Paul Johnson (right center) after the dramatic OT win vs. UGA (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
What impact did the UGA win have for Georgia Tech’s recruiting efforts among kids from the state of Georgia?
Last month, Tech signed 27 football recruits, including 17 from the state of Georgia.
This past season, Tech edged UGA 30-24 in overtime, snapping a five-game losing streak against their archrivals.
"I don't know that it does a great deal," Tech coach Paul Johnson told the AJC on Tuesday.
“It can’t hurt. But it still doesn’t change the fact that the two schools are totally different, in different conferences, and recruit some of the same kids but a lot of different kids.”
For whatever reasons, Tech avoided the drama around signing day that affected so many other colleges across the nation. In this year’s class, Tech only had one recruit switch to another school, while the Yellow Jackets flipped three.
Some of that unusual stability could be attributed to Tech’s strong finish to the season with wins over Clemson, UGA and in the Orange Bowl. It was Tech’s first 11-win season since capturing the national championship in 1990.
“Most of the recruiting class was pretty much committed before we hit the second half of the season; If anything, (our finish) probably helped with that we didn’t have many defections at the end,” Johnson said. “So it probably helped hold everything together. Hopefully, we’ll have more balance moving forward. But that’s hard to say. I think it is what it is.”
Georgia Tech will likely sign a much smaller class for 2016. The Yellow Jackets got their first commitment a few weeks ago with running back Xavier Gantt of Buford High School.
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