Kirby Smart Praises "Physical" Georgia High School Football

If you want to know what makes Georgia Football so successful, you don't have to look much further than the local high school football players and coaches.

Georgia is the back-to-back College Football Playoff National Champions. When you get to this level of success, teams don’t just try to poach your players and coaches, they try to emulate what makes you you.

For teams trying to copy the Georgia model, they might find that they run into one major problem: they’re not located in the state of Georgia.

As much as Georgia has turned into a national powerhouse in recruiting, grabbing guys like Brock Bowers and Kelee Ringo from the West Coast, this football program’s success is mainly built on local talent.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was out recruiting in South Georgia on Tuesday. Dawgs Daily had a chance to ask Smart a couple of questions in regards to what makes Georgia such a special football state.

“Well, I think players in the state of Georgia get the best coaching in the country. [The state of Georgia] has one of the best high school coaching regimes there is. A lot of high school coaches come to the state of Georgia; there’s good benefits, there’s good pay. But at the end of the day, [the players] get spring practice, it’s extremely competitive.” said Smart.

“You look across the NFL right now, and the state of Georgia is represented all over. Ya know, the quality of play, from top to bottom in the state, is unmatched anywhere in the country. It’s a homebase recruiting for us. It’s a credit to the high school coaches that do such a great job.”

In an even tighter view, the impact of Southeast Georgia players has become much more prominent under Smart. Stetson Bennett (Pierce County), Warren McClendon (Brunswick High), Nolan Smith (IMG by way of Savannah), Richard LeCounte (Liberty High), Jack Podlesny (Glynn Academy). Pick a big game Georgia has played over the past 5 years and you’ll be able to find an impact player from the 912 area code.

So what is it about those schools south of Macon that produces such elite-level talent?

“It’s really physical down here. It’s the pride of the community, and, again, it goes back to the coaching. When you get down here, a lot of the coaches enjoy it more. They get a little more freedom in South Georgia. They might be the only school in the town, or one of two schools in the town, and it’s easier to control your environment and develop your players.”

Again, Georgia will continue to recruit nationally, Jamon-Dumas Johnson (Maryland) and Sedrick Van Pran (Louisiana) are more examples of that, but, when it came down to it, look at who Georgia’s MVPs were in the Peach Bowl and National Championship:

Offense - Stetson Bennett (Pierce County)

Defense - Javon Bullard (Baldwin)

Georgia is a national power because of the high school football in its state. 

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Christian Goeckel
CHRISTIAN GOECKEL

Christian Goeckel is a Staff Writer for Dawgs Daily on SI.com. Christian has covered College Football for nearly a decade, writing for multiple sites and hosting radio shows across Southern Georgia and South Carolina.