Demetris Robertson’s long-and-winding recruiting story now has a finish line in sight.
The nation’s No. 1 receiver and a major remaining need for UGA’s Class of 2016 will share his decision on May 2. It is expected to be at a school ceremony at Savannah Christian Prep. That information, first reported by Sports Illustrated (SI Now), was confirmed by Robertson’s guardian and older brother Carlos Robertson.
Robertson also said the May 2 announcement would be the public decision. Expect Robertson’s actual decision to be made prior to that.
This shapes up as a UGA, Cal, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame decision. Alabama, the school he was once committed to for almost a year, no longer seems to be in play. That stance has been reported by several outlets. Stanford was his dream school, but it appears Robertson will be making the decision before he gets his scores back from his latest SAT test.
He needed to raise his score slightly to qualify to enroll at Stanford.
The five-star senior from Savannah, Ga., took his last official visit to UGA almost a month ago, and it was the only visit that his mother and sister joined him on. After the visit, Robertson’s older brother said the family had several positive takeaways from the trip.
UGA head coach Kirby Smart is allowed to discuss Robertson’s recruitment because he has signed financial aid papers with the school, but not a letter-of-intent. Those financial aid forms are non-binding. He also signed the same documents with Cal and Georgia Tech. Those forms allow for unlimited contact between the school and recruit.
Smart told reporters last week that UGA is selling the program to Robertson every chance they possibly can.
“We’re recruiting as hard as we can,” Smart said. “I think the toughest thing is that we’re also recruiting 2017 kids, so when you’re still recruiting 2016 kids and it seems to be that’s more of a growing trend, that you’re having to do double duty.”
The academic side of things with decide the issue with Robertson. He feels he can succeed on the field wherever he goes. The goal is to find the education that gives him the best career opportunities after his playing career ends.
“We’ve got a great education,” Smart said. “He’s talked about going into engineering. We’ve got a great engineering program. We’ve talked to him a ton about stretching the field vertically because he’s a really fast guy, we need a guy to do that. He knows that, so he knows the opportunity’s there.”
Jeff Sentell covers UGA football and UGA recruiting for AJC.com and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on who’s on their way to play Between the Hedges. Unless otherwise indicated, player rankings and ratings are from the 247Sports Composite.