3 reasons why Kirby Smart’s recruiting at UGA will be great

When the sun sets on Alabama’s 2015 football season and new Georgia head coach Kirby Smart (currently the Tide’s defensive coordinator) can devote all of his time to being the Bulldogs head coach, you can anticipate that Smart and staff will then begin to show why he’s considered one of the top recruiters in the country and why he will experience great success on the trail in Athens.

But until then, here are three reasons why Smart ultimately will be a huge success recruiting to his alma mater.

1. He’s the head coach at the University of Georgia

The state of Georgia is a top four talent-producing state and only is continuing to grow in stature. The University of Georgia is the state’s flagship program and while Georgia Tech and neighboring Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference powers put heavy emphasis on recruiting in the state, UGA still is the dominant program by a mile. Simply put, there’s no reason why the Bulldogs should not annually sign 80 percent or more of the top in-state prospects they want each and every cycle and that gives Smart (or anyone who would have taken the job) a tremendous built-in advantage from the get-go.

2. The staff will definitely be able to recruit

Granted, there were some Bulldogs fans who were concerned with Thomas Brown joining former head coach Mark Richt at Miami or Bryan McClendon heading over to South Carolina. Those two were UGA graduates and excellent recruiters for sure, but it isn’t as if Smart is not going to hire great recruiters on his staff. Offensive line coach Sam Pittman and retaining defensive line coach Tracy Rocker are two nice building blocks and you can anticipate being extremely impressed with the coaching and recruiting talent Smart will assemble once it all comes together based on some of the names that are out there.

3. He’s outstanding at building relationships

Fundamentally, recruits make decisions based on comfort level, which are facilitated by the relationships they build with the coaches, staff, players and fellow recruits at a particular program. There may not be a better coach in the country (head coach or assistant) at building relationships than Smart. That’s why, as the defensive coordinator at Alabama, he was annually among the best recruiters in the country. He can build those relationships and achieve an optimum comfort level with elite recruits. Smart proved that time and time again and this is paramount when you are talking about assembling enough talent to compete for national titles, which is what the expectation is at Georgia.

JC Shurburtt

Recruiting writer for Saturday Down South