Once Mark Richt worked his final game as Florida State’s offensive coordinator in the 2001 Orange Bowl and turned his attention to Georgia, he and his new staff had a month to assemble a recruiting class. Richt retained recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner from Jim Donnan’s staff, but new assistants such as Brian VanGorder and Willie Martinez arrived from Midwest schools and hit the ground clueless.
“You’re not sure where to go,” Martinez said. “People don’t know who you are. It isn’t until you get relationships going that people feel more comfortable.”
Georgia’s first class under Richt was ranked a respectable 17th nationally by Rivals.com, and Richt praised Garner for holding everything together. The Bulldogs vaulted to third in 2002 with a deeper group of prospects that included offensive lineman Max Jean-Gilles, defensive tackle Kedric Golston, linebacker Tony Taylor and cornerback DeMario Minter.
Having a full year made a decided difference.
“You have the whole offseason to evaluate players and even understand a little better what you need,” Richt said. “The first year, you’re trying to hang on to what’s already committed. We were trying to find anybody at any position that we thought was the caliber that we needed to win, but we weren’t even sure in some cases of what we needed to win. I was in my first year in the SEC, and so was Brian VanGorder and Willie Martinez and John Eason.
“A lot of our coaches were just shot out of the cannon.”
Georgia’s second-year recruiting success has been matched by other upper-echelon Southeastern Conference programs in recent years.
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville’s second class in 2000 was headed by quarterback Jason Campbell, running back Ronnie Brown and safety Junior Rosegreen, a trio who helped the Tigers to a 13-0 season in 2004. Former Florida coach Ron Zook’s second class in 2003 consisted of quarterback Chris Leak, receiver Andre Caldwell and defensive end Jarvis Moss, and it was the nucleus for Urban Meyer’s national championship team three years later.
Meyer should contend for another title this year largely because of his second class in 2006, which includes quarterback Tim Tebow and receiver Percy Harvin, and Alabama may not be far behind. Nick Saban’s second group in Tuscaloosa consists of five Parade All-Americans, so those Crimson Tide trips to the Independence Bowl likely are extinct.
“It’s always like that,” Scout.com national editor Jamie Newberg said. “I’m a huge believer in relationships, because that’s what recruiting is all about. Any time there is a coaching transition at an elite program, whether it’s Nick Saban or Jim Tressel or Urban Meyer, people assume they are going to automatically go in there and kill it. That very rarely happens, though, because you have that very short recruiting window.
“Look at Saban last year. He didn’t know these kids when he got to Alabama, but when they had their first full season to recruit, then you see it. Second-year recruiting classes are always much better.”
Saban and outside linebackers coach Lance Thompson, whom Rivals.com named the “National Recruiter of the Year,” have been praised for much of Alabama’s success. Saban said this past week that Crimson Tide fans helped a lot, too, by packing Bryant-Denny Stadium for the A-Day game last May.
It’s the first time in SEC history that spring-game attendance played such a role.
“That’s something that I still hear people talking about all the time,” Saban said. “It’s something that was very impressive to all these young men that were there, who heard about or saw it, because it reflects a spirit, a tradition, an energy, a positive attitude about what we can build here. In a lot of ways, this is your recruiting class for all the support you’ve given us over the last year and what we’ve been able to do since we’ve been here, and we certainly appreciate it.”
On the national front, Saban isn’t the only coach with a touted second class.
Miami’s Randy Shannon signed a group that could help propel the Hurricanes back to more productive times, and Minnesota coach Tim Brewster reaped a crop that Rivals.com ranked 17th nationally. The Golden Gophers went 1-11 this past fall.
“Brewster is doing exactly what Ron Zook did three years ago at Illinois,” Newberg said. “He’s tearing it down to build it back up. Southern Cal was basically floundering, too, when Pete Carroll took over, but he had a decent first year recruiting and has just killed it ever since.”
USC has continued to reel in quality classes under Carroll, as has Georgia under Richt. In fact, the Bulldogs are the only program nationally to collect Rivals.com top-10 classes annually since Richt’s second set in ’02.
When asked about this successful stretch, Garner said you can’t underestimate the value of continuity on a staff.
“That’s why it’s even easier now in year seven or eight,” Garner said. “That first year, we were dealing with some high school coaches who didn’t know us, but I think our body of work sort of identified who we were and what we stood for. I think we gained some respect over those months that we may not have had initially, and we made up some ground pretty quick.
“Hopefully, we’ve been showing a consistent pattern, because you never want to be on a roller coaster.”
SECOND TIME AROUND
Coaches at upper-echelon Southeastern Conference football programs have produced some stellar recruiting classes after one full season at their respective schools:
TENNESSEE (1994)
Phillip Fulmer
Familiar Faces: QB Peyton Manning, WR Marcus Nash, DE Jonathan Brown, PK Jeff Hall, DB Terry Fair.
Class Rank: The Vols were No. 1 nationally according to SuperPrep after being No. 3 in 1993.
AUBURN (2000)
Tommy Tuberville
Familiar Faces: QB Jason Campbell, RB Ronnie Brown, LB Karlos Dansby, DE Bret Eddins, DB Junior Rosegreen.
Class Rank: The Tigers were No. 17 nationally according to SuperPrep after being No. 27 in 1999.
LSU (2001)
Nick Saban
Familiar Faces: RB Joseph Addai, OL Andrew Whitworth, OL Ben Wilkerson, DE Marcus Spears, WR Michael Clayton.
Class Rank: The Tigers were No. 2 nationally according to SuperPrep after being No. 26 in 2000.
GEORGIA (2002)
Mark Richt
Familiar Faces: DT Kedric Golston, OL Max Jean-Gilles, DE Quentin Moses, LB Tony Taylor, DB DeMario Minter.
Class Rank: The Bulldogs were No. 3 nationally according to Rivals.com after being No. 17 in 2001.
FLORIDA (2003)
Ron Zook
Familiar Faces: WR Andre Caldwell, QB Chris Leak, WR Chad Jackson, DE Jarvis Moss, DB Reggie Nelson.
Class Rank: The Gators were No. 2 nationally according to Rivals.com after being No. 20 in 2002.
FLORIDA (2006)
Urban Meyer
Familiar Faces: QB Tim Tebow, WR Percy Harvin, LB Dustin Doe, DE Jermaine Cunningham, LB Brandon Spikes.
Class Rank: The Gators were No. 2 nationally according to Rivals.com after being No. 15 in 2005.
ALABAMA (2008)
Nick Saban
Familiar Faces: WR Julio Jones, OL Tyler Love, LB Jerrell Harris, WR Burton Scott, DB Alonzo Lawrence.
Class Rank: The Crimson Tide are No. 1 according to Rivals.com after being No. 10 last year.
David Paschall is a sports writer for the Times Free Press. He started at the Chattanooga Free Press in 1990 and was part of the Times Free Press when the paper started in 1999. David covers University of Georgia football, as well as SEC football recruiting, SEC basketball, Chattanooga Lookouts baseball and other sports stories. He is a Chattanooga native and graduate of the Baylor School and Auburn University. David has received numerous honors for ...
