Tag: uga football news

Major Georgia LB target Sammy Brown shows off in weight room

Five-star linebacker Sammy Brown is a major Georgia football target in the 2024 recruiting class. Brown shows off in the weight room here.

Five-star linebacker Sammy Brown is the top player in the state of Georgia, the No. 1 linebacker in the country and the No. 5 player overall in the 2024 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.

Brown (6-foot-2.5, 225 pounds) is not only one of the premier football recruits in America, but also a Jefferson High School wrestling and track champion.

Brown’s athleticism and strength is on full display here in the weight room.

This is an outrageous amount of weight for a high school junior.

It’s easy to see why Brown, who plays linebacker and running back, has garnered so much attention from marquee programs.

The Jefferson, Georgia, native is scheduled to take an official visit to Athens on June 9.

Here’s a look at Brown’s junior season highlight tape. 

 

Georgia among top-5 schools for nation’s No. 2 safety

Five-star safety Xavier Filsaime has Georgia in his final 5…

Five-star safety Xavier Filsaime, out of McKinney, Texas, has included Georgia among his top-5 schools.

Filsaime (6-foot-1, 180 pounds) is rated as the No. 2 safety, the No. 6 player in the state of Texas and the No. 32 player overall in the 2024 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.

Filsaime, who holds 33 scholarship offers, will choose from among Georgia, LSU, Florida, USC and Oregon.

Filsaime is scheduled for an official visit to Athens on June 16.

Click here for a look at Filsaime’s junior highlight tape. 

5-star TE Duce Robinson sets commitment date

Five-star tight end recruit Duce Robinson, one of the best recruits in the class of 2023, is ready to commit

Five-star class of 2023 tight end recruit Duce Robinson is one of the final unsigned recruits in the senior class. Robinson is the top-ranked tight end and the top-ranked player in Arizona. Robinson is the No. 17 recruit in the country, per 247Sports.

The five-star tight end has had many swings throughout his recruitment, but he is ready to make a decision. Robinson plans to announce on March 30.

Robinson played high school football for Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Robinson is favored to sign with the USC Trojans, but the Georgia Bulldogs are in the mix.

The 6-foot-6, 225-pound tight end is also an excellent baseball athlete. Robinson played basketball in high school, too, but he is also being recruiting as a baseball prospect and could be selected in the MLB draft.

Georgia football tight ends coach Todd Hartley is an elite recruiter. He already signed two four-star tight ends in the class of 2023.

What team’s recruiting class will get a late boost from Robinson?

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5-star WR Mike Matthews names his top schools

Georgia football has made Mike Matthews’ top 12 schools. Who else is in the mix?

Five-star wide receiver recruit Mike Matthews is one of the top recruits in the class of 2024. The five-star plays high school football for Parkview High School in Lilburn, Georgia.

Mike Matthews is the sixth-ranked player in the junior class and the second-ranked wide receiver. Matthews is the second-ranked recruit in Georgia, per 247Sports. He plays both defensive back and wide receiver for Parkview High School.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound receiver also plays basketball. Matthews is a versatile athlete with excellent explosiveness.

Matthews visited Athens for the Georgia versus Kent State game in the fall of 2022. He plans to play in the 2024 Under Armour All-America Game.

Impressively, the five-star sports a dual scholarship offer from the Auburn Tigers for both football and basketball. Not many recruits earn dual scholarship offers.

As a wide receiver, Matthews shows great speed and acceleration. He is a good route runner and gets a lot of separation.

The five-star recruit puts Georgia, Arkansas, Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, Michigan, Clemson, Auburn, Colorado, USC, and Texas A&M in his top schools.

The Parkview superstar named his top 12 schools via Twitter:

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Georgia’s Smael Mondon talks freshmen LBs: ‘Everything you want in a linebacker’

Georgia has serious depth at ILB…

Georgia linebacker Smael Mondon is part of a talented group of inside linebackers in Athens.

The former five-star prospect helped revamp a defense that lost three players at the position to last year’s NFL draft, and finished first on the team in total tackles (76) in the 2022 national championship season as a first-year starter.

Mondon, a rising junior, recently spoke about the inside linebacker group highlighting some talented freshmen.

“Raylen and CJ — really all the freshmen, really — they’re all just like a really athletic group. They’re hard workers, strong, fast — really everything you want in a linebacker.”

Freshmen Raylen Wilson and C.J. Allen are among the top players signed to Georgia’s 2023 recruiting class, which finished second in the nation behind Alabama.

Wilson was rated as the No. 3 linebacker and Allen came in at No. 5, according to 247Sports.

Mondon noted the consistency of talent at the position since he joined the Bulldogs as a member of the 2021 recruiting class.

“Even when I first came in here, I feel like the linebacker room has always really been athletic with Quay, Channing and a lot of them guys that were here when I first got here versus now with me, Pop, Raylen, Sorey, all of them. I feel like we’ve always had an athletic linebacker room.”

Mondon enters his second season as a starter along side Jamon Dumas-Johnson, with Rian Davis, Xavian Sorey and EJ Lightsey as reserves.

Wilson, Allen and fellow freshman Troy Bowles, the No. 6 linebacker in the 2023 class, provide plenty of depth for the Bulldogs headed into the 2023 season.

You can catch the Dawgs in action during the annual ‘G-Day’ spring game scheduled for April 15 in Sanford Stadium.

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Former Georgia OT Broderick Jones talks 2023 NFL draft

Jones appeared on Good Morning Football to talk ’23 draft…

Former Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones is currently preparing for the 2023 NFL draft as one of the top offensive lineman prospects.

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. recently projected Jones as the No. 13 overall pick to the New York Jets in his latest mock draft.

The 6-foot-5, 311 pound left tackle spent Georgia’s 2022 national championship season as a first-year starter and didn’t allow a single sack on quarterback Stetson Bennett in 15 games.

Jones recently appeared on NFL Network’s ‘Good Morning Football’ to share why NFL teams should draft him.

“[A team should draft me] just because I’m such a hard worker. I’m going to come in and give you my all. You’ll never catch me slacking off. I will always do my best. Football is what I love to do. It’s just something that I’m a part of — like, it’s become a part of my life,” Jones said. “I breathe football. There’s nothing else that I do outside of football. That’s all I know, it’s all I’ve ever known, and it’s all I’ll ever want to do.”

The former five-star prospect made the Coaches Freshman All-SEC team in 2021 when he stepped in for starter Jamaree Salyer, who missed four games due to injury.

Jones built on the momentum from the 2021 season and was a force protecting Bennett’s blind side in 2022.

“Football is my main objective in life, so I’m going to keep it that way until the day I can’t play anymore. I want to play as long as I can and just do the best that I can. [I’m looking forward to] just being able to lock in with myself and being able to play my best game and go against anybody they put in front of me is what I’m looking forward to.”

The 2023 NFL draft will kickoff on April 27 in Kansas City and will be televised on NFL Network.

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UGA football offers Idaho’s top recruit

The Georgia Bulldogs are the latest college football program to offer a scholarship to four-star wide receiver Gatlin Bair.

The Georgia Bulldogs have offered a scholarship to the best recruit in Idaho, Gatlin Bair. Kirby Smart and Georgia football recruit the entire country every year and the 2024 recruiting cycle is no exception.

The four-star wide receiver received a scholarship offer from Georgia on March 27. Bair is the top-ranked recruit in Idaho and the No. 129 recruit nationally. He is the No. 22 player at his position, per 247Sports.

Bair plays football, runs track and plays basketball. The three-sport athlete has excellent speed and has posted 100-meter dash times under 10.5 seconds.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound recruit is a member of the class of 2024. Bair plays high school football for Burley Senior High School in Burley, Idaho.

The Burley Senior standout has received recent scholarship offers from Florida, Wisconsin, UCLA and Miami. Bair is generating a lot more national recruiting attention in recent months.

Bair is an explosive athlete. He can do a between-the-legs dunk. Check out the vertical on this dunk:

The four-star wide receiver announced his scholarship offer from Georgia football via Twitter:

Georgia football has 11 players committed in the class of 2024. So far, Georgia’s 2024 class is the best in the country. The Bulldogs have a commitment from four-star wide receiver Ny Carr, but that is all at the wide receiver position.

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2024’s No. 1 QB Dylan Raiola plans official visit with Georgia

Five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola is visiting UGA football again this summer

Five-star quarterback recruit Dylan Raiola is planning to take an official visit to Georgia on the first weekend of June. Raiola is the country’s No. 1 player in the class of 2024.

The elite quarterback recruit recently visited Georgia, the latest in a series of visits to Athens.

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback plays high school football for Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Raiola is the No. 1 quarterback in the class of 2024 and the top player in Arizona.

The USC Trojans and Nebraska Cornhuskers are in the mix to land a commitment from Raiola. USC is trending the strongest for the five-star quarterback. USC coach Lincoln Riley has coached multiple No. 1 overall draft picks and Heisman winners, so he has a great recruiting pitch for top quarterback recruits.

However, Kirby Smart and Georgia should not be counted out. The Bulldogs’ strongest pitch is brotherhood and winning. Georgia has won back-to-back national championships and is showing no signs of slowing down on the recruiting trail.

Former Chandler quarterback Dylan Raiola is transferring to Pinnacle High School. Syndication: Arizona Republic

Raiola has strong ties to Georgia via former Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is Raiola’s godfather. Raiola’s father, Dominic, is a former Nebraska center. Dominic Raiola spent several years of his NFL career playing alongside Matthew Stafford for the Detroit Lions.

Raiola attended Georgia’s dominant national championship victory over TCU this past season. The Pinnacle superstar decommitted from the Ohio State Buckeyes in December 2022.

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Georgia OL Tate Ratledge talks Bulldogs offensive line battle

“We have a lot of competition going on. [We’re] just competing every day and with a lot of depth”

One of Georgia football’s biggest questions for the 2023 season is along the offensive line.

The Bulldogs lose starting left tackle Broderick Jones and starting right tackle Warren McClendon to this year’s NFL draft.

Starting center Sedrick Van Pran elected to delay turning pro and will be back as the anchor up front, along with starting left guard Xavian Truss and starting right guard Tate Ratledge.

Ratledge, a rising redshirt junior, spoke on the changes along the Georgia offensive line after a spring practice session last week.

“We have a lot of competition going on. [We’re] just competing every day and with a lot of depth, I think one of Coach Searels’ goals is to find a starting five and then find a backup group where there’s not much drop-off. I think right now we do a lot where everybody gets a lot of reps, so there’s no telling [who will play where]. People are getting a lot of reps every practice.”

Rising junior Amarius Mims is a key contender at right tackle. The former five-star prospect saw action as a reserve in 12 games in 2022.

Ratledge mentioned Mims has a different mindset so far this offseason.

“He’s gotten very mature with how he goes about things, just coming into practice, not really taking plays off and things like that,” Ratledge said. “[He’s] just going out there and grinding every day and just really stepping into the shoes that he’s got to fill.”

Rising redshirt junior Austin Blaske and rising redshirt freshman Earnest Greene are battling for the left tackle spot. Blaske appeared in nine games last season and Greene missed the season due to injury.

There is plenty of time to make decisions of how the offensive front will look for the Bulldogs. The talent is there but finding continuity is the challenge.

Ratledge says the impact of the returning starters is helping the process.

“I think we have a couple guys that have been through it and know what to do, can really help the young guys come along and kind of take people under their wing and kind of show them the way.”

You can catch the Dawgs live from Sanford Stadium in the annual ‘G-Day’ game scheduled for April 15.

 

Georgia’s Kelee Ringo ranked No. 6 CB in NFL draft by ESPN

ESPN’s Matt Miller gives his take on Kelee Ringo…

Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo is considered one of the top corners in the 2023 NFL draft.

Ringo’s size and athleticism was on full display at the NFL combine and UGA’s pro day. The Tacoma, Wa., native checked in at 6-foot-2, 207 pounds and clocked a blazing 4.36 40-yard dash in Indianapolis.

ESPN’s Matt Miller recently ranked the top-11 corners in this year’s draft with Ringo coming in at No. 6.

“If we had done this exercise last summer, Ringo would have been higher. He was one of the top prospects in the entire class before the 2022 season began, but Ringo struggled last year as teams picked on him with breaking routes that challenged his change-of-direction skills. At 6-2 and 207 pounds, he has fantastic size and legitimate 4.3 speed (4.36 at the combine), but final appearances against LSU (six catches allowed for 104 yards) and then Ohio State in the College Football Playoff (five catches allowed for 75 yards) have stuck in evaluators’ minds. And against the Buckeyes, it wasn’t all just Marvin Harrison Jr.”

According to Miller, Ringo’s measurements are impressive, but there is a concern in man coverage ability.

“One defensive backs coach thinks a position change might help, though: ‘I almost think you move him to free safety if you run a man defense. It’s that bad.'”

“Ringo has impressive metrics and did record four career interceptions. He also broke up 10 passes last season and had 42 tackles. There’s no doubting the elite size, tackling ability and recovery speed, but the man coverage traits need developing if he stays at cornerback. He’s probably safely a Round 2 guy, but I think he has to play in Cover 3 or make a position change,” said an AFC area scout.”

Miller projects Ringo as a best fit for the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets.

The draft will kickoff on April 27 televised on the NFL Network.