Georgia Tech will get into the satellite camp game. Coach Paul Johnson said Monday that the team will have a coaching presence this summer at three satellite camps, in Jacksonville, Fla., Birmingham, Ala., and Stockbridge.
Tech took action quickly after the ACC rescinded its ban on coaches working at camps outside of a 50-mile radius of campus. The conference’s actions quickly followed the NCAA board of directors’ decision last Thursday to overturn a rule that had been passed earlier in April that prohibited FBS coaches from holding or working at camps and clinics away from their schools.
“I think they had it right (before last week’s decision by the NCAA board of directors),” Johnson said from Reynolds Planation, where he was participating in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge golf tournament. “Basically, we’ll go a couple places.”
Johnson said the staff’s plan was to send two or three coaches to camps held in conjunction with Samford in Birmingham and Jacksonville University in Jacksonville. Tech has connections with both coaching staffs – Samford coach Chris Hatcher previously coached at Georgia Southern, where Johnson and offensive-line coach Mike Sewak both coached. Former Tech linebacker and graduate assistant Stephen Sylvester joined Jacksonville’s staff in January.
The camp in Stockbridge is being run by the Georgia Minority Coaches Association and will be held at Woodland High. According to its flyer, coaches from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Auburn, Mississippi State and several other schools will also attend.
Tech already recruits both the state of Alabama and north Florida. Johnson wasn’t convinced that a satellite camp would necessarily aid efforts.
“We’ll see if we find some hidden gem,” Johnson said. “But I like to think that we’re pretty thorough on where we recruit. We kind of know who we want to recruit. But never say never. You may always find somebody.”
That has been part of the argument for satellite camps, that they give prospects the opportunity to perform before coaches who might not otherwise know of them. The ACC and SEC were both in favor of the ban on satellite camps, in no small part because the camps have enabled schools outside the talent-rich Southeast to set up shot in the region. Another rationale is that satellite camps took recruiting away from a scholastic environment and toward a system more akin to AAU basketball.
Johnson said he didn’t feel strongly about the issue, but maintained that satellite camps were ridiculous.
“(Those in favor or satellite camps) use the argument that you’re not giving kids the chance to be evaluated,” he said. “Now what’s going to happen is you’re going to get a bunch of people dragging kids to 9 million camps, paying fees to go there. And I think you make it worse for them.”
Johnson’s proposal is for the NCAA to run regional combines in the style of the NFL and not charge students to attend.
“None of the coaches (would) run it,” he said. “And it’s just like the NFL combine. Coaches get to go watch.”
Johnson said that Florida State does not intend to send coaches to satellite camps. At the tournament, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said that it would be “kind of business as usual for us at Clemson,” meaning no coaches going to satellite camps.
“I don’t need to go somewhere to evaluate a young person,” he said. “I can do all of that. But I do need them to come to Clemson to really kind of make sure that it’s kind of the right match on both sides.”
North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said that his staff will not go to any camps – apparently the Stockbridge camp excepted – but didn’t rule it out for the future.
“We haven’t really talked it through,” he said. “We may go up north into Jersey, up in that area. We may go into Birmingham. There’s a lot of great areas that you could get into. You can go as far as Texas. But who knows? We’ll have to wait and see.”
