You can see it coming a mile away.

  Probably the most popular form of negative recruiting that will be used against UGA this year will be Todd Grantham.

  Grantham is the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator, and he’s considered one of the college football’s brightest minds. Recruits want to play for him because he has NFL coaching experience, and they think that he can help put them in excellent position get to the league. Those are the positives.

  The negative for any elite defensive recruit that is considering UGA is this: Will Grantham, who got NFL feelers this off-season, still be around to coach me in a few years?

  What do you think? Do you think Grantham will still be at UGA in a few years?

  Because Grantham is such a hot name in coaching circles, it likely cost the Bulldogs one linebacker recruit this past year and nearly lost them another.

  You can expect this topic to be torpedoed heavily against the Bulldogs in recruiting battles for 2014 defensive prospects.

  It’s a very simple conversation between the coach of a competing college and a recruit, as one high school coach indicated. Here’s the summary:

•   Coach: “Grantham is a fine coach at Georgia. Do you think he’ll still be there to coach you?”
•   High school senior: “Hmmm. Well …”

   For UGA’s Mark Richt, it’s both a good and not-so-good situation. Of course he wants the best assistants in the world on his staff every year to help the Bulldogs win games. Who wouldn’t? And you could even make a case that it’s a bad sign for a head coach when he doesn’t have any assistants that are rumored for other jobs. Because that’s one trademark of a good coach – developing assistants (who all want to eventually be head coaches) for future promotions.

  So it’s a good-if-not-great situation for the season and the team’s performance, but not-so-good for recruiting. Richt has to deal with parents and recruits that worry Grantham will not be around for their college careers. Even though Grantham has three assistants that help him with the defense, he’s clearly the face of it. (Alabama has sort of the same kind of scenario with defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, but not many can picture Alabama’s defense without Nick Saban’s magic touch everywhere on it. And if Smart left, Saban could take it over in title, at least temporarily. Who would take over Grantham if he left? And would there be a complete overhaul of the defensive staff? These are questions that are being asked by recruits, especially after Grantham’s flirtations with the New Orleans Saints last month)

  We asked Richt how he planned to deal with this ongoing situation, which has been and will continue to be pounded against the Bulldogs on the recruiting trail. He’s well aware of it:

  “I think, if you look across the board, assistant coaches have come and they’ve gone all across America – and all across Southeastern Conference. And the thing that I tell these guys are what my intentions are: I tell them my intentions are to be at Georgia until I retire from coaching. And that’s my plan. I said that the day I got over here 12 years ago, and that theme hasn’t changed.

  “Since I’m the head of this program, we’re going to do things a certain way. We’re going to hire certain types of men, certain types of coaches. The caliber of the coaching staff at Georgia will always be outstanding.

  “There’s no question the University of Georgia is not going to change either. We’re one of the finest academic institutions in the Southeast. We’ve got some of the best sports programs, and one of the best football programs in America. I think if you asked any football coach across the country, ‘Do you know about Georgia? Do you think it’s a top 10 school?’ I think they would agree with that, and some would think it’s a top 5 school.’

  “We will always have great assistants here at Georgia. You know, we can’t control what everybody is going to do but neither can any other program sit around and promise they’re not going to have an assistant coach have an opportunity that he might take.”

  If you were an elite 2014 defensive recruit, what do you think about Richt’s comments? Do you trust him enough to replace any top assistant with another top assistant? Could he get somebody as good as Grantham if he left? Or would the attraction to playing defense for Georgia leave with Grantham?

And if you were Richt, how would you address this situation? Please post below.