I have said before and I’ll probably say it again in the not to distant future, but college football recruiting can be a roller coaster ride. For those rabid fanatical college football fans that follow it, and more do today than ever before, that is certainly the case. But it can be for the prospects, these talented young men and their families as well. Case in point, Savannah Christian’s class of 2016 athlete Demetris Robertson.

Here is a young man, who has the opportunity because of both his athletic ability as well as his ability off the field in the class room to head west and go to Stanford University, if he can manage a few more points on a standardized test. Yet, there are a number of fans that have criticized his decision to prolong his recruitment process in order to do so. Is it selfish for a prospect to push his recruitment past National Signing Day and perhaps not even sign a National Letter of Intent, aka a NLI, at all?
 
The fact of the matter is, and I hate to burst the bubble of those fans, but no recruiting prospect has to sign a NLI on February 3rd. They actually have till April 1st to do so, and even then, it is not a requirement to receive an athletic scholarship from an institution of higher learning to play college football. A recruit has the option to forgo the NLI and fill out the financial aid paperwork instead. See early enrollees as an example of this, as they do not sign an NLI. Class of 2016 early enrollees and UGA signees Chad Clay, Ben Cleveland, Jacob Eason, Isaac Nauta, Cavin Riley Ridley, and Julian Rochester did not sign an NLI; nor, do prospects that wait to choose a school after April 1st of their senior high school year.
 
So is Demetris Robertson being selfish for not signing a NLI and keeping schools waiting on bated breath for his announcement?
 
No, and a capital “N O.”
 
It has been common knowledge for a long while now that Robertson has wanted to go to Stanford if he qualifies and that he would not be announcing his commitment or signing an NLI on Feb. 3rd. It is no big secret. He has been open, honest and upfront about throughout his recruitment. He is scheduled to take the SAT again this coming weekend, and those results will not be available till after April 1st, and he is unlikely to make any sort of final decision until he gets those results back.
 
But what if he does not qualify or if, in the end, he decides that he just doesn’t want to go to school approximately 2,697 miles from Savannah, GA, where will the talented class of 2016 prospect be hanging his book bag this come fall 2016? I don’t think anybody truly knows. Alabama and Stanford are definitely two schools that are on his list of top schools along with Georgia as well as Notre Dame. The coaching staffs of those 4 universities have visited Robertson, and he has taken official visits to Alabama, California, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame leaving him with one official visit left that he can take.
 
So is UGA going to get “D-Rob’s” fifth and last official visit?
 
He has scheduled two other official visits to UGA previously but was not able to make or changed his mind to take the visit. Most recently, he was schedule to visit UGA the weekend of Feb. 27th, but he changed his mind and chose to visit at Alabama instead. He had also scheduled one prior to that, but he was unable to make that visit due to his high school basketball team having a playoff game.
 
However, the latest reports do indicate that the 5-star prospect is scheduled to visit Athens the weekend of March 18th with his mother and sister according to 247Sports‘ Kipp Adams:
 

Per his family, five-star wide receiver Demetris Robertson (Savannah, Ga./Savannah Christian) has set an official visit to Georgia. Robertson, the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver in the 247Sports Composite for the 2016 class, is scheduled to travel to Athens on Friday, March 18.
…
The plan is for Robertson’s mother, brothers, and sister, who has yet to enroll anywhere, to join him on his official to Georgia.

 
And according to the Rivals Network’s Jake Reuse, they will also meet with the University President, Jere Morehead and members from the University of Georgia engineering department:
 

“We’ll come up on that Friday. That will make the most sense,” Carlos Robertson said. in a telephone interview with UGASports.com “We’ll come up that Friday and leave that Sunday.”

Robertson confirmed that his brother that Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart spoke Monday about the impending visit.

According to Robertson, Demetris and his family (including his mom) will not only meet with Smart, expect to also see UGA president Jere Morehead, along with others in Georgia’s engineering department.

 
Of course as a Bulldawg, I want “D-Rob” to visit Athens and see UGA; it is a wonderful college campus and town. Of course, I want “D-Rob” to choose to come to UGA over Alabama and Stanford.
 
But in the end it his decision to make, and regardless of whether or not he does end up and visit the University of Georgia, regardless of whether or not he chooses to leave the Peach State and head west to California and attend Stanford University or even Alabama over UGA, I implore those fans that populate the fringes of the collegiate fan bases, including those at Georgia, to look past your fandom for an instant and instead see Demetris Robertson not as a 5-star college football prospect, but as a high school senior making one of the biggest decisions up to this point in his life. See him as a young man in a world filled with numerous temptations and stumbling blocks to derail him, who kept his eye on the prize and instead, chose to stay focused, worked hard, and now has an opportunity in front him that not many say they have the chance to take hold of.