ATHENS – As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Georgia’s recruiting cycle for the 2013 football class was pretty much in the books. At the end of it, the Bulldogs had inked 32 prospects, 18 defensive players and 14 offensive players. Thirteen of those players – seven offensive and six defensive – are already enrolled in school as midyear enrollees.

Overall, a pretty good class. Or, as head coach Mark Richt called it, “As far as I'm concerned, I think we got the No. 1 class in America.”

Richt surprised a lot of people by showing up at Georgia’s national signing day news conference on Wednesday afternoon. There was some question about whether he’d making since he’s coming off hip-replacement surgery, which was performed only Saturday. Richt ditched his crutches at the doorway to the team meeting room on the first floor and walked to table at the front of the room under his own power. “My wife will be mad at me but when I saw the lights and cameras I knew I had to get rid of him,” Richt said with a laugh.

Richt refused to acknowledge any of the down-the-stretch disappointments the Bulldogs suffered. They were jilted by 5-star offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil (Ole Miss) in the final week, failed to land their target to replace him, and watched several of the state’s top prospects go elsewhere.

“I don’t have any disappointments,” Richt said. “I’ve said for years, once signing day comes we’re going to be happy with whoever’s here. Today is a day of celebration. I don’t have any disappointments.”

Richt and his defensive coordinator, Todd Grantham, were each grilled about multiple reports that have Grantham interviewing for jobs with the New Orleans Saints and/or Philadelphia Eagles.

Said Richt: "I know that we've got great coaches on our staff and every single off-season somebody's calling me about somebody. That's just the way it works and I think it's a good sign. That's just the way it works. I think we have some pretty good coaches and ones people think a lot of."

As whether he'd taken calls on Grantham from specific NFL teams, Richt said: "Here's the deal on that: That kind of stuff is very common. It happens with a lot of our coaches every offseason. My goal today is to focus on this class and these guys. There may or may not be time to talk about the other (stuff). We'll see."

“Right now I’m the defensive coordinator at the University of Georgia and I’m looking forward to coaching these guys,” Grantham said when he was surrounded by reporters immediately after Richt closed his remarks.

Asked specifically if he was going to interview for jobs with either the Saints or Eagles, Grantham said: “You know what, I know a lot of people and I get a lot of inquiries all the time, and there’s no way I’m going to comment on any particular one, because if I did I couldn’t do my job. I’ve got to get to mats in about 30 minutes, so I’m just going to leave it at that.”

Some other tidbits from Wednesday’s event at the Butts-Mehre Building:

Richt on whether the Bulldogs are finished with the 2013 class . . .

“There’s always a chance something else could happen. That’s all I can say.” (This was before Norcross tailback Alvin Kamara made his announcement for Alabama)

On the 13 early enrollees, all of whom were called up to the front of the room and introduced at the news conference . . .

“You can’t imagine how much work it takes to get that many guys to come in at the midyear. . . . In some ways they’re a class unto themselves. They’re going to spend a lot of time together before the rest of the guys get here in June.”

Richt on the timing of his hip surgery . . .

“First of all, I’m just thankful to be up and moving around a little bit. . . . I was actually going to do it after signing day, but to be real honest about it, there’s an SEC coaches meeting next week and Commissioner Slive encouraged me to be there, so we moved it up.”

Richt on losing top players in state to other teams . . .

“All those are other people’s opinions, where guys rank and that kind of thing. We know as coaches we got a great class. We’re very proud of it and very excited about it. Somebody decided to rank players and all that, but the reality is what’s going to happen when you hook it up and play against Clemson is the most important thing and what our fans care about the most.”

Offensive line coach Will Friend on losing Laremy Tunsil after recruiting him for nearly two years . . .

“We put a lot of time in with the guys who are here now, too, the group that we signed. We’re excited about those guys. Really that’s all I want to talk about. They’re Georgia Bulldogs. They said they wanted to be Georgia Bulldogs, that’s what they are and this is an exciting day for us. Our job is to go recruit the best players and we feel like we did that.”

Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo on offensive line signee Brandon Kublanow . . .

“We think he’s one of the best offensive linemen in the entire South, maybe the country. We love the way he plays the game. He plays it like a football player and like an offensive lineman should. He’s very physical, very aggressive.”

Bobo on late offensive tackle addition DeVondre Seymour . . .

“He’s a guy when we first started evaluated guys a year and a half ago we had him ranked at the top od our board. We’re very excited that he signed with the University today.”