Negative Recruiting looms large over UGA and Richt

It seems in years prior to 2009, top recruits from Georgia and around the southeast would be knocking down the arch trying to come to UGA and play for Mark Richt. Since we have hit the rough years of late, in-state recruits seem to commonly list Alabama, Auburn, and LSU as favorites early in the process.

It is a given that negative recruiting is being pumped into the heads of these recruits ever since Mark Bradley and Jeff Schultz over that the AJC have become obsessed with the "proverbial hot seat" Mark Richt is supposedly perched on. I do not put it past Nick Saban, Gene Chizik, and Les Miles to spew to a Georgia recruit that "you know, the future is mighty uncertain over there in Athens. If you sign with them, you are likely to have a new coach before you get playing time. Will that coach see you as the early starter that I see you in my program?" And why not? All three of those coaches have shown that they will do whatever they can to get the competitive advantage.

Mark Richt has spoken publicly about his views on negative recruiting. In an interview back in the spring, Richt was asked how much negative recruiting he faced coming off a losing season, near the final pushes before national signing day. Richt replied:

"A lot more than any other season I've been at Georgia. We came through all the negativity that was out there. Our style of recruiting is to talk about Georgia and hope we're good enough. It's how we go about business. We don't spend time talking about the other teams."

"Everyone is friendly when courting a guy then when it looks like that one guy is leaning one way or the other, now he becomes a bulls-eye. At the start, we tell them, 'You're about to get bombarded for every reason why you shouldn't go to Georgia. If someone is talking about their school, you have to listen. If someone is talking about our school, you have to take it with a grain of salt.' So when you tell them on the front end that it's going to happen and it happens, they say 'Coach told me this.' And they really don't really appreciate it."

Anybody who knows anything about Coach Richt knows that the answer above is coming directly from his heart and character. I cannot in a million years see Coach walking into a young man's living room and telling them "You know if you go to Bama, there is little guarantee you will get a scholarship after Saban does whatever he does to trim his numbers" or "If you go to Auburn, there's a chance probation and loss of bowl eligibility  may very well be on the horizon". It just simply is not what Coach is about. It never has been and never will be.

So I for one will be VERY excited when UGA handily takes care of Boise State, pummels South Carolina, impresses through our conference schedule, and traditionally pounds the nats into the ground on Thanksgiving, getting rid of all this "hot seat" nonsense. Maybe then, when Saban, Chizik, and Miles walk into a recruits house wanting to negatively recruit them, the recruit will laugh, shake their hand, and kindly ask them to leave. <------ MUST CLICK

Let's get some wins, and see UGA as a "leader" again early in the recruiting process for the plethora of talent this state is graced with!!

66 days til' kickoff!!
GO DAWGS!!