There will be little rest for the Georgia coaching staff between now and Early Signing Day on December 18th. UGA football has its final regular-season game against Georgia Tech on Saturday followed by the SEC Championship Game versus LSU on December 7th. That gives the coaches just from December 8-14 to meet with prospective student-athletes during the last contact period before the Early Signing Period, which lasts from December 18-20.
On Tuesday, head coach Kirby Smart was asked about the time crunch between the SEC Championship Game and Early Signing Period.
“I don’t think you can ever manage that. People have no idea what goes on the minute the SEC Championship game ends… We’re going to miss a week of recruiting. Everybody else is going to go out. We literally have one week… 5 to 6 days to go see every kid before they sign,” said Kirby. “That’s absolutely crazy. That’s crazy. There’s no way. I can’t be at 25 places in 5 days. Then, on top of that, you got awards, final exams for your players. You got juniors trying to make decisions. We will focus on the next step, which is Georgia Tech. Then we will focus on the next step. Then we’ll focus on the next step, whatever that maybe…”
UGA has 16 verbal commitments currently, and Kirby and his staff want to make sure that they hang on to those prospects as well as finish filling out the 2020 recruiting class.
Georgia could be looking to possibly add a second quarterback in addition to Mandarin High School, Jacksonville, FL’s Carson Beck, and just offered CJ Stroud. In addition to quarterback, the Dawgs might try to add another running back to join 5-star commit Kendall Milton. That second tailback could be Zachary Evans out of North Shore High School in Houston, TX, or Kirby and his staff might try to flip a Miami commit Don Chaney. Auburn commit Tank Bigsby is another running back that has been on the flip radar.
UGA is still looking to add a tight end with Canada’s Theo Johnson and Las Vegas, Nevada’s Darnell Washington two of the top remaining uncommitted prospects on the Dawgs’ radar. Current Oklahoma commit Michael Henderson is a prospect that is regarded as a possible flip candidate.
Talking about receivers, Georgia has three committed currently including Justin Robinson, Marcus Rosemy, and athlete Corey Wren, but there is a possibility the coaching staff will add a fourth to the group instead of taking a second running back. Arian Smith and Xavier Henderson are two names that come up often, and a recent prospect in the mix, Northwestern High School’s Marcus Fleming. Henderson is not planning on signing early as he is announcing on January 4th.
On the defensive side of the ball, defensive backs Dontae Manning and Kelee Ringo, defensive linemen Jordan Burch and Zykeivous Walker, and linebacker Justin Flowe are all big targets remaining on Georgia’s board. Both Manning and Ringo are likely to visit the weekend of December 13-15th before the Early Signing Period begins, along with a number of other prospects.
So if you follow college football recruiting, stay tuned… as the next few weeks could be hectic leading up to Early Signing Day but very interesting.