Mark Richt (AJC file)
UGA's Mark Richt gave his opinion on Thursday about this week's hottest recruiting topic, satellite football camps.
Some colleges are taking advantage of an NCAA loophole to serve as "guest coaches" at football camps more than 50 miles away from campus. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh will be at nine camps in seven states this June, while both Penn State and Nebraska are coming to Georgia State's camps this summer.
It's against SEC rules for SEC coaches to take advantage of the loophole, so naturally the SEC coaches are against it. Here's what Richt said:
“It has come up in our league meetings, (and) I would prefer everybody stayed on their own campus quiet frankly. If you are going to do a satellite camp, you have to decide how many and where. You have to be thinking about your staff. I mean how many more times do you want them to leave their wife and kids to go do something like that? We all love to recruit, we all want to see kids perform, but where do you end up drawing the line? I just don’t know.”
Here are the rest of the five recruiting stories people are talking about going into the weekend:
Demetris Robertson (AJC)
2. Will Demetris Robertson sign his NLI? Robertson is the nation's No. 1-ranked "athlete" prospect for this year. Will he follow in the footsteps of Roquan Smith and not sign his NLI this February? There's speculation about it after his legal guardian, Carlos Robertson, discussed the topic with another publication. Here's what Carlos told the AJC on Thursday: "We don't have any plans to do that, but it is something that we are studying. I'm doing my research. As a parent, I want to make sure I'm covering all the bases. With everything going on in recruiting, you've got to take a look at it. If you're a parent, you've got look at everything after what happened with Roquan Smith. Right now, I'm in research mode. We don't plan to do that, but I don't want to leave any stones unturned. Being his parent, I've got to make sure that everything is right." What appeals to Robertson about Roquan's innovative strategy? "What happened with Roquan, with the (UCLA) coach hanging him out there to dry like that, it is a cause for concern. When you look at things like that, it catches your attention." There are only a handful of elite prospects in the state that have the leverage to pull off that maneuver, and Robertson is surely one of them.
3. Georgia Tech in the hunt. Don't count out Tech for Demetris Robertson. Yellow Jackets assistant Lamar Owens stopped by Savannah on Thursday to check on the rising senior. "Georgia Tech was actually his first offer," Carlos said. "We've had a good relationship with Coach Owens since his freshman year. It has been a long, long time. Coach Owens is going to keep recruiting him. Georgia Tech was first one there, and they're going to be there until the end. He's very interested in Georgia Tech. He likes the education-side of things with Georgia Tech, along with the other schools like Stanford and Notre Dame. He likes schools that have a strong academic reputation. He's very interested in looking at Georgia Tech. We like them a whole lot." Stanford and UGA are among the rumored frontrunners for Robertson, who won't commit until signing day.
5-star WR Terry Godwin (AJC)
4. UGA two-sport star? If you haven't heard about it already, UGA 5-star football signee Terry Godwin turned some heads by make an impromptu appearance at goalie for his high school soccer team this past week. Godwin has started for four years in three other varsity sports at Callaway – football, basketball, and baseball. And he told the AJC that he is considering an invitation to join UGA's baseball team as a walk-on. "I'm still trying to decide on that because everybody said there's a lot on you in college with school and football. But if I can go up there and handle it very easy, I'll go out for baseball my freshman year." What do UGA's football coaches think about that? "They said they are fine with it. They let me meet with the baseball coach, Coach Stricklin. And he's all good with that, too."
5. How about Georgia State? As reported by the AJC's Doug Roberson, GSU got a commitment from 4-star basketball recruit D'Marcus Simonds of Gainesville High School. Simonds de-committed from Mississippi State last month. Simonds is a 2016 prospect, meaning that GSU will have to sweat it out for around six more months before signing scholarship papers.
