Smack in the middle of SEC country, you’d think Georgia State would struggle on the recruiting trail, relegated to the scraps that the big, bad wolves leave behind.
But for the Atlanta-based Panthers, recruiting is not about stars and seduction, trying to lure top prospects with false promises and unrealistic dreams.
What the Panthers are looking for is mutual admiration.
“We recruit men who want to be here,” coach Shawn Elliott said. “They are good football players. I don’t sell our university. I don’t persuade a young man he has to come here. I don’t want to have to convince, I want to have to educate. We present what we have to offer, the education and the opportunities he can have from coming here. If they don’t want that, I don’t want them here.”
With three postseason appearances in the last five years — including Tuesday’s Arizona Bowl matchup against Wyoming — something appears to be working.
Lo and behold, the Panthers keep rising in the recruiting rankings, from 247Sports.com’s 127th-ranked class in 2016 and 105th in 2017 to 95th in 2018 and 98th in 2019. The Panthers’ 2020 signing class ranks 89th nationally, the first time the program has cracked the top 90. (Arizona, by comparison, is 69th).
Wide receiver Jacob Freeman, the team’s top-rated recruit and a local product from Hogansville, Georgia, spurned offers from Baylor and Cincinnati, among others. Hulking offensive tackle Chandler Durham from nearby McDonough, chose the Panthers over Nebraska.
“You better have a battleground,” Elliott said. “The state you’re gonna recruit — the Georgias, North Carolinas, South Carolinas, Floridas, Alabamas — you better build your rep. We’re not going to be well-known in the state of Texas. I don’t want a guy to have to fly over 37 schools to get to our school. I want to go to where our coaching staff has a reputation, and I want to set a footprint in those areas.”
It helps when your backyard is perhaps the hotbed of college football.
“The Southeast plays great football. Why not build out from right here in Atlanta and just branch it out?, Elliott said. “Three hours, you’re in South Carolina; three, you’re in Charlotte. Get into Tennessee in an hour and a half. You can take an hour flight and be in Florida. Bama’s an hour south.”
Greenville, South Carolina, product Jalen Tate landed at Georgia State on the strength of those local relationships, spurning offers from Sun Belt beast Appalachian State and Akron. The defensive back prospect will enroll at GSU next month.
“Jalen came to our camp his sophomore year; his dad and Coach Elliott were good buddies, but I didn’t realize this when he was a sophomore,” Georgia State safeties coach and recruiting coordinator Chris Collins said. “We liked him — moved well, good instincts — and junior year, he came to camp and we offered him. I’m in Coach’s office one morning, and he says, ‘Yeah, I coached Angus (Tate’s father).’ No, I didn’t know that! There was already a sense of trust and respect already built. That helped us tremendously in the recruiting process.”
It certainly makes things easier for the coaching staff.
“I’m not chasing guys with 50 offers only to finish second,” Elliott said. “We want good, tough, hard-nose football players. I don’t write them a letter every day and tell them how great they are. I say we are what we are, if you like it, come join us, if you don’t like us, we’ll shake your hand and wish you luck.”
Listen to Power 5 conference assistant coaches talk, and their so-called dream jobs often sound like a nightmare, grown men forced to flagellate themselves in front of 15-year-olds who have proven precisely nothing.
“In the SEC, it’s about the stroking of the egos,” Elliott said. “Am I going to write 30 letters on his birthday? Have all the recruiting assistants tweet him every single day? When they get here, I’m gonna bust their tail. There is not going to be the constant patting on the back once they get here.”
Elliott would know: He coached with Steve Spurrier at South Carolina before going to Georgia State.
Collins, his recruiting coordinator and go-to-guy would, know too. A fast riser in the assistant coaching ranks, Collins was named to the 2018 American Football Coaches Association 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute, and in 2015, he was selected to participate in the NFL-NCAA Coaches Academy.
He regularly trades tales with some of the top young assistant coaches in the country. He wouldn’t trade lives with them. He hears their war stories.
At Georgia State, the assistant coaches try to stay above that muck. They believe there is plenty to go around.
“It starts with the top,” Collins said. “Coach Elliott is a big-time relationships guy. For us, being in a really rich football state and region in the Southeast, the majority of our staff has been located here the entirety of our career and knowing these high school coaches, knowing the people in the community, being able to lean on those relationships to find the ins-and-outs of the kid you’re recruiting. For us, it’s not about can they play, it’s about the right fit.”
