The only thing that interests me less than hearing what’s on the mind of a seventeen-year old being chased by big-time football programs is hearing what’s on the mind of an eighteen-year old explaining why he spurned the big-time programs chasing him.
Enjoy your relevancy, kid.
Get The Picture 
I fell for the click bait. Damn you, Senator. 🙂
Seriously, why doesn’t the AU-C do any stories with the guys coming to Athens on why they selected Georgia? On the other hand, why would the kid do this interview? Maybe he isn’t the toast of Cordele now that he’s going to the Alabama Cow College. I hope Netori Johnson and Justin Shaffer run over you the next 4 years just like they did in the state semifinals.
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Word.
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So, I guess you’ve missed their continuing series profiling all the members of the incoming class and their backgrounds and stories? Some of the kids have gotten two or three articles in the series and not just one.
The AJC doesn’t hate Georgia. The AJC doesn’t love Georgia. They’re reporters. They tell the stories that are there. I get so sick of the whining when a media outlet doesn’t put temporary “G” tattoos on their cheeks before they write a story. I’ve noticed that we seem to love stories about Tennessee or Florida screwing up a recruitment…
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Why in the hell would they publish a story on their Georgia site about a guy who signed elsewhere? Put it on their college football page if it’s newsworthy.
Is that you, Chip?
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Because… it’s mostly a story about Georgia? I mean, that’s obvious, right?
It’s a story about how Georgia was recruiting a player we wanted and how our process works… details Georgia fans likely want to know as we learn more about the aggressive new recruiting strategy under Kirby Smart and how his roster management strategy played out on the recruiting trail. We know some of the success stories. Now we know one of the failure stories.
If you want to read nothing but rah-rah UGA booster stuff then you probably need to talk Butts-Mehre into putting together a newsletter. Don’t read a bonafide news outlet (or even this very blog!). A news outlet isn’t there to be a cheerleader for dear old State U. It’s there to report on events. Georgia has shifted from Mark Richt’s recruiting strategy of hoping that the boat fills up on signing day to Kirby Smart aggressively trying to shoehorn in every possible blue chip he can get. This was a story that sheds a great deal of light on how the coaches are going about doing that. It’s behind the scenes info. I learned some stuff about the coaching staff from reading it. I’d wager that you did, too. I’m sorry that it wasn’t written to the tune of “Glory.”
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I didn’t ask for rah-rah. I’ve consistently thought the failing Atlanta newspaper has been negative toward UGA. Ever heard of Furman Bisher, Mark Bradley or Jeff Schultz? I didn’t care if Bryant signed with us or not. I honestly didn’t learn a darn thing about our recruiting strategy because no one from UGA was interviewed for the story. It was the typical crap that passes for journalism today.
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tl;dr
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This just makes me sad.
This is quintessential roster management, and it is hard. When you are trying to juggle team needs with 18-year-old’s whims and scholarship restrictions and the enormous blowback from media and fans for rescinding an offer for a guy when the numbers are close and you are having to choose between giving it to a guy that will sign right away versus a silent commitment that has a wandering eye…
So Kirby was worried the way it would play out was the way it played out, and this really turned off Big Cat. Just imagine the roasting that would have happened if Kirby had pulled Big Cat’s offer the day before signing day to give an offer to another guy that would have signed instead of holding the offer out there for Big Cat who didn’t. There may have been a riot. I feel like this article shows how hard recruiting at an elite level really is. Let’s hope it translates into wins.
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After reading the article I can’t help but ask why can’t this staff recruit the exact right amount to keep the in state kids, in state? Losing kids to auburn because you recruited the kid too hard is inexcusable! They should try harder not to try so hard!
It does appear from the context of the article that we were hurt by our continuing need to be fair to our players, recruits and signees. Saban would have found somebody to axe if Bryant had signed with them. It appears that in Bryant’s case there was an acknowledgment that we could neither keep a spot open indefinitely nor could we recruit another kid in case Bryant fell through just to cast that kid (or another) aside as needed. I’m glad that we haven’t sold our souls trying to beat alabama….yet.
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Big Cat
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“Any kind of chicken wing you want, Bro.”
Chicken wings. Why didn’t we think of that? We have the Blind Pig right around the corner!
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Confusing how the mind of these kids function….or doesn’t. You are a silent “commit” to Georgia, so the coach tells you he really, really needs to know you are sticking to your word because it impacts some other guys who can help you both achieve your mutual dream in the next 4 years. Smart caring about what is good for you, and 2-4 other humans who are going through the same confusing process you are, and you are irritated enough to break your word? Where is the logic in that? Never mind, there is none. I get that he should do what is best for him, but he would have done himself a favor by keeping his mouth shut.
My bet is this was more about “something” (cough, cough) that changed mama’s opinion, and a confused kid made a quick decision against his long term judgement for Georgia, and his recent “hot” trip to Red Stick that turned his head. He settled on Auburn and mama likely profited. It is a sleazy process and I also like to stay away from it for the most part. The early signing date will not change things for a guy like this, he would always play the game and keep the attention on himself for as long as he can.
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Came to comment on the comments in that article.
Never mind.
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Good luck to him. Thanks for stopping by the both.. Yawn..
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Recruiting is about showing love to to the players being recruited. There is no way that I believe that he didn’t go to UGA because Kirby and staff showed him too much love. The one question this article leaves me wondering about is, how much is Auburn paying the Mom?
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“My mom gave me her opinion,” Bryant said. “She said Auburn and that was what I did. That’s the reason why I went to Auburn.”
Hidden tapes from the interview:
… then momma showed me the suitcase with all those $100 bills and I said “War Eagle”. Then Cecil Newton called and said that I made the right business decision…”
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Tell me if I’ve got this right. He didn’t sign with Georgia because we recruited him too hard and he didn’t sign with the Gators because they didn’t recruit him hard enough. There’s got t be a vaguely defined middle ground in there somewhere. Be damned if I can figure out where it is.
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The middle ground is green.
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I feel for these guys- you get a random call out of the blue by some reporter that starts peppering you with questions and he probably politely tried to answer them- Why did you go to Auburn, what happened with Georgia, I Heard you were a silent commit, did someone make you mad, did something happen on a visit? about Alabama?, why didn’t you go to Florida…what happened at LSU….Did FSU recruit you? Were they ever in it?
Kid was probably on his heels trying to answer his questions and get off the phone as quickly as possible, like any of us would.
All these web sites and reporters have made these kids into “stars” in HS, but they’re still only 17 and 18 years old boys.
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The Bagman nods approvingly..
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I got a headache trying to read and make sense out of that article.
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Good call re recruiting stories, Senator. At the end of a player’s recruiting cycle, exactly never have I thought “Hey, I really wish that I would have followed the multi-year saga of that player’s decision more closely.” I have thought the exact opposite more times than I’d like to admit.
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Is 42836 the number of $ in the bag?
I keed…. I think. Regardless, unless you can take every single kid who played his HS ball in GA – and if we could, damn we’d be good – it’s just something to fill column inches in the late spring, early summer.
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