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Back when West Virginia plucked a graduate assistant from Alabama and named Doug Belk its cornerbacks coach, we anticipated a secondary benefit. Belk would recruit in Georgia, and the Mountaineers would on occasion be better for it.

WVU circled Georgia, and specifically Atlanta and a two-hour radius around the airport, a few years ago, and the Peach State was a big-time winner in this year’s NFL draft. But the Mountaineers were not alone in their approach.

Georgia is populated and talented, but Georgia is not packed with colleges. There’s the University of Georgia, which is king, and Georgia Tech, which has sticky admissions and a very particular offense. The Bulldogs are front and center, and Georgia Tech is a few steps off the side, but there’s also still-new-to-the-FBS Georgia Southern and plausible sleeper Georgia State, and the base is why those jobs are so attractive.

Apart from them — and some quality FCS and Division II programs — there are a bunch of outsiders rubbing their hands together. WVU is among the many, and that’s helped supplement waning recruiting resources and results in South Florida. WVU offered scholarships to 45 Georgia high school players for the 2017 class, second only to Florida. (I know, I know.) For the 2018 class? Georgia is first.

This is relevant, not because WVU received a commitment from a Georgia receiver last week, but because of who may soon follow.

While only one of the first ten commits in this class came from Georgia, it’s very possible that five or six of the next ten could come from the area. If so, that would surely be a sign the staff made the right decision to focus more on Florida’s northern neighbor.