No. 1 Recruit Dylan Raiola Holds Unique Recruiting Event For Georgia Prospects After Mullet-Rocking Five-Star Couldn't Visit Athens

Dylan Raiola is committed to Georgia and he is trying to bring as much talent with him as possible. The nation's top-ranked, No. 1 overall recruit chose to play in Athens over 28 other offers, but was down to a final three with Nebraska and USC.

Now that Raiola is set to play for the Bulldogs, there is a direct ripple effect for other four and five-star recruits who want to join him. Jeremiah Smith, the nation's top-ranked receiver committed to Ohio State, is among them.

Smith was on-campus at Georgia for the team's annual 'Scavenger Hunt' over the weekend. As was No. 5 overall prospect K.J. Bolden, four-star lineman Casey Poe, four-star athlete Sacovie White, five-star receiver, four-star wide receiver Ny Carr and four-star cornerback Demello Jones, among others.

Five-star, in-state, top-ranked linebacker Sammy Brown was not on campus.

The mullet-rocking freak athlete, who lives just 30 minutes up the road in Jefferson, Ga., was busy. Brown had to help his dad cut down and move a tree in his backyard. It's not like he hasn't been to Athens before, so it wasn't crucial to have him there.

Raiola, though, disagreed about Brown's absence not being a big deal and wanted to connect with his potential future teammate to make his pitch for why he should join him. So he did!

Dylan Raiola is recruiting as hard as the staff.

Before getting on a flight out of the Peach State, Raiola hopped in a car and drove north. Brown had finished with his tree-chopping duties and welcomed a group of top Georgia recruits to his high school.

They spent the afternoon getting to know one another, developing a rapport and catching passes from the Bulldogs' highest-rated quarterback since Justin Fields.

Brown is not committed to Georgia, nor are many of the other prospects that took the short trip up to Jefferson. Some of them, like White, are committed elsewhere.

Raiola doesn't care. So long as the Bulldogs are trying to get them to join the class or flip, as is he.

And what happened on Sunday is pretty unprecedented.

This was not the first time that a group of recruits got together for a workout by any means. However, for Raiola and a group of prospects to load up, drive 30 minutes outside of town, and workout together after taking an on-campus visit — just because one top recruit couldn't make it — is rather uncommon.

Raiola had been verbally committed to Georgia for less than a week entering Saturday. But he knows that if he wants to win national championships, as the folks in Athens have become accustom, he needs to surround himself with top talent.

So while his recruitment is over, Raiola has work to do recruiting others! It seemed to go a long way for Brown, who is also considering Tennessee, Oklahoma, Clemson and Ohio State, among others.

I think it would be really cool to be part of that class. It's going to be a historic class probably up there for the best in history and it would be cool to be part of it and I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Will Raiola's unique approach to recruiting his own class pay off? Only time will tell, but it sure feels like there is a lot of momentum that is only continuing to roll in northeast Georgia.