Brock Vandagriff: How does that family feel about the JT Daniels transfer?

Kirby Smart has built the Georgia football program under the culture of competition. That is a notion that the family of 5-star QB commitment Brock Vandagriff sounds firmly behind.

Sign the best. Let the practice field sharpen everyone. The ones that perform the best will take the field first.

When DawgNation spoke to Brock’s father, Greg, in the wake of the JT Daniels news cycle that dominated all Georgia football narratives on Thursday, that feeling was clear.

Daniels will enroll at Georgia with three years of college eligibility to play up to three seasons for the Bulldogs.

“It is not that you value competition but you embrace competition,” Greg Vandagriff told DawgNation. “If you are an athlete and you want to be a starter, you have to compete. When you choose a university you choose everything that goes along with that university. From transfer players to players that are already there to changing coaches, you just embrace it. You compete and go out there and do the best you can.”

Greg Vandagriff certainly understands. He’s a high school football coach at Prince Avenue Christian. Vandagriff has started for his father for the last two seasons under center at Prince Avenue.

That’s a football coach’s view on the matter. Vandagriff, a sharp defensive mind that has worked the well-known national clinic circuit for years, has spent 30 years on the sidelines.

His son’s finalists were all schools that are accustomed to having two or three “Vandagriff” level talents at his position. When he backed away from the best fit for his talents at Oklahoma to prioritize family and being closer to home, the other suitors along with Georgia all have established quarterbacks in place who project to be multi-year starters at his position.

“It wasn’t like we were trying to go to Southeast Missouri or UTEP,” Greg Vandagriff said. “We were choosing among the best programs in the country and you are going to play against the best. That’s just part of it.”

The Vandagriffs were not surprised by the Daniels news that popped up on Thursday morning. They were aware of it before the story went viral.

“It is funny how life prepares you for situations,” Greg Vandagriff said. “The Oklahoma thing and de-committing and all that where one fan base loves you and one fan base hates you and they call you everything in the world. So he went through it before and he just turned his phone off. He knew what was about to happen with all of that.”

“He just went about his work.”

Georgia is still the best situation for Vandagriff and his family. They will be able to watch him play college football without a significant travel hardship for their extended family and he will be able to perform for a championship-level program.

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Brock Vandagriff: Heading into his senior season

The Prince Avenue Christian senior is in good shape heading into his senior year. He’s been able to get in some early morning workouts on a routine.

“We really haven’t missed a beat,” Greg Vandagriff said.

Check out this new feature from HUDL below. It allowed the head coach of a prospect to break down a few plums from his junior highlight tape.

Vandagriff has always schooled his son in the way a defensive coordinator will try to think. He was told that was the first time HUDL had ever done that with a quarterback.

“They said they were going to pick out seven or eight clips and they just wanted me to tell them what was happening on those clips,” Greg Vandagriff said. “I thought it was neat and those guys did a good job of portraying Brock in a positive manner. It is just another piece of the puzzle and part of the process we are going through.”

Vandagriff said he would mirror what he would say to his son in the film room on those clips.

“It is very similar,” he said. “He knows. It was funny that Ron Veal and I were talking just yesterday. Man, he knows the system so well. He knows what I am about to say and what the reads are. He was so much better in year two than year one in our system. I can’t even imagine what year three will be like in our system to be very honest. It is not like it is easy, it is very complex.”

Vandagriff said that his son is now at the 6-foot-3 mark in height. He’s weighing in at approximately 208 pounds. Brock Vandagriff is a physically put together athlete who ranks as the nation’s No. 2 dual-threat QB and No. 12 overall prospect on the 247Sports Composite ratings.

“Physically he is 12 to 15 pounds heavier than he was last year at this time,” he said.

Most might not know this timeline around Vandagriff’s junior year. Check out this series of events that his father detailed:

Brock Vandagriff came down with mono right around July 4th and dropped 17 pounds.
He would leave his bed to do team 7-on-7s and then go home and back to sleep.
The junior QB did that for July and got cleared for contact in early August.
He broke his leg early in his junior year and missed four weeks. Vandagriff stayed in that game after he broke his leg and then missed those next four weeks.
He came back at 80 percent and played in the next two games.
The 5-star QB took a shot to his knee in his third game back and had a second-degree MCL sprain
Wasn’t back close to 100 percent until the final week of the season

“I gotta believe this season health-wise will be better for him,” Greg Vandagriff said.

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