quote:
And it still amazes me that with all the resources, the nearly singular position as a football school in the state ... And in a state that has a ton of HS football, that UGa has not been more dominant.
Clemsoning became a thing but realistically UGa was "clemsoning" more and esrlier than Clemson

But it seems things are heading the right way now...

I think people overvalue large recruiting pools. What being located in a large one like Florida, Texas, or Georgia does is give you a higher floor for incoming talent and make it easier to exceed that floor with less work than someone located outside but it's not an automatic thing. Your baseline incoming class should be marginally higher with minimal effort compared to a school further outside. But because recruiting is capped - only so many scholarships per team per class the effect isn't quite as big as it would've been say, 40 years ago when there was less travel and people were less likely to want to go too far from home.

Now, your brand, facilities, tradition, coaching staff, NIL collective, campus, etc. are far more important. Unlike in years past, grandma and your 3rd cousin twice removed can watch the games from virtually anywhere on the planet (and for Vol fans - on the International Space Station) and mom and dad can hop a plane if they want to be there in person.

UGA's struggles in the past had more to do with trying to cross from being very good to great but while they were doing that they were also surrounded by strong rivals that were also competing for talent. The past few cycles, however, have been a great time for UGA to build up their program and take advantage (and they finally did). Florida and Auburn have been trainwrecks,