Super 11: Early college commits the norm

By TODD HOLCOMB

For the AJC

When it debuted in 1985, the AJC’s Super 11 team was designed to showcase Georgia’s best high school players and spark interest in the coming season. Part of the intrigue was looking at which college teams had the inside track on each star player.

But a generation later, the suspense is gone. For the first time in the 25 years, every player selected to the 2009 Super 11 team has made his college choice.

Until 1998, when McEachern quarterback A.J. Suggs had settled early on Tennessee, no Super 11 player had committed before the season.

“It’s the fad to get it out of the way before their senior season,’’ said Gainesville coach Bruce Miller, who has two players — Tai-ler Jones and Blake Sims — on this year’s Super 11 team. “Right now, it’s not cool if you haven’t committed early.’’

That’s part of it, but there’s more.

College coaches are scouting players much earlier, some when they are freshmen. They are asking for commitments from juniors. If the players don’t jump on those offers, they might be taken away.

“That’s a nasty business now,’’ said Jefferson County’s J.B. Arnold, coach of Super 11 quarterback B.J. Bostic. “When a kid finds a school he likes, I tell him to go ahead and commit and get that taken care of.”

In 2007, Arnold coached a Super 11 lineman named A.J. Harmon who committed to Clemson, then changed his mind, favoring Georgia.

According to Arnold, Harmon asked Georgia coaches for some time to be sure. But when Harmon called back to commit, Georgia coaches told him his spot was taken by someone who called ahead of him. So Harmon was back with Clemson.

Later, Georgia called again saying a scholarship had opened up because a player transferred out of the program. Harmon committed and ultimately signed with Georgia.

Aware of that saga and others like it, Bostic took Arnold’s advice. On June 11, he became the fourth player to commit to Georgia Tech, whose coaches told him they might have only 12 spots available this year.

“I knew that if I’m seriously considering that school, they’re going to be over with [recruiting] before the season started,” Bostic said. “If I really wanted to go to this school, I didn’t want to waste an opportunity to go ahead and get that commitment in.”

And with a commitment comes peace of mind, some say.

“They make a commitment so the phone calls will stop,” said Douglass coach Kenny Barrow, whose Super 11 defensive tackle, Garrison Smith, committed to Georgia on July 19. “The recruiting process has gotten so wild now that the top players want to be able to concentrate on their season and not be bothered.”

At Calhoun, coach Hal Lamb likes that part of it. Super 11 receiver Da’Rick Rogers is one of four players on his team who have committed. That means Calhoun, a state contender in Class AA, won’t have the distraction of so many college coaches calling and visiting every week.

On the flip side, Lamb worries that recruiting is speeding along too fast.

“It’s getting out of hand because [college coaches] have to see kids so early,” Lamb said. “They’re asking about sophomores and even freshmen. Some players don’t develop until they are seniors.”

But a couple of Super 11 players say the evils of recruiting are exaggerated. Sims said he felt Alabama’s offer would’ve remained on the table even if he had waited until closer to signing day in February.

Henry County receiver Markeith Ambles, who committed to Tennessee on July 28, says his decision wasn’t about anxiety of having an offer pulled or the need to focus on his senior year.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with our senior season,” Ambles said. “It [recruiting] is not too hard on people. It doesn’t stress people out the way people say.”

Ambles’ motivation, he said, was to help Tennessee. He said he’s been talking to other Tennessee recruits, encouraging them to commit.

“Once I committed, other people started committing,” Ambles said. “Recruits want to be around good players. They don’t want to be in a bad class.”

At least 11 Georgia players don’t have to worry about that.

-- Provided by Georgia High School Football Daily