Here’s a really good dive into Georgia’s recruiting approach from a former beat writer, Gentry Estes.
I discussed some of the data he analyzes before, but he does a nice job of putting things in context over the past five or six years in Athens. First, it’s worth noting again how much things have changed over time, measured against Alabama.
Last year, Georgia spent more on recruiting than did the Tide, but of even greater significance, note the percentage increase from 2013. That’s a serious chase down. And the ramp up largely coincides with Smart’s arrival.
Georgia’s football recruiting expenditures have more than quadrupled in recent years, going from $581,531 in the 2013 fiscal year, when Mark Richt was head coach, to roughly $2.63 million in 2018 (not adjusting for inflation).
… From 2015 to 2018, Georgia exceeded its budgeted amount for football recruiting by $2.38 million (an average of $593,948 per year), according to information obtained by the Courier Journal separately from the NCAA reports. The overage peaked at $945,966 in 2016, when Georgia’s budgeted amount was $1.25 million. That budgeted amount increased to about $1.9 million in 2017 and $2.27 million for 2018, as well as for 2019.
Smart knew from his time in Tuscaloosa that it takes a large financial commitment to recruiting to succeed in the SEC. Perhaps the most important thing he’s accomplished at Georgia is convincing the administration that such support was a necessity.
“Really, (recruiting costs) are just a reflection of the coach and how they approach recruiting, how they approach official visits, how they approach the entire world of recruiting,” McGarity said. “… I would just say you have some coaches that are visionaries, and a lot depends on who you surround yourself with and where you’ve been.
“I think in the case of Kirby, he had experience at other institutions, saw some things that we could do better. So we’re moving forward in a lot of those.”
… In 2018, Georgia spent $2.63 million on football recruiting and roughly half — $1.36 million — on all other sports’ recruiting combined. The next highest sport was men’s basketball at $341,064.
The price tag for football recruiting was more than Georgia spent for athletic financial aid for its six men’s teams other than football ($2.45 million) and for travel for all of its women’s teams combined ($2.37 million).
“I think Kirby would be very aggressive in recruiting,” McGarity said. “It just is the style and the approach that the head coach desires to take. … I think he’s going to find ways — as he talked about at (SEC) media day — what are the incremental improvements we can make that may make a difference?
“Because there’s a thin, thin line between really being good and great. And what can you do to close that gap?”
I don’t say this to be snarky, but to be realistic: there’s simply no way you would have heard that sort of talk out of Butts-Mehre five or six years ago. (As a reminder, Estes brings up the Pruitt-IPF story in contrast to the present.) And while the results speak for themselves,
Only three teams — Alabama, Clemson and Georgia — have played in the past four national title games, and each of those three ranked in the top five nationally among public Power Five colleges in 2018 recruiting expenditures, with Clemson (fifth at $1.79 million) coming in behind UGA, Alabama, Texas and Texas A&M.
Georgia’s 2017, 2018 and 2019 recruiting classes ranked third, first and second in the country, respectively, in 247 Sports’ composite rankings. The next highest spender, Alabama, ranked first, fifth and first in those three years.
… it is to McGarity’s credit that he was willing to take a leap with Smart’s vision and fund the effort. The good thing going forward is that with the success Smart’s had, I doubt we’ll hear complaints about financial support of the football program any time soon. The days of Georgia bringing a knife to an SEC recruiting gun fight are over.
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UPDATE: Another former beat writer does some math.
Get The Picture 
Can anyone help me understand where this money goes? Like, is it just plane rides? Recruiting and scouting services? I am not complaining, I’d just like to know how $$ are directly related to recruiting performance.
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Postage. They send out A LOT of correspondence.
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Most of the increase went to hiring additional recruiting staff. This includes research, correspondence, event management, and compliance.
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Makes sense. Thank you!
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I don’t mean to start a Richt-bashing session here, that’s not my main point, but I’ve long maintained that the reason Bama has essentially an open checkbook for Saban is because they believe that he will maximize whatever money he asks for – in other words, they believe (and right so) that he will give them a positive ROI. I don’t think our administration had that same belief in Richt, but they do with Kirby. And I do think there was some justification in that. If you gave all 3 of them $2 million go recruit with, I think Smart and Saban would out recruit Richt, even with all things being equal. Not trying to 100% let our administration off the hook for lack of support, Richt having to pay bonuses out of his own pocket still burns me up —- just saying that guys like Saban and Smart, who you know are going to maximize whatever money you give them, make it easier to open up that checkbook. Again, I mean this more of a compliment to Smart than a bash on Richt.
And of course Jimmy Sexton’s negotiating helps some too. Ha.
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Eh, not sure I buy that. Richt had his flaws, but he also had some great recruiters on his staff over the years, starting with Garner. And it’s not like Pruitt’s complaint materialized out of thin air, either. It’s not hard to think more could have been done with better financial support. (And Richt did ask for that more than once, but didn’t get very far until 2014-5 in that regard.)
That said, hindsight makes Smart’s uptick at recruiting inevitable, but it still required something of a leap of faith from an administration that wasn’t used to doing business that way.
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Richt had just come from Florida State. Seems like they knew what they were doing there when he left. I imagine he had some ideas about what UGA needed.
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Agree….it also could be argued that Richt did more with less (talent – 1st 3 years/record)….but I’m not gonna do that. :>)
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Georgia had 19 players drafted between 2002 and 2004, 9 in the first three rounds.
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For comparison’s sake, Georgia’s had 14 players drafted so far under Smart, with 6 in the first three rounds.
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The only reason the administration opened the checkbook for facilities, recruiting, analysts, etc. was that the AD knew he signed his own warrant if Kirby didn’t work out. Self-preservation is a strong motivation.
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good point..
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Two observations: (1) The meme about B-M not supporting CMR like it should have (I’m looking at you McGarity) appears to be true. For years I felt Mark Richt didn’t get the support out of the University like he should have and that lack of support was holding the program back. Of course, that may have been, at least in part, Richt’s own fault for not being aggressive enough in behind the scenes dealings with the AD and AB. (2) If this correlation in spending on recruiting and success on the field is true, everybody in the SEC better look out for ATM and look out nationally for Texas. Maybe Texas beating Georgia in the bowl game wasn’t really an upset?
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I just think of all the great games fans were denied because B-M wanted to earn a few extra $. All the great players that we saw commit to the G and how much more fun it all could have been.
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Eric Zeier, Hines Ward, and Champ Bailey deserved better.
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Yes. I couldn’t agree more. That’s what pisses me off about the Georgia Way. And don’t kid yourselves….the Georgia Way type of thinking is still alive and well at B-M.
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I just can’t escape the Dawg Night thing. How did Richt not show he didn’t care with that? Wasn’t the whole point behind to minimize the amount of time he spent with recruits? Meanwhile, Saban and Meyer were pushing the envelope on recruiting to the point the NCAA was having to create new regulations. I just can’t escape the conclusion that being in the state of Ga meant Richt could 10 win seasons with minimal effort that a coach in another state couldn’t and any coach at UGa during that time could have achieved similar results.
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Not sure I follow with Dawg Night as example of Richt’s laziness?
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The idea behind Dawgnight was to get all the potential recruits together on a single occasion as opposed to spending time one on one and in small groups like CKS does. He sold it as an exciting thing, a big party. In reality, I think he was just being lazy
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All big schools have their own version of a big party night / weekend. Auburn does Big Cat Weekend. I think you’re just reaching for evidence to fit your own narrative.
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Coach Smart (took a few notes) is building the “G” brand thru ‘crootin’ nationally…Texas, Fla., Ga., up the east coast and is headed out west …UGA will not get every in state/out of state mega star recruit, you’re starting to see those student athletes coming to UGA cause they’ve read and heard about roster management, bama, irish, texas, okla all have roster issues…only so many seats on the bus…the longevity of UGA’s staff future will be intriguing given the level of success plus expectations over the next 2-5 years, you wonder if coaches will take the Smart approach and stay with a successful program for multiple years or head for the ca$h/opportunity
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It would be so much cheaper to just pay these guys. But people love spending other people’s money.
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Let that sink in.
With the $2.6M spent in recruiting, each of the 85 scholarship players could have been paid $30k. Or paid a signing bonus of $105k to each new recruit.
Take the $63M spent on the West end zone project and put it into an endowment that generates 5%, and you have $3.1M a year, another $37k for each of the 85 scholarship athletes.
That;s just 2 line items.
Ask players what they would prefer – $67k/year in the bank or fancy locker rooms and coaches landing on their HS fields in helicopters…
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yep. I came from an upper middle class family. getting 67K/Year would have been life changing to me in college. On top of that, since room and board is paid for, if they are smart with it, would be sitting on a quarter of a million dollar nest egg when they graduate, if not more, to then put into a down payment for a house, or open a business, or help mom with rent.
I can’t imagine the dollar signs going through the head of someone like Todd Gurley who signed autographs so he could keep the power turned on at his mom’s home.
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I don’t see how. If you pay a flat amount of money across the board, then you still have to pay for recruiting. If you actually let the market sort out what individual players make, then you’re getting into bidding wars. That would probably be exponentially more expensive.
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Unwinding the numbers to 2013, three programs separated themselves from the rest of the conference in recruiting investment: Auburn, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Alabama’s success is undeniable, Auburn’s is debatable, and we’re left to wonder where all the recruiting money was spent at Tennessee.
Budget is one thing, but knowing how to use it effectively is another. Give Kirby credit for properly leveraging his acceptance of the head coaching offer and using his budget effectively.
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If that doesn’t include analyst salaries, then what does it include. I’d love to see a breakdown of where the money is going now compared to 5 years ago. Oh and don’t forget, these are student-athletes. Clearly all of this money is being spent in order to raise the overall GPA of the football team.
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This post highlights the speculation that makes me uncomfortable, my inner Munson. The strength of our football team right now is measured by recruiting rankings, which is fun and exciting, but I’ve been kicked in the nuts by Georgia football since Dooley left the sideline. I sure hope all this money pans out.
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I bet dollars to donuts, that Kirby made it a condition (when he was hired) that UGA open up the checkbook and get things up to par. I feel he knew how UGA hadn’t been keeping up and knew it had to change. The GA Way illuninati, who wanted Kirby, told McGreedy to change his ways. McGreedy would have never willingly done so otherwise. That’s just my take. YMMV.
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No doubt Kirby has this program at a level I haven’t seen in my lifetime. Next step for him is to improve himself and his own in-game decision making. He’s preached to the players all year about “do more”, I’m curious to see if he’s holding himself to the same standard.
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As far as in-game decision making, the key for Kirby is to “do less”.
Just my humble opinion.
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As far as the trickeration goes… I’m with you. I was referring more to clock management. Watched a replay of cocktail party last year and was reminded how we let them burn 40 secs off the clock and got the ball with :50 left rather than 1:30 with 2 TOs, to move all the way down the field and kick a FG from around the 5 yard line on 1st down bc we ran out of time…. with both of those TOs still in our pocket. Shit like that is inexcusable.
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Thinking like a head coach instead of a defensive coordinator is where I was going. With a lead, allow the offense to continue with the passing game if it is working. Preserve the clock and and trust your defense to make a stop at the end of the half (or game) if it has the upper hand. Don’t get cute and change things up if they are working.
Your example is a good one.
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There are other examples too. I realize CMR’s biggest failure was in roster management but where he lost me was bonehead end-of-game decision making that turned wins into losses. I thought that we were done with that when we fired him and hired Kirby. But nooooo. At the worst possible time in the biggest games Kirby fucks up just like CMR did. Sorry if it hurts anyone’s delicate fee fees but that really pisses me off. I watched CVD and Erk coach Georgia football for YEARS and never saw foul-ups like that.
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Here is the telltale line for me: “From 2015 to 2018, Georgia exceeded its budgeted amount for football recruiting by $2.38 million (an average of $593,948 per year). ”
The difference is that Smart isn’t going to let budgets or the administration get in his way. He looks at the $1.25M budget in 2016 and said “PSHAW…” and then proceeded to almost double up the budget on his recruitment spending.
While Richt may have asked for permission, Smart doesn’t really care if he gets it or not. And since he has gotten the results, he hasn’t had to ask for forgiveness either. Instead he gets higher budgets (which he continues to blow past).
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Having grown-up in the program, Kirby has the key higher-ups in his corner. It also matters that Kirby was hired on McGarity’s watch.
Unless your name was ‘Adams’, blowing past a budget was not something people did at Georgia.
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If after five years on the job UGA starts squeezing Kirby like they were squeezing Richt, who believes Kirby will stay? Adams and McGarity knew Richt would not leave so they paid him no attention when he asked for more. Part of Richt becoming complacent was he believed that UGA was only willing to pay for 10-win seasons so go along to get along. I can’t see Kirby ever doing that.
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Richt asked for permission while Kirby just goes out and rents a freakin’ helicopter and asks for forgiveness later. That’s how he rolls.
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Breaking it down by an average yearly recruiting class size of 25, Georgia spends ~ $105,000 to recruit each student athlete. Now add this amount to the total 3-4 year scholarship package cost for each football player.
But by all means let’s have another conversation about how these kids need to be “paid”.
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Georgia doesn’t “spend” money on scholarships and it’s more than likely that if it paid players, it wouldn’t have to spend as much as it does now on recruiting or facilities.
Also, it’s not that kids need to be paid. It’s that they should be treated the same way you and I are in the market.
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This is one of the most economically illiterate comments I’ve ever read on this topic.
This is a cost of the AA to convince a player to sign a scholarship offer to attend Georgia. It would be like saying we’re going to limit your compensation because your employer incurred all of these costs to recruit you to work.
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So obtuse. What I wonder is whether that “benefit” for a particular player is compounded by all the “losing” schools monetary outlay in attempting to land the player ? Does he think Justin Fields was compensated 7 figures in December of 2017 ? Or maybe since it’s an average, we should actually defray that “benefit” value by the actual number of players recruited. I mean it’s not like they ONLY RECRUIT the 22ish players they sign, each at 105k. What to make of money spent on a kid where interest on both sides sort of fizzled ? I hope that kid who picked Middle Tennessee reports that “income” received from UT.
“Do you know how much it cost us to leave that job ad up on the internet for 3 weeks ? How dare you ask for a Cadillac health plan !”
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As a recovering amateurism romantic, I just shake my head and laugh at
some of these arguments for the status quo.
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Until Smart learns some control on the sideline I don’t think he is ever going to be an elite coach. I have watched all the great coaches and they are watching everything that is happenning on the field, meanwhile, Kirby is running around like a kid In a candy store. I always wondered what the hell Tucker was doing. Kirby would be in the middle of the defensive huddle and Tucker would be standing there looking confused. AND this shit about having someone having his hand in your belt to keep you under control is ridiculous. The great coaches are aware of what is happening with all phases of the game and either addresses or chews out the coaches who are responsible. Kirby needs to get rid of the
mindset of being the defensive coach and look in the mirror and remind himself that he is the HEAD coach!!!
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