Georgia football in top schools for fifth-ranked edge rusher

The Georgia Bulldogs are among the top schools for elite four-star edge rusher Jaquavious Russaw

The Georgia Bulldogs are among the top schools for elite four-star edge rusher Jaquavious Russaw, who is not far away from being ranked as a five-star prospect.

Russaw is a member of the class of 2023. He plays high school football for Carver High School in Montgomery, Alabama. It is always tough to convince the best players in Alabama to leave the state. The Alabama Crimson Tide tend to dominate in-state recruiting.

The four-star outside linebacker is the No. 37 recruit in his class and the No. 5 edge rusher in the class of 2023. He’s the sixth-best recruit in Alabama. Russaw has improved his recruiting ranking significantly since the beginning of the 2021 high school football season.

Jaquavious Russaw considers his top 11 schools to be Alabama, Miami, Georgia, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Auburn, USC, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, and Alabama State.

Russaw has to be impressed with Georgia’s defensive performance in the 2021 college football season and the Bulldogs’ showing at the 2022 NFL draft.

He has scholarship offers from Colorado, Nebraska, Kentucky, Texas, Texas A&M and more. The Carver High School star received a scholarship offer from the University of Georgia in Sept. 2021.

Kirby Smart and Georgia have a top-five ranked recruiting class of 2023. The Dawgs have seven commitments from four-star prospects in the class.

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound edge rusher named his top schools via Twitter:

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Five-stars James Smith and Qua Russaw are potentially a package deal

Are James Smith and Qua Russaw destined to become a packaged deal for the Crimson Tide?

There have not been many more star-filled classes from the state of Alabama than the class of 2023. In fact, 10% of the top 100 in the On3 Consensus Rankings hail from the state of Alabama, an incredible number considering the population of the state.

Two of those prospects, [autotag]James Smith[/autotag] and [autotag]Qua Russaw[/autotag] are high school teammates and may even be a package deal for their college destination.

Smith is a powerful and athletic defensive lineman prospect while Russaw is an explosive athlete from his EDGE position. Both five-star prospects are within the top 25 of the 2023 class rankings and could potentially be instant impact players.

Recently Smith spoke with On3 and had the following to say.

“The only difference is Qua has Oklahoma on his list and I have Jackson State on mine. The other 10 schools are the same. We are basically looking at the same schools. I’d say there is a 70-75% chance we go to the same school when we sign.”

Currently, Smith is favored to land with the Tide according to On3’s RPM while the Georgia Bulldogs are the current favorite for Russaw. It looks like it could be a two-team race for the potential Smith-Russaw package deal.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow the recruitment of both Smith and Russaw.

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Texas among top schools for two five-star prospects in the 2023 class

Texas has a chance to land five-star defensive line teammates Qua Russaw and James Smith.

The Longhorns haven’t had a legitimate pass rush since the departure of Joseph Ossai to the NFL. Continue reading “Texas among top schools for two five-star prospects in the 2023 class”

Hall hits the recruiting trail hard Wednesday

Clemson defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall made his rounds on the recruiting trail Wednesday After speaking with the program’s head coach, Tanner Glisson, The Clemson Insider learned that Hall stopped by Troup County High School (Lagrange, Ga.) on …

Clemson defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall made his rounds on the recruiting trail Wednesday

After speaking with the program’s head coach, Tanner Glisson, The Clemson Insider learned that Hall stopped by Troup County High School (Lagrange, Ga.) on behalf of a fast-rising 2024 safety in Noah Dixon.

“Of course, right now they can’t talk to him,” Glisson said of Dixon,” but, they just came in to see me and do some talking. They want to try and get him on campus to meet Coach Swinney. I know Clemson does things a little differently. They don’t just come around throwing around offers like crazy.”

According to Glisson, there is no doubt in his mind that Clemson and Alabama will eventually offer Dixon. Georgia has already offered him, while Oklahoma’s coming in tomorrow to offer.

“He’s gonna have every offer you can think of,” Glisson said. “He’s just a super fantastic kid. His athleticism is just a small piece of it. The intangibles are what makes this kid so great.

“On the field, he’s a hard-hitting safety that is physical, that’s got good ball skills, good cover skills. He runs somewhere in the 4.5 range. He’s got a good build. He’s a 4.0 student. He’s got a sister at Vanderbilt that’s very, very intelligent. His mama works here at the school. He’s just a hard, hard worker. Just a real asset to have in anybody’s locker room.”

This isn’t the first time Hall has visited with Glisson. He’s from Lanett (Ala.), which is about 15-30 miles south of Troup on I-85 in Georgia.

“We’ve known Coach Hall and he’s done a good job,” Glisson said. “Clemson’s always come through here and recruited us.”

Hall later made his way down to the Yellowhammer State Wednesday.

Along with Clemson co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Mickey Conn, Hall stopped by Madhouse Athletic Training to visit with the trainers of Carver (Ala.) 2023 four-star defensive Qua Russaw.

Russaw announced an offer from Clemson back on Tuesday, Jan. 4 after a conversation with both Hall and Conn.

“It felt great,” Russaw said of receiving an offer from Clemson,” because I’ve been talking with Coach Lemanski Hall for a ‘lil minute now. We’ve been building a bond. We keep in touch almost every day now. We have a great relationship.

“Being that they don’t hand out offers like everybody else does, I think it’s special,” he said. “They really got to know you to give you that offer. They don’t just want you because of football. I think it’s special.”

Russaw (6-2, 230) is ranked as the No. 4 edge defender and No. 38 overall prospect in the 2023 class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

That wasn’t the only recently-offered defensive end that Hall stopped by to see Wednesday. Hall also was at Highland Home (Ala.) High School, the home of another 2023 four-star in Keldric Faulk.

Clemson extended a scholarship offer to Faulk on Monday, Jan. 17.

He told The Clemson Insider back in July that Clemson holds one of the top spots in his recruitment, even though he hadn’t received an offer just yet.

Now, he has that offer in tow.

“I do believe an offer is on the way,” he told TCI this past summer. “I got hurt last year, which has slowed down everything for me, but I will wake everybody up soon.”

Faulk (6-5, 248) is ranked as the No. 15 defensive linemen and No. 92 overall prospect in the nation for the 2023 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

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