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Carver coach isn't happy with 'Dogs

by MARC WEISZER , Florida Times-Union


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ATHENS, Ga. - Georgia's decision to withdraw a football recruit's scholarship offer while he was on campus last weekend prompted the coach at Carver High School to ban the Bulldogs from recruiting at the Columbus school.

Dell McGee said Tuesday that Georgia rescinded a written offer made to Devin Burns while the senior-to-be quarterback was on a visit, along with his parents and four younger siblings, on Saturday and ready to make a verbal commitment.

"They won't be recruiting our school right now," McGee said. "It was just the way that everything happened. If they wanted to rescind on the offer letter with Devin, they should have communicated that to Devin prior to his family even coming up there."

Carver had eight players sign with colleges in February, including linebacker Jarvis Jones, who signed with Southern California. The program won a Georgia Class AAA championship in 2007.

The ban was first reported by Georgia High School Football Daily.

Carver defensive end Corey Crawford, who also made the trip to Georgia, was on the verge of committing to the Bulldogs, but McGee indicated they are now out of the picture.

"I've already addressed my kids, addressed my principal, addressed our county [athletic director] and everyone's aware of it and in support of it," McGee said.

Burns had notified Georgia's coaching staff that he would be traveling to Athens along with his parents, McGee said.

"They didn't know about his intent to commit, but that was his intent that day," McGee said.

A Georgia assistant coach informed a Carver assistant that the scholarship was being pulled before Burns committed, and the Carver assistant said that Georgia needed to tell Burns and his parents directly.

Georgia coach Mark Richt sent a scholarship offer letter to Burns and McGee after quarterbacks coach Mike Bobo evaluated Burns this spring and made an oral offer, McGee said.

Burns spoke to Richt on Sunday.

"He apologized and said they didn't handle it well," said McGee, a former NFL player who played at Auburn in the 1990s, when current Georgia assistants Rodney Garner and Stacy Searels were on staff. "It was just a bad job on their part. They were sorry. He understood my stance in regards to them not recruiting my school and us not allowing them to come into our school to see our kids."

Richt declined comment, citing NCAA rules, according to a spokesman.

Mike Farrell, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said Georgia should have told Burns' family well before they arrived in Athens that they were pulling the offer, but he said Burns is "probably kicking himself," for not committing earlier.

"If every written scholarship offer was binding, schools would only be able to offer 25 scholarships a year," Farrell said. "It's a numbers game. The coach at Carver knows how recruiting works. If you begin to fill up the boat, you start to realize, 'We have two quarterbacks we took last year.' And they didn't expect to get this many great defensive linemen in this class."

Since Burns received the scholarship offer from Georgia, the Bulldogs' recruiting class has filled up considerably. Georgia expects to sign 20 to 21 players in February and already has 17 public commitments.

"There's a business part to it, but at the same time, when you're talking about an in-state kid and an in-state university , in my experience that hasn't happened very often," McGee said. "The thing about it is Georgia still has scholarships left. It isn't like they ran out of scholarships."

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Burns is rated a three-star prospect by Rivals. He also has offers from Vanderbilt and Maryland.

Georgia is the latest Southeastern Conference school to have a high school say its recruiters are not welcome on campus.

Tennessee was banned from visiting Pahokee High after disparaging comments by new coach Lane Kiffin before things were smoothed over. Tucker High coach Franklin Stephens declared in January that South Carolina "was not welcome" at the school when linebacker Jonathan Davis, a Gamecocks commitment, had his scholarship offer pulled.

But six months later, South Carolina is still recruiting the program that won last year's Class AAAA state championship. An assistant on Steve Spurrier's staff visited Tucker this spring.

"I don't have institutional control to sit outside with guards or whatever and say, 'You can't come in here,'" Stephens said. "We go out of our way as coaches to make them comfortable and give them everything they need to try and get our kids recruited. My thing is we're not going to build a relationship."

Carver defensive tackle Gabe Wright is a highly regarded junior prospect, who told Scout.com that Georgia remains on his list, even after the Burns' incident.

"I would probably still have to say they are No. 1, but I just need to figure out what happened with Devin," Wright said.

Georgia coaches remain in contact with McGee, who said he received text messages from Bobo since Burns' visit.

"Ultimately," McGee said, "I've got to protect my kids."

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