How UGA navigated COVID roadblocks with Zoom calls, creativity to sign touted class

A few days prior to Wednesday’s signing day festivities, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart posted a skit to his Twitter page. He’s rarely seen in front of the camera in a scripted acting capacity, but the barber needed to be called.

In a literal sense, Georgia announced the addition of a barber shop — a bonus recruiting tactic within the facilities race between SEC football programs. Smart, sitting alongside Georgia inside linebackers’ coach Glenn Schumann, had a question. Georgia wanted to create some mystery.

“Y’all,” Smart said in the video, “who’s going to be our barber?”

He sent a text message and the video panned to Scott Cochran’s office. The special teams coach looked at his phone. He smiled.

“I know just the guy,” Cochran said as the video ended.

That’s how Georgia gave a last pitch, with some suspense, to five-star outside linebacker Xavien Sorey Jr. The top-rated prospect out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida is known as “The Barber.” Georgia had to get its guy, and the social media hint became an out-of-the-box recruiting method.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sorey Jr. signed his national letter of intent to become a Bulldog as one of the prized pieces of Georgia’s 2021 class. He’s the No. 1 rated outside linebacker and the 20th-best prospect nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings that factor in all networks. The group, which includes many mid-year enrollees, made it official as the early signing period began.

The recruiting challenges during pandemic

Georgia has been in the same boat as every other college program in recruiting for the 2021 cycle. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic put the sports world on pause, in-person recruiting, campus visits and trips to prospects’ schools and homes have been non-existent. The on-field product has returned, but the NCAA dead period has continued, and is current locked in through mid-April 2021.

The Bulldogs have relied on Zoom video calls, film evaluation and virtual methods of recruiting over the past nine-plus months. A Smart-led program is one that recruits successfully based on physical tours of facilities, elaborate official visit meals and face-to-face interaction. Everything has flipped, and Georgia rounded out its class with the potential that some signees didn’t visit campus.

Different circumstances, similar result for Georgia.

Smart, known for his top-rated recruiting classes, did it again. As of Wednesday afternoon, Georgia has the No. 3 class nationally, after having the top-rated class in the 2020 cycle.

It didn’t come without its challenges, though.

“I have run out of creativity,” Smart said Monday. “There’s probably people a lot smarter than me out there because I can’t figure out what the next cutting-edge item is because we just do real talk at this point — get on the phone and talk on the phone like normal people and FaceTime and Zoom. There’s nothing left outside of the box.”

Georgia’s class is headlined by a quartet of five-stars — Sorey Jr., quarterback Brock Vandagriff, outside linebacker Smael Mondon and offensive tackle Amarius Mims. Eighteen prospects have signed their official paperwork, and the Bulldogs can add more prospects this week or again in the February period that starts with the traditional National Signing Day.

Some of Georgia’s signees have been tied to the program for quite some time, such as Vandagriff, cornerback David Daniel and running back Lovasea Carroll. They helped in recruiting efforts to pitch the program, based off of pre-pandemic experiences, to those who signed after March. Some of those later additions include wide receiver Jackson Meeks and four-star defensive tackle Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins.

“I would say it’s very hard for a recruit. Taking trips and being able to be around coaches and players had a big impact on me in terms of knowing which school I wanted to go to,” Georgia starting safety Lewis Cine said. He indicated that there’s a higher unpredictability in whether the prospect’s decision will work out due to the altered methods of communication. “I don’t feel like talking on Zoom or a video call that you get the feel for anything. You’re just talking on the phone and not in that environment. That makes it harder for them.”

Since March, Smart has made it clear that recruits were getting bombarded — via phone or virtually — by college coaches. They came at a higher volume than usual because it only took a few touches of a button. Georgia has found out that prospects are tired of playing the waiting game. They’re done with virtual communication, including taking high school classes online. Smart said most of the prospects want to be mid-year enrollees as a result, but the numbers game complicates it due to how many open scholarships Georgia has available for players to join early.

Georgia’s current players also are tired of Zoom, and they have more in-person interaction than a recruit would. These high school prospects are having to trust in relationships largely built over a computer screen.

For older players who built long-standing relationships, met coaches at showcase events and more, it’s tougher to put the so-called pandemic class into perspective.

“It would be hard as a recruit right now in these times,” senior offensive guard Ben Cleveland said. “I can’t imagine being a high-school kid trying to build those relationships over Zoom calls. I feel like our coaches do have a hold of it and can take advantage of those circumstances.”

Aside from a creative video wrinkle, Georgia hasn’t changed much in its recruiting approach. As Wednesday progressed, it brought the same result.

The Bulldogs recruited as usual.

“I would think that every one of these kids had been here at some point in time,” Smart said. “We’d been face-to-face with everyone.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 6:00 PM with the headline "How UGA navigated COVID roadblocks with Zoom calls, creativity to sign touted class."