College Football

Kirby Smart: Building a wall around the Peach State

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 1:17 a.m. ET

Fansided, Matt Green/FanSided via Dawn of the Dawg

In just his first full recruiting class, Kirby Smart is already doing something that Mark Richt couldn’t do: He’s building a wall around the Peach state and bringing top-tier talent to Athens.

Mark Richt had fair share of success on the recruiting trail, and in his defense, a lot of the elite players Richt had during his tenure came from outside the state. Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, A.J. Green, Aaron Murray, and Todd Gurley, just to name a few.

But there were too many times during Richt’s tenure when players like Eric Berry, Deshaun Watson, and Raekwon McMillan left the state and became All-Americans and future first round picks.

Under Richt, Georgia routinely would get around 10 or so of the top 25 players in the state, but under Smart, the Dawgs are getting the top of the top.

According to 247sports’ composite rankings, 11 of the top 16 players in the state of Georgia are currently committed to the Bulldogs, with the potential to add two more. But more impressively, Georgia has commits from four of the top six players.

Let’s take look at how Georgia has fared with Peach state talent going back to 2007:

2017 (Incomplete)

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

Top 25

Over the past decade, Georgia has been able to secure 82 of the top 250 ranked players coming out of the state. That’s 32 percent of the top 25 players in the state, and an average of 8.2 of the top 25 over the past 10 years.

Top 10

During that timeframe, Georgia has gotten 34 of the top 100 ranked players coming out of the state. That’s 34 percent of the top 10 players in the state, and an average of 3.4 of the top 10 over the past 10 years

Five-Stars

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Over the last 10 years, Georgia has gotten 12 of 26 five-star players that have come out of the Peach state, which is 46 percent of the five-stars the state has produced during that time. On the surface that’s an impressive number, but if you dig a little deeper, it is not as impressive as it sounds.

Four of those “five-star” prospects (Samuel, Smith, Drew, Carter) had very underwhelming careers, with Lorenzo Carter having one more year to live up to that five-star status.

Two more of the five-stars (Crowell and Harvey-Clemons) showed elite ability, but off-the-field problems ended their careers in Athens prematurely.

Two more of the five-stars (Godwin and Hardman Jr.) have yet to make a difference, but still have time to develop and become stars.

That leaves four of the 12 five-star prospects (Ogletree, Jenkins, Chubb, Thompson) that Georgia has gotten over the last decade that actually did pan out and became true difference-makers.

Recruiting is a numbers game, and if Kirby is able to get these types of numbers, success is surely to follow.