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Kirby Smart shows no quit recruiting players committed elsewhere

Palmber-Thombsby: Palmer Thombs03/30/24palmerthombs

ATHENS, Ga. — Kirby Smart loves selling his program on the recruiting trail, even if that means rejection a time or two. However, when he gets turned down, that’s not necessarily the end of things. Having built a relationship already, he and his staff try to keep communication alive as long as they can, hoping to eventually win the player back over. Does it work? Not always, but the Bulldogs certainly have seen it pay off more than a time or two during Smart’s tenure as the Georgia head coach.

Five-star safety KJ Bolden is the most recent example, and his recruitment will act as the template for those of several in upcoming the Class of 2025.

A player who had spent his fair share of time on UGA’s campus before announcing a commitment to Florida State in August, Georgia made sure to make it known with Bolden that they weren’t going to stop recruiting him until the day his National Letter of Intent was sent elsewhere. Come Signing Day, that effort paid off with Bolden sending in his papers to Georgia.

“I don’t see kids as committed to other places, because they’re not. They’re not signed,” Smart said this spring. “I just know that we recruit good football players. We evaluate every player the same whether they’re committed or not. If there’s interest and conversation from them, and there’s visits where they come to your campus, you just stay very consistent. We were consistent with KJ, the recruitment never stopped, and I told him that from the day he committed to the day he came to us, that we’re not going to stop recruiting him because we think he’s a great kid from a great family and a really, really good football player.”

Smart and the Bulldogs saw a five-star in the Class of 2025 flip this past week with Justus Terry, who had committed to Georgia in January of 2023 after his sophomore season, announcing his new pledge to USC. The Peach State product took a visit out to Southern California last weekend and made his intentions public early Sunday morning. That’s not going to stop Georgia from recruiting him – and he’ll be back on campus in Athens in just a couple of weeks.

The same is true for players that have never been in Georgia’s class. Just because they haven’t been to see the Bulldogs yet or are in the class of another school across the country doesn’t mean that they won’t be signing to UGA come December. There’s a long way to go and plenty of time for Smart to leave an impression. It’s something he’s done before, and odds are, something he’ll do again.

Flips On the Georgia Roster

KJ Bolden – Florida State (2024)
Chauncey Bowens – Florida (2024)
Ondre Evans – LSU (2024)
Nasir Johnson – Florida (2024)
Anthony Evans – Oklahoma (2023)
Kyron Jones – NC State (2023)
Jamal Meriweather – UCF (2023)
Justyn Rhett – Notre Dame (2023)
Roderick Robinson – UCLA (2023)
Raylen Wilson – Michigan (2023)
Drew Bobo – Auburn (2022)
Daylen Everette – Clemson (2022)
Julian Humphrey – Florida (2022)
Gunner Stockton – South Carolina (2022)
Mykel Williams – USC (2022)
Jared Wilson – North Carolina (2021)
Carson Beck – Alabama (2020)

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