Steve Spurrier, who has thrown some infamous verbal jabs at UGA over the years, gave the Bulldogs some love in recruiting.

The South Carolina coach was asked if he thought that beating UGA three years in a row really helped the Gamecocks with recruiting in the state of Georgia. South Carolina signed six from Georgia earlier this month, but they didn’t really go head-to-head with the Bulldogs on any kids, unlike past years.

“I don’t know how much winning three in a row against them helps there,” Spurrier told the AJC. “It just helps that we’ve gone 11-2. I don’t think we out-recruit Georgia very seldom. We may get one every now and then that could go to Georgia. But overall, Georgia gets most of the Georgia kids. Not all of them, but they’ve almost always recruited the state well, the ones they are after.

“You know, there’s a whole bunch of guys there, and they can’t recruit them all. And I tell people all the time, if there’s 40 defensive backs that sign, how do we know who is going to the best in college? Someone is going to rate a 5-star and another one a 3-star. But again, who knows until they go to college and start playing?

“There are so many good players in that state. Maybe Georgia gets the most of the top-ranked ones. But there’s plenty of outstanding players after that.”

This year was unusual for UGA as it missed on a few of the state’s elite or top-ranked players, with only one (Tray Matthews) out of top 12 choosing to stay home and suit up for the Bulldogs, according to Rivals.com.

However, UGA still had another solid overall performance, with the Bulldogs finishing at No. 12 in the Rivals team rankings.

And if some of the team’s top signees, such as Tray Matthews or Shaq Wiggins, had committed on signing day in front of a national TV audience rather than months earlier, some of the public’s perception about UGA’s 2013 class would be completely different.

“If some of our guys had decided then (on signing day), people would do backflips,” UGA coach Mark Richt said.

“I think we did sign a bunch of great football players. Just because a guy committed early and stayed true to his commitment, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be excited about it. We should be very excited about it. Matthew Stafford and AJ Green, those guys committed about a year in advance. And so, just because they don’t commit on the last day, it doesn’t really diminish our class.

“I think, emotionally, maybe it takes something out of our fan base as they are watching kids make their decisions on TV at the end. And certainly, it’s not like we didn’t want those guys at the end. I’m not going to try to diminish the fact that we wanted them to come to Georgia.

“But it doesn’t, in my mind, diminish the entire class because a couple of guys chose to go elsewhere.”

 UGA got a boost last week when JC DT Toby Johnson signed late with the Bulldogs over Auburn and Mississippi State. UGA has 32 signees for 2013.