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Georgia Tech Recruiting: Jackets coaching staff swarms Griffin

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 1: Quarterback TaQuon Marshall #16 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets throws a pass during their game against the Alcorn State Braves at Bobby Dodd Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 1: Quarterback TaQuon Marshall #16 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets throws a pass during their game against the Alcorn State Braves at Bobby Dodd Stadium on September 1, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images) /
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For our last article of January, we thought we’d share a more fun side of the recruiting trail as the Georgia Tech coaching staff “swarmed” top target Jamious Griffin.

Question: How can you tell when a coaching staff wants a recruit bad?

Answer: They send a large portion of their coaching staff to visit a recruit leading up to their commitment.

That’s exactly what the Georgia Tech coaching staff appeared to do on Thursday evening when they made an in-home visit to in-state four-star running back and top target Jamious Griffin. The Rome (GA) back will announce where he will play his college ball next Wednesday on National Signing Day and every school recruiting him is looking to get one last crack at convincing the top-25 running back nationally to come to play for their program.

The Jackets who are the favorites by both 247Sports’s and Rivals’s prediction tools is slated for an official visit to Florida State this weekend. It would make sense if the Jackets were trying to land an early commitment from Griffin or even look to convince the Rome standout to not take his official visit to Tallahassee this weekend.

Griffin shared a picture of the in-home visit by the Jackets coaching staff on Twitter on Thursday night.

https://twitter.com/JamiousGriffin/status/1091125389492146178

As you can see in the picture, the Jackets sent out eight coaches to visit Griffin on Thursday night. Fans may notice that one coach missing is Geoff Collins but don’t worry, Collins is only missing from the photo since he already used his in-home visit with Griffin during this recruiting cycle. Since head coaches only get to have an in-home visit with each recruit once during their recruitment, head coaches have to get creative, and sometimes that means sending a large portion of the coaching staff.

The coaches present during Griffin’s in-home visit were offensive line coach Brent Key, running backs coach Tashard Choice, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach David Patenaude, safeties coach Nathan Burton, cornerbacks coach Jeff Popovich, defensive line coach Larry Knight, defensive ends and outside linebackers coach Marco Coleman, and tight ends coach Chris Wiesehan.

With that being said, that means outside of Collins, the only two coaches not present during the in-home visit were defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker and wide receivers coach Kerry Dixon.

For the Jackets, the in-home visit comes on the last day that they possibly could visit him. With Griffin set to take an official visit to Florida State, he would be returning home on Sunday which means at that point, the Jackets could not have any face-to-face contact with Griffin heading into National Signing Day as it begins the final dead period of the 2019 recruiting cycle. Will it be enough though to land this elite running back? We’ll have to wait until next Wednesday to find out.