Josh Samuel noticed a big change in competition when he moved from Greenville, S.C., to the Atlanta area during high school.

“Coming from South Carolina to Georgia was a different ballgame,” Samuel, one of Western Kentucky’s new Class of 2017 signees, told the Daily News last week. “The level of competition is just different. The breed of athlete that comes from the state of Georgia is just different.

“I think that the competitiveness between all players is unbelievable. From week to week on your schedule, you’re playing against three- to five-stars every game.”

Georgia is a football recruiting hotbed. The Peach State produced 33 Class of 2017 players rated four or five stars by 247Sports Composite, a figure that ranked fourth in the class behind only Texas (47), Florida (42) and California (35).

WKU didn’t get any of those blue-chip prospects, with most going to programs like Alabama, Clemson and Georgia.

But the Hilltoppers made it a priority to scour the state for the prospects below that top rung.

WKU listed 10 of its 23 signees as Georgia natives. Eleven of the 23 actually played high school football in the state, as the running back Samuel was listed as a South Carolina native but went to Central Gwinnett High School in Lawrenceville.

Among the Georgia natives in the class are quarterback Davis Shanley (Duluth), linebacker Juwuan Jones (Sugar Hill), defensive linemen Calder Marria (Jonesboro) and defensive back Dionte Ruffin (Dallas).

“The talent in Georgia, it’s good,” said Ruffin, who’s originally from Louisiana. “It’s one of the top states with prospects coming out, people performing at high levels, people going to big colleges. I feel like there’s a lot of talent out here.”

WKU went into the 2016 season with 11 players on its roster from Georgia. That figure ranked fourth behind Kentucky (46), Florida (22) and Alabama (12) in producing players for the Tops’ roster.

Notable Georgia natives on WKU’s 2016 roster included offensive linemen Dennis Edwards and Darrell Williams Jr. and safety Drell Greene.

Former coach Jeff Brohm and his staff, especially assistants Chris Barclay and Bryan Ellis, made Georgia a focus for WKU’s Class of 2017.

Jones, Samuel, Shanley, offensive lineman Caleb Etheridge and junior college defensive lineman Jaylon George, a December signee, all committed when Brohm was coach.

A handful of other players from the state committed under the previous staff but decommitted when Brohm left for Purdue and new coach Mike Sanford took over WKU’s program.

Etheridge, George, Jones, Samuel and Shanley remained part of WKU’s class under Sanford, though Etheridge decommitted at one point before recommitting. Sanford and his staff continued the previous staff’s focus on Georgia in filling out the rest of the class.

Sanford’s staff secured the signatures of Marria, Ruffin, linebacker Kyle Bailey, defensive back Antwon Kincade, defensive lineman DeAngelo Malone and wide receiver Jacquez Sloan.

New defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey, who spent the 2016 season at Georgia Southern, led the Hilltoppers’ march through the state.

Lindsey’s “connections in the state of Georgia and obviously in the Atlanta area are second to none,” Sanford said. “I really believe that.

“I went with him to roughly 15 high schools over the course of the last couple of weeks, 2½ weeks on the road and every single program that I went to, the head coach or the assistant coach or the strength coach, whoever it was they could not stop raving about Jimmy Lindsey.”

Marria had originally committed to Georgia Southern when Lindsey was a coach there, then followed the assistant to WKU.

“We’ve built a relationship because he recruited me then and would’ve been my position coach there,” Marria said. “Me, him and my parents, we already had that bond. So that was a big plus with him being there too. We already know what we’re getting in a position coach.”

WKU’s search for players in the state of Georgia went from Atlanta and its suburbs to smaller towns throughout the state.

George and Sloan are Atlanta natives, while Jones, Samuel and Shanley are among the players who hail from the surrounding counties around the state’s biggest city.

Much of Sanford’s experience during his time as an assistant with other programs was in recruiting the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He said recruiting the Atlanta area reminded him of that area in Texas.

“The only thing I’d say is a little bit different is it just seems like there’s more quality high school football in the inner city of Atlanta than there probably is in the inner city of Dallas right now,” Sanford said.

Others came from different parts of the state. Kincade hails from Valdosta on the state’s southcentral border, Bailey from Bremen off Interstate 20 near the Alabama state line and Etheridge from Forsyth, a small town northwest of Macon.

“There are good players at every school, in every county,” Marria said. “The talent’s so spread out. You can’t go wrong recruiting this state.”

— Follow sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.