Georgia football recruiting: 5 takeaways after Day 1 of the Early Signing Period
The book is closed on the 1st day of the Early Signing Period for Georgia. All told, Kirby Smart and his staff have locked in the No. 4 recruiting class in the country and the No. 3 class in the SEC according to 247Sports.com. Everyone pledged to the class, save 1, signed on Wednesday (more on that later). And there was a key pickup from one of the country’s elite players who entered the day undecided.
Is this the class that helps Georgia bring home that long-awaited national title? Here are 5 takeaways from this edition of the Early Signing Period for the Dawgs.
1. The next great LB out of Athens? Xavian Sorey makes the call for Georgia
The big news of the day centered around Xavian Sorey. Would the 5-star outside linebacker, rated the top player at that position by 247Sports, sign with Alabama, Florida or Georgia?
During a commitment ceremony at his hometown of Graceville, Fla., the IMG Academy product announced that he would be playing for Georgia, joining quarterback Brock Vandagriff, offensive lineman Amarius Mims and fellow OLB Smael Mondon as 5-star pledges to Smart’s 2021 recruiting class.
In the end, Smart and his staff, specifically co-defensive coordinators Dan Lanning and Glenn Schumann, were able to push this one past the line. And it adds to a terrific incoming linebacking corps that includes, along with Mondon, Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Chaz Chambliss.
It’s a position that has long been a strength for the program, and that doesn’t seem to be ending anyime soon.
2. Dawgs miss out on Top 5 running back Donovan Edwards, and that’s okay
This isn’t the end of the world for Georgia, as the addition of Donovan Edwards, the Detroit-area prospect (West Bloomfield) who stayed in-state and pledged to Michigan, wasn’t an absolute necessity for this particular class.
The Dawgs are stacked at this position already, even if James Cook and Zamir White exit to prepare for the NFL Draft. They have to be pleased with the emergence of true freshman Kendall Milton, despite injuries that have held him out of the latter portions of the season. Fellow freshman Daijun Edwards has impressed when handed the ball, while sophomore Kenny McIntosh has set himself up for a terrific junior campaign. Four-star Lovasea Carroll will be joining the fold as well.
Of course, if Cook and While return in 2021 — I personally feel they will — that’s all the better.
3. Maason Smith spurns UGA push, signs with LSU
It wasn’t likely that Maason Smith, the No. 2 defensive tackle in the country, would leave Louisiana and play for Georgia over LSU, even with the controversy surrounding the Tigers’ program. And during a commitment ceremony at his high school, the Houma, La. product made it official: He will indeed play for the Tigers.
It’s no big surprise despite the Dawgs making a major push for his services. Seeing him in Athens next year would have raised some eyebrows, although maybe not as many considering some of the news coming out of Baton Rogue lately.
4. From SEC to ‘Primetime’: Dawgs CB pledge flips, signs with Deion Sanders and Jackson State instead
“Primetime” has landed another SEC-bound player. This time it’s one of Georgia’s own. De’Jahn Warren, a JUCO cornerback who played at Lackawanna Community College in Maryland, will instead sign with Jackson State and 1st-year head coach Deion Sanders. Warren was ranked by 247Sports as the No. 1 JUCO cornerback and No. 2 JUCO player regardless of position.
The outspoken Pro Football Hall of Famer hasn’t been shy about raiding the SEC cupboard as he looks to put his fingerprints on the HBCU program. Aubrey Miller, a former linebacker at Missouri, announced on Dec. 13 that he was transferring to Jackson State. And on Wednesday, Sanders’ son Shilo, a cornerback at South Carolina, revealed on Twitter that he would head to JSU to join his father and his younger brother Shedeur, a 4-star quarterback ranked as the No. 15 pro-style signal-caller in the class of 2021.
Playing in the SEC is a major draw for recruits. But for Warren, the opportunity to instead play for Sanders was apparently too good to pass up.
5. A relatively drama-free day for Smart and the Bulldogs, with 1 big splash
Outside of the flip by Warren to Jackson State, Day 1 of the Early Signing Period went as well as expected for the Bulldogs. Of course, adding Sorey to an already stacked recruiting class made the day that much better.
In the end, the Dawgs locked down the state of Georgia — the Peach State’s top 3 players, along with its No. 7, No. 9 and No. 10 players, will wear the red and black — and beat out both their division rival and the conference’s traditional power for another enormous piece.
It’s the same as it ever was in the Smart era: Recruiting continues to click at a high level. Add these players to an exciting, talented group returning in 2021, and it should be relatively easy for the team to turn the page on a year that, while not awful, saw it fall short of its primary goals.
FWIW, UGA is back ahead of LSU on the 247 Composite, with about 5 points separating them. UGA has 20 commits and LSU 21. No one will catch Bama, and probably not OSU, so Dawgs and Tigers are duking it out for #3, with Clemson a possibility since they only have 18 commits so far. We won’t find out who Korey Foreman signed with till Jan 2nd, but the gurus think he stayed home with USC.
UGA with 4 five stars vs 3 for LSU. UGA moved ahead of LSU around mid day today so this article should have noted such.
We also locked down Georgia with 7 of the top 11 staying home. Very well done.
Hell ya brother. Well on your way to another off-season championship. Keep up the same work! Bowl cut is killin it again in Athens. 21 could be the year lol.
Next year could bery well be the year for UGA, UFGaturd. This year was supposed to be the year for UF. But Mullet, Grantham and Trask choked it away on Saturday. Maybe in another 3 or 4 years you guys will make another run at it. Maybe.
very
They didn’t choke it away, they threw it away…..
Keep talking 92 and enjoy that one time win in Jax. At the end of the day you’ll still be sitting at home watching the CFP… ever been there before?
Excellent day. Another Great recruiting class. Not # top 3 but I’ll take it.
247Sports.com has Dawgs at #3. They use a composite ranking of the other ranking sites from what I understand.
Looks like we might still have some room in the class, probabably 3 to 4 spots. It’ll be interesting to see who we can pick up before the end of the season.
It’s a great day to be a Georgia Bulldog!
While everyone is pilfering, Smart needs to get word to Tank that he has an opening and he needs to come home.
PS, a couple of those speedy receivers too.
UGA has the #3 class in the country yet three of the five takeaways are negative? I think not.
Exactly.
That’s the narrative that we have to live with here.
That’s what UGA gets on a website run by a bunch of UF grads. The writer of this isn’t a UF grad but his boss is.
Smh if you are going to reference a website at least get it right…247 has UGA at 3….y’all are worse than the AJC, and that is saying something
LOL about this article. Stick to your day job
To be fair, this afternoon at about 4 or 5 Eastern, LSU was at 3 and UGA was at 4 after Sage Ryan signed with LSU. LSU dropped slightly when Armoni Goodwin (the #5 RB in the class) signed just after 7.
At the time of publication they were at 4.
the media may have seriously misplaced the data on why georgia may not have been elite this year even though die hard fans like myself always think it was just bad luck not having a QB ready to go
i reviewed two sites who claim to list the most likely draft prospects of georgia players nfl draft network and pro football network
the last one had jamie newman listed as the 200 best player in the draft and the other one also did not have this man highly rated
so we got lucky with our new magician QB daniel and now the real story
most of the so called high draft choices according to these two sites are not including georgia players as high draft choices
below is the list
draft network pro football network
eric stokes 21 80
jordan davis 42 53
azeez ojulari 43 33
tyson campbell 48 66
rich lecounte 72 112
ben cleveland 104
zamir white 141 95
monty rice 149 47
tre Mckitty 168
dj daniel 239 87
malik herring 275
trey hill 285 148
jermaine johnson 356 928
quay walker 380
adam anderson 389
mark webb 507 145
devonte wyatt 586 170
demetris robertson 818
compare this to last year draft when we had multiple players in the 1st round and 2nd round and higher rounds than it appears will occur this year
if these two sites give us correct analysis there was a reason besides the poor QB play for us to lose to florida and alabama this year —–we just did not have the elite elites like the offensive line last year or sonny michele and his pal making news on the browns the year before
zamir has to go before his knees give out but we have better replacements at running back ready to go
stokes and campbell will be hard to replace but maybe it will be possible
the real problem is jordan davis replacement
this jermaine johnson is no big loss according to these two sites evaluation so lets hope ojulari will decide to stay and become top of the 1st round in 2022
i feel sorry for demetris robertson since he never lived up to the hype georgia fans make 4 years ago losing him to california
smart needs to get at least 4 top players in the transfer portal if georgia will be able to be equal to alabama if not i do not see a playoff slot for us
maybe saban will retire next year and work for the duck