Roquan Smith says Jeff Ulbrich told him he declined Falcons offer

Does the recruiting saga involving four-star LB Roquan Smith have another layer?

In an interview with UGASports.com, Smith said that former UCLA defensive coordinator and new Atlanta Falcons linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich told him he declined the Falcons job offer.

"Otherwise, it's a great school and all of this and that, but Coach Ulbrich did say that Coach Dan Quinn (of the Atlanta Falcons) had called him the night before, but he had declined the job offer," Smith told UGA Sports. "I felt like Coach (Jim) Mora should have hit me up and said there's potential that Coach Ulbrich may be leaving. Then, they tried to get me to go ahead and send the papers in, but I wasn't doing it. They tried to get me to send them in at 8 in the morning. Doing a lot of research, which I should have done earlier in the process and thank goodness I had more time, they don't even have my major. I was going to major in business, and the only way to get into business school out there is to be in graduate school."

Smith chose UCLA on National Signing Day but started having second thoughts. On the same day, it was reported that Ulbrich was leaving for the Falcons. Now, according to his high school coach, Smith won't be signing a letter of intent and instead commit to a school and become a signee on the first day of classes.

The linebacker told UGA Sports that he's chosen his school and will sign his scholarship papers "probably" on Friday.

He also said that he felt "kind of" misled about the business school aspect.

UGASports.com: And they didn't say you can't do that here?

Smith: "No, they didn't. I guess they were trying to speak as far as the graduate school for business."

UGASports.com: Do you feel misled?

Smith: "I kind of do. For them to be my first offer, yeah. I thought they were keeping it real with me, but you know people are going to lie."

Yes, they are. Especially when it comes to college recruiting. While it's easy to point fingers at UCLA in this scenario (and at Smith and his support system for not doing research earlier), this isn't an isolated incident of possible misdirection by any means. Yeah, recruiting can be shady. The more people know that, the better.

For more Georgia news, visit UGASports.com.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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