Calhoun coaches four-star wide receiver Ny Carr, who is committed to Miami, and four-star tight end Landen Thomas, who is committed to Florida State. Both were once Georgia commits and top priorities for the Bulldogs before flipping to the Hurricanes and Seminoles, respectively. That’s the price Georgia pays — every top program looking to take the next step knows it has to be competitive in Georgia, where high school football reigns supreme.

But even when Smart and his staff get beat, it’s not necessarily an indictment on the program, high school coaches say.

Even after five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola flipped his commitment to Nebraska on Monday, the Bulldogs are on pace to finish with the nation’s top class.

“Right, wrong or indifferent, (if the situation is), ‘Hey, we missed on this kid in-state or for some reason he just doesn’t want to come here,’ they are good enough to go nationally and get a replacement,” Calhoun said.

NIL could be a factor in some cases. But the trend pre-dates NIL rights, which began in July 2021.

And it’s not as though the Bulldogs aren’t doing their part in local high schools.

“They’re unbelievable. They’re tenacious,” said Travis Noland, the head coach at Jefferson High School and the home of five-star linebacker Sammy Brown, who committed to Clemson over the Bulldogs. “There’s not gonna be a player in the state of Georgia that they don’t know about, I can tell you that for sure. They do an unbelievable job.”

In addition to Brown heading to Clemson, Noland has sent players to Texas A&M and LSU in the last five years. Georgia didn’t do anything wrong to lose them, he said, “It’s just the way that it’s worked out.”

Just last week, Noland saw Smart at the Georgia high school state championship games in Atlanta, where the Bulldogs’ head man talked to everyone around him — from high school coaches to young kids.

Even with NIL playing a significant role in recruiting, there is a place for relationship-building — something Smart learned under Alabama coach Nick Saban.

“He’s tenacious. He’s all-knowing. Anybody that spends time around him, it’s amazing — he knows everything that’s going on in the state of Georgia,” Noland said of Smart. “To me, he’s an energizer bunny.”

Noland said that it can sting for high school coaches when so many of their players dream of playing for the in-state flagship university only for that program to snub them. But the Georgia staff’s presence in high schools proves to coaches that just because the Bulldogs have gone national, they’re not rolling over in-state.

Some players simply do not want to stay in the state.

“Being close and having it where family can see you and get to you really fast, that’s always a benefit, especially when they’re the No. 1 program in the country two years running,” Buford coach Bryant Appling said this summer. “(But) sometimes that plays on the different side of the fence with some kids because some kids just want to get out and see a little bit more than just this corner of the nation of this corner of the state.”

Georgia has missed on some key in-state talent: Will Anderson (2020) was an evaluation miss. Tank Bigsby (2021) was a recruiting miss. Justice Haynes (2023) was in-state and the son of a former Georgia player, Verron Haynes, who caught the Hobnail Boot pass against Tennessee. But Alabama beat out Georgia for the younger Haynes.

But Georgia has gotten some of the right wins: In 2019, when Georgia signed only two of the top 13 players in the state, one of them was Travon Walker, a future No. 1 overall pick. In 2022, Georgia signed only two of the top eight players in the state, but they were five-star safety Malaki Starks, who has lived up to the hype, and five-star defensive end Mykel Williams, who has been a two-year starter.

The geography of the state is a factor. The Atlanta area includes more transplants who may not have grown up Georgia fans or don’t have the same pull to go to Athens. The Bulldogs have finished better with prospects out of Middle and South Georgia: Walker (Thomson), Williams (Columbus), Starks (Jefferson), Nolan Smith (Savannah), Amarius Mims (Cochran), CJ Allen (Barnesville) and Warren McClendon (Brunswick) are among those. There was also five-star Tate Ratledge from Rome in the northeast corner of the state.

“Coach Smart is a South Georgia guy, so he definitely makes his presence known down south,” Calhoun said. “But they do a great job of showing face because they could just say, ‘Hey, we’re Georgia, and we don’t have to show our face because of who we are.’ But that’s not the way that you do it, and that’s not the way that they’re doing it.”

Georgia has mined its contacts for three-star recruits who outplayed their rankings: Ladd McConkey (Chatsworth), Javon Bullard (Milledgeville), Daijun Edwards (Moultrie) and most notably, Stetson Bennett (Blackshear). Those players were all from small towns outside of Atlanta.

Smart began his tenure with a national approach, but if he hadn’t won early, he might have had to be less ambitious. Then he went to the national championship game in his second year, and the Georgia brand was able to get in the door with basically every national recruit.

Smart’s philosophy is largely derived from the NFL, just as Saban’s is at Alabama. When evaluating players, the Bulldogs are picky, about size, speed and variables. That may eliminate some in-state prospects, just as it would eliminate prospects in Florida, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.

Those who have been part of Smart’s program say they do have an in-state board and that Smart makes it a point of emphasis. But the bigger point of emphasis is to sign the best players.

“It makes sense,” Noland said. “It’s never been about anything they’ve done negative or anything like that. It’s just the way that it’s worked out.”