Archive for the ‘Future Star’ Category

UGA’s top football recruit is being courted by Alabama.

And he’s listening.

The marquee recruit is Derrick Henry, the 5-star running back from Yulee, Fla., who committed to UGA last summer. He is ranked as one of the top three players out of Florida.

Alabama dispatched assistant Burton Burns to Henry’s high school on Monday. It went so well that Henry sent a tweet out later that day that ignited a frenzy in the Bulldog nation:

Had a good time with Coach Burns today from Alabama. Really liked him . Excited to get over there June 8th #Tide

If that didn’t cause widespread panic among UGA fans, Henry had this to say the next day to Scout.com’s Andrew Bone (click here to read full article):

“I started talking to my coach. We had a serious talk. We talked about the positives of Alabama. We feel like Alabama is the place to go … I am not saying my coaches are swaying me to go to Alabama. They are not doing that at all. We are just laying out everything. The fact Alabama …

Continue reading Derrick Henry: Will Alabama flip UGA’s top recruit? »

This longtime Georgia Tech fan signed with Stanford over UGA (Photo courtesy of Woodward Academy's Marci Mitchell)

Jordan Watkins had an interesting recruiting journey: He grew up a Georgia Tech fan, listed UGA as a co-finalist, and ended up signing with Stanford.

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound defensive tackle from Woodward Academy will report to Stanford on June 21. He reflected on his recruiting journey with the AJC:

What was the most creative thing a college did to get your attention? “I remember the first day I ever got a hand-written letter from Georgia Tech. Pretty much everyone on the defensive staff, along with Coach [Paul] Johnson, sent a hand-written letter and that was pretty neat.”

UGA was your runner-up. What could they have done better? “I think the only thing they could’ve done better was to keep me away from Stanford because there was definitely nothing that was a knock against Georgia. When I went on my visit to Stanford last July, I fell in love with …

Continue reading REWIND: DT was lifelong Tech fan, almost picked UGA »

How big of a role does Social Media play in college football recruiting?

Just about every top prospect is on either Facebook, Twitter or both.

We asked some of the nation’s top coaches how big of a role does Social Media play in their current recruiting efforts:

Urban Meyer on Social Media: "Its huge." (AP)

Virginia’s Mike London: “I’m on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and you name it. We’re Skyping and doing all those things. If it’s allowable by the NCAA, then you can use every Social Network means necessary to get your messages across … You will find out more  about guys on Facebook and Twitter sometimes than you will having a 10-minute conversation with them because a lot of times they will let their guard down and show a side maybe you haven’t thought about before. Social Media networks are now something that are very prevalent in recruiting.”

UGA’s Mark Richt: Click  here

Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher: “I think it’s huge in recruiting. It all is. …

Continue reading How big of a role does Social Media play in football recruiting? »

Georgia Tech-bound Shamire DeVine won MVP honors at Atlanta NIKE camp (AJC)

Georgia Tech landed a commitment from a hometown star who some rate as the state’s best college football prospect on the offensive line.

Shamire DeVine, a 6-foot-7, 331-pounder from Tri-Cities High School, committed to Georgia Tech after his team’s spring practice on Wednesday night.

“I like the academics,” DeVine told the AJC.

DeVine, who was named OL MVP at last month’s Atlanta NIKE camp, had around a dozen offers, including UGA, Florida, FSU, Tennessee and Southern Cal.

“I picked Georgia Tech over Florida State, and I really don’t know who the third guy was,” said DeVine, who has a 3.0 GPA and wants to study Computer Engineering and Programming.

“Florida State was ranked in the top 10 in computers, while Georgia Tech was in the top three. So I chose the school with the best academics. I don’t really care about the football part. I just want the best degree I can get, as far as …

Continue reading State’s No. 1 OL prospect commits to Georgia Tech over FSU »

Alabama-bound Geno Smith with cancer patient Grace Buckel (Special)

• RELATED: Isaiah Crowell’s teammate commits to Florida Gators

One of Alabama’s star football recruits stopped by an Atlanta hospital to visit a girl who was recently diagnosed with bone cancer.

Geno Smith is a senior at St. Pius, ranked as the No. 8 defensive back in the country by Rivals, and signed with Alabama over Auburn last February.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Smith was approached last week about going to see the younger sister of one of his classmates, Grace Buckel. The 12-year-old girl was diagnosed with cancer in her leg last month and was hospitalized at Scottish Rite (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta).

An Auburn player recently visited a patient down the hall. Grace is an Alabama fan and her parents thought a visit by Geno might cheer her up. Smith and his St. Pius teammate, Nick Maiolo, made the special trip last Friday.

“I was happy to do it,” Smith told the AJC. “We just hung out and …

Continue reading Recruiting Rewind: Alabama signee on UGA rumors, visiting cancer patient »

How large will UGA’s football recruiting class be for 2013?

Mark Richt isn’t saying — at least publicly.

“I don’t really get into talking hard numbers with everybody in the media, to be honest with you” he told the AJC recently.

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“I will say this: We will definitely have space to count guys back to last year’s class … there’s no doubt about that. We would love to have as many midyear enrollees as possible to maximize that number going back, along with providing space to go forward with 25, if there’s room with the 85 number [for overall scholarships].

“There’s no doubt, this year in particular, we definitely would be looking to get guys to come at the midyear [in January] and count back towards last year’s class.”

Let’s take a step back: The SEC has new rules against over-signing, limiting each member school to sign a maximum of 25 …

Continue reading Mark Richt has a little secret »

Does winning six BCS championships in a row give the SEC a recruiting advantage?

We think so, especially when we hear things like this: We asked one of Atlanta’s best prospects if he was hoping for a scholarship offer from one of the ACC’s top programs and he said this:

“They were going to offer but I wasn’t really interested. I mean, it’s a good school but there’s no point in wasting their time. I’m staying in the SEC. The best players and the best competition are in the SEC.”

Yeah, that’s pretty powerful stuff, and brutal for a non-SEC school to have to compete against in fertile recruiting grounds of Georgia.

How does an SEC coach feel about that issue? Does winning six BCS championships in a row help you with recruiting? We asked Tennessee’s Derek Dooley:

Tennessee's Derek Dooley: "I’ve been watching the SEC a long time. There have been times when Georgia has hit a dip, there has been a time when LSU has hit a dip, there’s been times when Bama has …

Continue reading Does 6 BCS championships in a row give the SEC a recruiting advantage? »

Steve Spurrer has been on a hot streak in Georgia (AP)

Perhaps no out-of-state school recruited Georgia this past season as well as South Carolina.

Steve Spurrier signed 12 football recruits from Georgia this past February.

David Johnson, one of Atlanta’s top linebackers, became South Carolina’s third commitment for 2013 on Thursday, picking the Gamecocks over Auburn and Ole Miss, among others.

“South Carolina has done a really good job of recruiting me, I felt home there, and I fit well in the defensive scheme,” Johnson told the AJC.

“I’ve got friends that go there. I’m a fan of South Carolina because of John Abraham. I want to go to a school that wins and can go to BCS games … so I committed to South Carolina.”

The 6-foot-2, 245-pound Johnson will be the third Lithonia High School football star to sign with South Carolina in the last three years, following in the footsteps of OL Joe Harris and LB Cedrick Cooper. “We’re real close … we’re not …

Continue reading Steve Spurrier picks up another Georgia recruit — LB David Johnson »

This part-time Georgian built the nation's No. 1-ranked recruiting class by signing 8 Georgians in 2012 (Chick-fil-A)

Why does Nick Saban think Alabama has success in recruiting the state of Georgia?

This past season, Alabama won a mythical national championship in the Rivals’ team recruiting rankings with a stellar class that included eight of Georgia’s top prospects.

Why the success? It’s almost like Saban lives in Georgia, a reporter suggested.

“Well, I still have a home in Georgia,” Saban quickly replied at a recent celebrity golf tournament.

The coach lives next door to this stunning mansion on Lake Burton. However, Saban’s place is considered just as nice, and he’s a partial investor in the mansion, according to an Alabama spokesman.

Check out the pictures.

He was joking. But his recruiting in these parts – and across the Southeast – is no joke. The part-time Georgian explained his recruiting success within the state:

“I think we work hard in recruiting …

Continue reading Nick Saban on Georgia recruiting success: “Well, I still have a home in Georgia” »

This is a bizarre story out of the recruiting world:

One of the nation’s top college football prospects de-committed from Ohio State after a convicted sex offender took a photo of him at last month’s spring game and posted it online, according to ESPN’s Mitch Sherman.

The prospect is linebacker Alex Anzalone of Wyomissing, Pa., who is ranked No. 65 in the ESPN 150 and committed to Ohio State while attending the spring game. After that game, Anzalone and a few other prospects were asked to take a group photo by Charles Waugh, a 31-year-old who is listed on Kentucky’s list of sex offenders, according to multiple media outlets. Waugh also took pictures with a couple of Ohio State’s current players, and posted them all on his Twitter account.

Anzalone was advised to de-commit to Ohio State by his father. “You don’t want your son to go to a place where there’s a potential issue,” Sal Anzalone told the Reading Eagle. “You expect the staff to have some sort of control on …

Continue reading Alex Anzalone: Ohio State LB recruit de-commits after pic with sex offender »