Will Witherspoon was one of the top high school linebacker prospects in the country in 1998. Coming out of Rutherford High in Panama City, Fla., he was a highly sought-after recruit by schools in the SEC, ACC and beyond.
"(Florida State's) Bobby Bowden and (Florida's) Steve Spurrier were beating down the doors for him," said Steve Hardin, the coach at Rutherford.
Then a young assistant coach at Georgia named Brad Lambert got involved. Lambert -- who will be named the Charlotte 49ers' first head coach on Tuesday -- visited Witherspoon and Hardin.
"He had a great recruiting pitch," said Hardin. "He was really straight forward, didn't promise William anything but told him if he worked hard and did things the right way, there was a place for him at Georgia. He thought they could have a great relationship."
Witherspoon visited Georgia soon after. He came back and told Hardin he wanted to play for the Bulldogs, turning down offers from Florida State and Florida in the meantime.
"That was absolutely the work of Brad Lambert," said Hardin, who's now coaching in Florida.
Witherspoon went on to have a standout career at Georgia and played in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers. He's now with the Tennessee Titans.
Monday, February 28, 2011
The day Brad Lambert beat Spurrier, Bowden
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9 comments:
Yeah but that was also an opportunity to play at Georgia. A little different.
Lets look at what happened in 2010:
How about the day Stanford scored 68,
or VT scored 52, or Maryland scored 62, or the four other weeks in the season where they gave up over 30.
Ah, yes...bash any positive news. That makes your case stronger I guess. This makes me love the hiring more.
hey 3:33pm -- And Amato was selling the chance to play at NC State. Also, A little different.
I enjoyed the article about how an assistant for an SEC school was able to land a talented player 13 years ago.
think the article was trying to show that Lambert was a good recruiter. guess it could have been about him recruiting Aaron Curry to Wake as a two star kid and turning him into the 4th pick in the NFL draft...but that was so 2 years ago.
who are charlotte 49ers?
WOW.... he convinced a top recruit to play for The University of Georgia?? Don't they play in the SEC and have a long tradition of football achievments and proud winning tradition. Face, it assistants from all big schools do the leg work and close much of the commitments for recruits. He didn't beat out Bowden and Spurrier he had an equally, if not better opportunity for Will and he felt comfortable with the whole package, NOT just Mr. Lambert. Let's hope he quickly proves most skeptics wrong and start a program from scratch with no celebrity names or traditions or conference to be the dangling carrot for the top talent to matriculate and play some FB
Anon. 4:37 is Judy Rose? or Phil Dubois????
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