Grass Roots Recruiting: Georgia

EAST LANSING - When Michigan State played host to a van load of Georgia football prospects for camp on June 14, it might not necessarily lead to verbal commitments or the establishment of a talent pipeline. But it did signal a new line of communication and interest into the heart of one of the nation's best football hot beds.

Derrick Tatum, a lead trainer at Eagle Eye Sports, drove the van up I-75 from Atlanta with several players aboard, ranging from Rivals250 defensive end D'Andre Walker to recently un-offered super sleeper defensive back Hakeem Bailey.

They made stops at Cincinnati, Kentucky, Michigan State and Michigan. Walker, three-star defensive tackle Daquan Hawkins and 2017 cornerback Jamyest Williams can command an audience with any college coaching staff in America. Those guys get the attention. And then other guys within the Eagle Eye program, such as Bailey and fellow underrated defensive back Kendall Quarles, have the goods to capitalize on the attention.

That's kind of how it went at Michigan State's one-day elite camp. Walker and Hawkins added an MSU scholarship offer to their deep collections. Williams, a rising sophomore, came north with offers from Clemson and Georgia Tech. After their visit to East Lansing, the Georgia van stopped at the University of Michigan for camp. The Wolverines offered Williams shortly afterward, and MSU might not be far behind with an offer.

Meanwhile, Bailey hit the campuses as a complete unknown, and left with a slew of offers from Mid-America Conference coaches who were present, and landed squarely on the Spartans' radar. So did Quarles.

And it all made perfect sense.

The state of Georgia ranks behind only Florida, Texas and California in producing NFL Draft Picks. Michigan State recently uncovered one of them and helped turn that man into Darqueze Dennard.

Michigan State has an open mind for under-recruited Georgians, a penchant for developing top-notch defensive backs and recent clout of having won the Big Ten, the Rose Bowl and finished No. 3 in the nation with the best defense in the country.

Those particulars, combined with the fact that Tatum and his people at Eagle Eye have had a long relationship with Curtis Blackwell in sending their players to Blackwell's Sound Mind Sound Body camps, led to a natural networking session earlier this month at the Skandalaris Center and Spartan Stadium.

Tatum and his players spoke with Dennard, and Blackwell. They met with Mark Dantonio and renewed acquaintances with MSU's Georgia recruiter, Dave Warner. And in the process, they impressed Spartan defensive backs coach Harlon Barnett.

"After Harlon watched Hakeem, he said, 'I like him a lot,'" Tatum said. "He said he liked him from Sound Mind a couple of days earlier. He said, 'He's crazy athletic. That man can jump.'

"He said, 'I want to see more of him. I want to see everything you've got (film-wise).'"

Up 1-75 and now squarely on the map. That was Eagle Eye's intentions.

'They Loved It'

Eagle Eye Sports describes itself on its Facebook page as being an Atlanta-based company designed to connect high school athletes to colleges at the D1, D2, D3 and NAIA levels. They delivered on that mission statement in East Lansing, with college coaches from Kent State, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Saginaw Valley State, Wayne State and others stepping forward to offer scholarships, while MSU - the host school - watched closely as well.

Walker and Hawkins are already known commodities.

Hawkins (6-4, 301) is a three-star DT from Atlanta Westlake. He has offers from Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech and several others. Michigan State offered during his weekend visit.

Walker (6-3, 212) is a four-star DE from Fairburn (Ga.) Langston Hughes High School. Rivals.com lists him as the No. 25 player in Georgia, the No. 9 weakside DE and the No. 215 player in the country.

Walker has offers from Alabama and everyone else. MSU threw an obligatory offer his way weeks ago. He told Rivals.com at Sound Mind Sound Body that Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida are the early leaders. During the trip through the Midwest, he said Michigan State was his main school of interest in this part of the country.

Michigan State might not yet have the recruiting pull to beat Georgia for an in-state four-star recruit. But the Spartans beat a slew of SEC schools for four-star RB Madre London of Fort Lauderdale last year. The Spartans are by no means a favorite for Walker or Hawkins, but Michigan State can't be automatically shrugged into the also-ran pile.

The Georgians were curious about Michigan State as they arrived in East Lansing, and the visit didn't hurt MSU's chances.

"They loved it," Tatum said. "Daquan and D'andre loved it. I think the coaching staff here, to me, is the best selling point that they have. When you see the stability that they have, having been together on defense for 11 years, no staff has that. A lot of guys at other schools, they're job-chasing.

"They loved everything about it. Walker had already been offered by Michigan State, so he was looking forward to it. They offered Daquan in the office after the tour or the school.

"They loved it. There is nothing you can say bad about Michigan State. They have stability, they win, the facilities are A-1."

Blackwell, Michigan State's director of camps and college advancement, told them that would be the case.

"Curtis Blackwell is a guy I've worked with the last few years," Tatum said. "I've been doing to Sound Mind camp for the last five years. He has actually helped us grow our business at Eagle Eye Sports. When he got the Michigan State job he told me I need to bring my Georgia boys here. That's why we came - Curtis Blackwell."

Blackwell might have been the calling card, but Dennard and his first-round NFL Draft status and Jim Thorpe Award, from tiny Dry Branch, Ga., could level with Tatum's players unlike anyone else.

Darqueze The Ambassador

Dennard's All-America status is impressive. More impressive to the recruits is the fact that just weeks after being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round, Dennard was in East Lansing, staying tight with his former teammates and coaches, and training under Ken Mannie. Dennard is in no hurry to leave the facilities and environment that brought out the best in him.

"Dennard said he came here to work and the coaches made him a person, made him a better player, made him a better man," Tatum said. "That's big. Football is only going to be there for a short period of time. We have to develop ourselves to understand that it's going to be over soon, so developing yourself as a man, to me, is a major factor.

"What they did with Dennard is impressive. That's big because he was a guy that was unknown, unranked and came here and did so much. They aren't just getting great players. They are getting players and developing them. That's major.

"What I like about these guys at Michigan State is that when they offer a kid, he can commit. They aren't throwing around any bogus offers. Basically they are going to do their due diligence and if they offer a kid, it's a committable offer. I respect that. I don't like you offering one of our kids and then a week later he wants to commit and you're like, 'Oh. Hold on. Hold on.' Then why did you offer me? I would rather a school do their due diligence."

Hakeem Bailey (6-0, 181) is an athletic dynamo from Mableton (Ga.) Pebblebrook. Prior to his visit to Michigan State, his Rivals.com bio showed zero offers. Now he has checkmarks in the offer column from Ball State, CMU, Eastern Michigan, Toledo and Ohio University, thanks to the Midwestern road trip and his strong performance at MSU's camp.

In addition to having all of the size, speed and jumping ability you would like to have at the cornerback position, he also showed ball skills, deep ball judgement, change-of-direction and a steely ability to finish plays.

"He was way under the radar," Tatum said.

Maybe a little bit like Dennard was.

"Kind of," Tatum said. "But people are going to know about Hakeem now. He has been training with me for the last two and a half months. Believe me, two months ago, he would come to practice and he wouldn't even take reps. He would take one rep, and then not get back in there.

"I had a talk with him. I said, 'Are you scared or something?' I said, 'You're 6-foot-1, you have a 40-inch vertical, and you aren't taking reps in practice. How can I trust you to go to a camp?'

"And then all the sudden the next day at practice, a new man came out. His confidence went up. Now he's at the camps and he takes all the reps and he's been impressive.

"He's still learning. He has played cornerback in the past, but no one taught him how to play it until two months ago. So his upside is through the roof right now."

Bailey didn't participate in all the tests at Michigan State's camp. For instance, he didn't test in the vertical jump because the June 14 tour stop marked his fourth camp in four days. Campers often elect not to test rather than put up a number that might only be 90 or 95 percent of their usual maximum.

But Bailey is still working to establish a level of consistency.

"Kentucky is close to offering," Tatum said. "He didn't perform at his best at Kentucky. If he had performed there like he did at Michigan State, they would have offered.

"He is crazy-athletic. Very physical. And now he's confident."

Quarles (6-2, 190) doesn't lack confidence. Quarles, of Mableton (Ga.) Pebblebrook High, is the best hitter of the Eagle Eye troop, although that's not something that can be displayed in a shirts-and-shorts camp. On Saturday, his feet and athleticism were tested, and he was solid.

Quarles drew offers from Ball State, Bowling Green, Indiana State and Findlay while at the MSU camp.

Meanwhile, safety Will Harper, of Sandy Creek, Ga., drew offers from Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green. And 5-foot-9, 183-pound 2016 running back Russell Halimon of Acworth (Ga.) Allatoona High drew offers from Eastern Michigan, Toledo and Saginaw Valley State. He rushed for 1,300 yards last year as a sophomore.

And the bus rolls on, with Michigan State hoping to become a major player with Hawkins and Walker and get return visits in the fall or winter, and with Bailey hoping that his fall film and the recruiting domino game results in a Spartan offer.

Tatum's van trip to East Lansing might not yield a Spartan commitment and signature this year, but new data points on the GPS have been established, relationships have been formed and strengthened, and the next time Michigan State develops a big-timer out of Georgia, the Spartans might not have to resort to mining an unknown out of the dusty backroads of Dry Branch. The Spartans might be getting into position to do more front-door recruiting of Georgia's best and best-known.