ESPN Recruiting Nation Football

ATHENS, Ga. -- ESPN Watch List wide receiver Demarre Kitt (Tyrone, Ga./Sandy Creek) recently cut his mammoth offer list down to a top-15 group of schools that he will consider.

“It got crazy at one point with almost everybody that offered me trying to talk to me,” Kitt said. “So I had to cut my list down to 15 schools. After spring practice I will cut it down to eight or 10. At the end of summer I will do five and then go from there.”

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ESPN Watch List cornerback Nicholas Ruffin (Atlanta/St. Pius X) visited the University of Georgia on Saturday for the Bulldogs’ second junior day of the 2014 recruiting cycle.

Ruffin has verbal offers from programs such as LSU, Alabama, Florida State and South Carolina, among others, on his growing list. Georgia tried to pull ahead of the pack with the in-state athlete while Ruffin was in Athens.

“It went very well.” Ruffin said. “They definitely helped their cause. I liked the sense of family -- I felt at home. All of the coaches seemed genuinely interested. For me there was a sense of welcome and I liked their great facilities. And on top of that Mark Richt is a phenomenal coach.”

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The state of Georgia is known for its defensive linemen. With three of the top defensive prospects in the nation for the class of 2013 and seven more on the ESPN Watch List for 2014, the Peach State is a first stop for coordinators that want to win in the trenches.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Multiple coaches had a hand in Georgia’s landing another top-10 signing class on Wednesday, but John Lilly might have been the standout in the collaborative effort. The Bulldogs’ tight ends coach played a key role in recruiting at least six of the Bulldogs’ 32 signees, including two of their top early enrollees.

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ESPN Watch List offensive tackle Mason Cole's (Tarpon Springs, Fla./East Lake) recruiting tour added another stop on Friday. And much like the others, it was a productive one.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- To this point, no decommitment has resonated more loudly during Mark Richt’s Georgia tenure than when Da’Rick Rogers flipped from the Bulldogs to Tennessee just before national signing day in 2010.

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The No. 16 prospect in the nation was in Athens, Ga., over the weekend, as Reuben Foster (Auburn, Ala./Auburn) took his third official visit, this time to the University of Georgia. The 6-foot-1, 242-pound linebacker has visited Georgia many times, but this time there was something different about the campus.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- In reviewing Georgia’s seven recruiting classes since 2006 -- when ESPN entered the recruiting game -- last week, we opined that the Bulldogs’ 2009 haul was the best of the bunch. As the various member sites from Recruiting Nation collectively review their schools’ 2009 classes today, let’s take a closer look at what made that group so special.

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The recruitment of one of Georgia’s top remaining targets had been in limbo for a while after recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner left the Bulldogs to take a position at Auburn. Juco defensive tackle Toby Johnson (College Park, Ga./Hutchinson Community College) maintained that the Bulldogs were still his top team, but everything hinged on who was hired to replace Garner, Johnson’s position coach and primary recruiter.

Late Friday evening DawgNation received word that Mississippi State defensive line coach Chris Wilson accepted an offer to join Mark Richt’s staff. The hire has not been finalized, but a formal announcement is expected by Tuesday. Wilson was Johnson’s primary recruiter at Mississippi State and will continue to try to bring the talented defender to Athens.

“I think it is a good hire,” Johnson said. “Coach Wilson has put a lot of people in the league. He is a good coach, and I have a good relationship with him.”

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Five-star linebacker Matthew Thomas (Miami, Fla./Booker T. Washington) said he wanted to win a state championship before he would deal with his recruitment.

Last month he led Booker T. Washington to the Class 4A state title and now he’s ready to get down to business in preparations for a signing day decision.

“It felt good to win state,” Thomas said. It was the main goal from the beginning of the season and it feels good to accomplish your goals, especially after coming up short the year before.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Juco defensive tackle Toby Johnson (Hutchinson, Kan./Hutchinson C.C.) took his official visit to Georgia on Friday and left a few days later with a new leader.

“Georgia right now would be my favorite school at the time,” Johnson said. “I am not committed or nothing. I have got a couple more visits I’m going to take but after that I am going to be ready to make my decision. I really don’t have a time frame in mind.”

The 6-foot-4, 305-pound prospect said that it was the coaching staff’s sincerity that has the Bulldogs on top. After suffering a season-ending knee injury, Johnson was worried that the interest level in him might drop.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Mark Richt has consistently credited his coaching staff for its ability to work together and produce outstanding results.

It’s inevitable, however, that members of the staff will leave for other opportunities. After all, both coordinators -- Mike Bobo and Todd Grantham -- are starting to see their names mentioned as potential head coaches. And plenty of other UGA assistants would be in demand if they opted to seek employment elsewhere.

So the big question is how Richt and the Bulldogs will fare once the group dynamic changes within his staff.

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Georgia’s recent success against Florida has been a long time in coming. The Bulldogs had not beaten the Gators in back-to-back seasons in more than two decades, dating back to 1988-89. Florida has an 18-5 record over Georgia since 1990 so the rivalry has been mostly one-sided. But thanks to some recruiting success, Mark Richt has turned the annual showdown in Jacksonville, Fla., back into one of the most highly contested battles of the year.

And he did it with some ringers from the Sunshine State.

Quarterback Aaron Murray has struggled against the Gators but is 2-1 in his career against them. In his first win he completed four passes to tight end Orson Charles of Tampa, Fla. All-SEC kicker Blair Walsh, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., always said the Florida game was the biggest of the year and he scored 22 points against the Gators in his career. Keeping Murray upright this year was a freshman from Jacksonville, right tackle John Theus.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- After coming within 5 yards of playing for a national championship on Saturday, the Georgia Bulldogs really needed some good news on Sunday. To make matters worse, one of their top targets, wide receiver Ja’Quay Williams chose Texas A&M over Georgia on Sunday night. Missing out on a BCS bowl game did not help the mood in Athens, either.

Just when it seemed the Bulldogs could not catch a break on the field or on the recruiting trail, coach Mark Richt received a phone call. One of Georgia’s top targets, ESPN 150 athlete Tramel Terry (Goose Creek, S.C./Goose Creek) was on the line. Terry had gone quiet after a visit to Clemson, deciding to mull over how he would fit with the in-state Tigers. He had already decommitted from Georgia once and the pressure to remain in South Carolina weighed on him. Terry was torn between the two programs. But during the call to Richt, Terry revealed he had made a decision.

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