO….
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You do need great skill players but asking me, or anyone else to believe OL recruiting is a very high priority is off the charts insane. If anyone wants to say we haven’t done a good job at it, I am in agreement, but to say it is an oversight or low priority is nutso. we all loved cool toys and gizmos at Christmas growing up but even children know if you forget the batteries nothing moves. Give the man some credit, folks may not like his demeanor, or style, or they may not like someone being in the job 14+ years, but statements like this is what gives the haters no credibility. They over state the case to the point of absurdity. I have been as displeased with the lack of OL success as anyone, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.
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He has to believe that he can win without an offensive line full of 5 stars, since he had not had a line full of 5 stars.
That does not mean he would not prefer to have a line full of 5 stars. He finished in the top ten without an NFL quality starting QB. That doesn’t mean he would not prefer an NFL starting QB.
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Coach Friend had turned that around. Look at the OL we have now and had last year.
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Yep it’s prett sad when AU has more O-line commits out of GA than the Dawgs and this was a banner year for high school O-linemen. The thing that surprises me is that we never offered the kid but Auburn. Bama and Tenn did? WTH? We have 26 commits and 2 are for the O-line? Who is doing that math for the coaches? granted we did redshirt 4 this year but 4 should be your rock bottom number for offensive linemen every year.
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“Come to Georgia. We are not as stupid as we used to be.”
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Leaky borders. Our OL recruiting continues to suck.
Although I think #3 on the list wanted to go to UGA, but we couldn’t get him past admissions.
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It’s a common occurrence for us to bemoan the lack of ‘quality’ O-Line men from Georgia committing to UGa and to complain about “leaky boarders” but I don’t see any of the top ten committed to that other Power 5 school in Georgia, you know the one located in ATL.
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So what?
Tech always recruits poorly because their offense is gimmicky and their school has no appeal for good football players. Tech is not who we are comparing ourselves to.
Tech sucks.
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Once again it looks like the best OL prospects in Georgia are leaving the state. Auburn’s gotten 3 if commits mean anything. Same old same old.
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It’s frustrating to watch our OL recruiting after big hits early like Big Max. It’s been middling at best. I hope the thought process for hiring Sales was that he was going to be a large step towards addressing the number and quality of the OL. I would believe that’s job 1B for him and that he was specifically vetted for doing it.
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Negative recruiting in the sec is it’s own thing.
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