Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry gives a thorough breakdown of everything 4-star OLB Chaz Chambliss brings to the table as the latest commit to the 2021 class.
Chaz Chambliss usually starts every day with a big mug. We are not talking about selfies for his Instagram page here.
“When I was little my Pappaw used to drink black coffee when I was hunting with him,” Chambliss said. “He’d always tell me to kill a big buck you’d have to drink the coffee. The one time I actually drank the coffee, I killed one. So ever since then, I just drink a cup of black coffee every morning.”
He will go outside the Carrollton football facility and drink his coffee. Straight black.
The newest Georgia Bulldog commit will do that early Friday morning. Then on Saturdays and Sundays.
That’s enough caffeine intake there. He doesn’t want to dehydrate during the season.
“It is unbelievable,” Carrollton defensive coordinator Brian Simmons said. “It is like he is an old man already.”
That’s part of his ritual before he makes sure he gets in his daily workouts and strives academically to maintain his 3.9 grade-point average at Carrolton High School. Chambliss works out three hours every day until noon during the quarantine.
Remember the hit 1993 movie “The Program” starring the stunning Halle Berry and Omar Epps? That movie about a fictitious college team was even able to hand Georgia Tech an “L” on the big screen.
There’s a character named Phillip Latimer in that movie. Latimer does just about everything wrong in that movie as far as an exemplary student-athlete goes. Yet he was a hulking brute.
When that movie ends, the staff of Eastern State University sets out to find the next Latimer on the recruiting trail.
They were looking for a Chaz Chambliss.
Yet the strongest thing this football and classroom “nerd” takes in would be that stout cup of black coffee. Carrollton High head coach Sean Calhoun and defensive coordinator Brian Simmons feel that Chambliss plays like Latimer but then does everything the right on and off the field.
If you haven’t seen “The Program” then the necessary imagery will be a guy who will deliver a hit so forceful it shoots snot bubbles out of the ballcarrier’s nose. They will flow like the Gatorade on a South Georgia practice field.
RELATED: Chaz Chambliss commits to Georgia football
The Chaz Chambliss stories to know at the next tailgate
This story is one of many involving Chambliss. We will chronicle two of those in tonight’s blog. Well, maybe even three. Just for a few laughs.
“During pregame I always talk to the other coaching staffs and I’m not going to mention who it was here,” Simmons said. “We’re talking about this kid or that kid and the head coach of that school says to me ‘Well, we haven’t had a great week of practice” right on the field.
Simmons then asked why.
The head coach of the team Carrollton was about to face said his guys were scared.
“Scared of what?” Simmons replied.
“They have got a bad case of the Chaz Chambliss,” that coach went on to say. “They are scared of your No. 32 man.”
Simmons countered that he was scared of Chambliss, too.
The physical attributes and the maturity of his body catch the most eyes here. Most DawgNation readers are quick, and on point, to label him as just a big mean country boy. Chambliss will skin a buck and run a trout line, but he will also track turkeys and squirrel.
Those things matter more here than social media followers or chasing the prettiest girl he can find.
His coaches describe him as a thinking man’s football player.
“He can really talk to us out on the field and tell us what the other team is doing from film study,” Simmons said. “Then once he decides it is time for no more talking and it is time to act, then he is probably the most physical and aggressive kid I’ve ever been around.”
“It is literally when I hit you, I want to destroy your soul. You can tell by almost any highlight that you watch, that his physicality is almost unmatched.”
His defensive coordinator will reel him in on practice days.
“We will do that 100 percent because everything he does is 100 percent,” Simmons said. “I tell him sometimes ‘We need these scout guys. You can’t kill them’ and I tell Chaz to slow down. I tell him it is okay to tag them off every once in a while.”
“I do call him ‘Latimer’ sometimes.”
Chambliss will even paint his face with eye black on game days. All the way down to the cheek.
Chaz Chambliss file: A speed read on the newest UGA commit
Chambliss looked like a high school junior or senior with big SEC offers when he arrived at Carrollton. He was an instant starter in the summer before his freshman season.
Let’s rip off several quick things of note:
- His actual name is Chaz. No joke. Calhoun will call him “Charles” about half of the time, but he’s not sure if that is well-received by his 4-star linebacker.
- He has one of the five highest GPAs on his team across all grade levels. The rising senior is also one of the five strongest pound-for-pound Trojans on the team, too.
- Chambliss takes honors and AP classes at Carrollton. His coaches call him a “nerd” on the field and in the hallways.
- He is very low-key. So much that his coaches were surprised he wanted to do a commitment video.
- That said, it made perfect sense that he didn’t say a single word in that clip. “That was exactly him,” Calhoun said. “Very well done.”
- He will be a two-time team captain this fall. That is voted on by the players on the team.
- The Carrollton staff verified he is still just 17 years old. He will not turn 18 until October.
- He does plan to enroll early at UGA in January of 2021.
- This commitment should be seen as solid as his 253 career tackles and 69 stops for losses in three varsity seasons. Calhoun said that loyalty matters to Chambliss. The new Bulldog pledge told DawgNation that he will not visit any other schools as a Georgia commit.
- His coaches both called him “an old soul” in their program.
- Chambliss had some good lifts in the weight room with a 345-pound bench, a 485-pound squat and a 325-pound power clean. Those were in January and he’s made gains since then. He’s now at 525 on the squat and 365 on the bench. He said he’s added another 10 pounds to that power clean.
- He will be the second Carrollton Trojan in program history to enroll early as a mid-year graduate.
- His impressive career stat line will also include 38.5 career sacks and eight forced fumbles.
- He stacked up 85 tackles and 16.5 sacks last year as a junior.
- Chambliss comes from a military background. His father served in the Army for 25 years.
- Simmons approximated that 65 percent of the reps for Chambliss were as a stand-up OLB or a stack OLB. He’s had his hand on the ground at defensive end 20 percent of the time and the remaining 15 percent of his snaps have been at ILB.
“I remember the first day he walked into the football facility as an upcoming ninth-grader,” Simmons said. “We started talking to him and we asked him what grade he was in and he said eighth grade. I said ‘There is no way’ because he looked like a senior in high school. Heck he looked like a college kid then.”
The 6-foot-3, 240-pounder has done nothing but better himself on and off the field since then.
“When you see him initially at such a young age, he just strikes you as a physical specimen,” Calhoun said. “But then once you get to talk to him it just takes it to a whole new level. Just how great of a kid he is.”
What does he look like right now?
“I think he looks like what an NFL guy will look like,” Simmons said. “The guy has been working out three hours every day over quarantine. He built his own home gym. He’s a handyman. He loves the grind. Loves to work out. Loves football. Literally that is all he has been doing over the quarantine period.”
“He even looks better than he did when he was in school. It was unbelievable.”
Here is another look at his junior highlight film.
That’s the full reel, but arguably the best game of his career came against Rome.
Check it out below. There are 3:38 of highlights just from that single game against one of the state’s most well-respected programs.
The Wolves held a three-game win streak on Carrollton. That’s when Chambliss put the burden of ending that skid on his big shoulders.
He played like he had three cups of expresso that morning. Check that sequence where he reads the screen. Rome had it set up but Chambliss read the guard and wipes out the fullback to tackle the runner for a two-yard loss.
He later dips underneath a block on a reverse that Rome had set up, too.It would have been a touchdown. Chambliss turned that into a loss of eight yards.
There are clips after clips from that game. He’s even beating a Division I-A offensive tackle for a sack in that game coming off the edge with his hand in the dirt.
It was a Chambliss showcase game. The camera angles are just not close enough to verify the snot bubbles.
Where will Chaz Chambliss play at Georgia?
The evaluation here is a cross between a Malik Herring and a Nate McBride and maybe even a D’Andre Walker. Maybe toss in a David Pollack 2001 model motor under the hood, too.
The projection here is a SAM linebacker on Saturdays in the SEC.
“We know how hard he works,” Calhoun said. “We know how hard he studies. We know how hard he works at something he doesn’t excel at. If he doesn’t, he’s going to work at it so he gets good at it. I think he is going to be able to play at whatever position Georgia puts him at. If it is a SAM, he’s going to be really good at doing exactly whatever they need him to do. If there’s anything he’s not done before or they want him to do that he is not excellent at, there will not be anybody that will outwork him to get better at that.”
Can he be a strong-side DE at Georgia? Don’t let too many impressions get in the way. He’s basically the same size Malik Herring was when that talented SDE signed with UGA in the 2017 class. There’s no more than one inch and maybe 10 pounds of deviation from those two bodies.
It remains to be seen if Chambliss can do backflips like Herring. But he can serve as an intimidator.
“He’s done a lot of stuff for us where he’s had his hand in the dirt,” Simmons said. “He’s been a stand-up end. He’s been a stack ‘backer. He’s been a middle ‘backer. He’s been a true outside 3-4 ‘backer. Everything that he does, he’s been one of the most driven and hard-working individuals I’ve ever been around.”
“If they need him to be an off-the-line ‘backer or and on-the-line ‘backer or a hand in the dirt guy, he will probably be the best one they have. Because he does such a great job getting himself ready mentally and physically as much as I’ve ever seen anybody. Whatever you ask Chaz Chambliss to do, he’s going to be unbelievable at it. That’s for sure.”
“Whether that is affecting the quarterback or stopping the run or doing whatever you need him to do, he’s just going to be fantastic at it.”
There’s a bias here for both men. They’ve challenged Chambliss for three years now and have seen the results. They’ve seen this movie so many times they can quote all the lines.
Chaz Chambliss: The funniest story so far
Calhoun and Simmons both laugh at this one. It involves a Sadie Hawkins dance. Those still happen in his part of Georgia. That’s the old school staple where the girls have to ask out the guys to the dance.
We’ll jump to the part where a young lady asks Chambliss if he is going to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance.
“What are you talking about?” Chambliss replied.
“Yeah, are you going to the Sadie Hawkins dance,” she said.
“I don’t know who Sadie Hawkins is and she didn’t invite me to her party so I am not going,” Chambliss said.
Chambliss is seen by his two coaches as an old man in a 17-year-old defined frame. A Sadie Hawkins dance would speak to his era. He’s the reverse “Big” where the old man wishes to be young man.
“You would think so,” Simmons said. “But he has no time for dances. Or anything. If it is not hunting or fishing or football, then he’s not too interested.”
“He had a girlfriend for a little bit this fall. He might still have one. I’m not sure.”
When coaches don’t know if their star linebacker has a girlfriend, it usually means his priorities are aligned.
“It is not going to stop him from doing workouts,” Calhoun said. “He’s going to still get his workouts in and get better every day, too. That’s the way it is going to work with him.”
The love interest here might be the pages of the defensive play sheets that involve the blitz and pinch calls.
“The other story I can think of is he is in his hunting cabin in Mississippi,” Simmons said. “They have a hunting cabin in the woods. So he will pack dumbbells on any trips that he goes too. He brings them. A suitcase of dumbbells. So he puts all the dumbbells in a big plastic barrel and he sits down on a homemade bench that he made when he was over there.”
“He’s doing bench press with those packed dumbbells. He’s getting his lifts with all of his homemade equipment basically. He’s not going to miss a workout. I promise you.”
What is Georgia getting in Chaz Chambliss?
Calhoun shared his answer first to the query in that big bold type noted above.
“Somebody that is going to make their program instantly better the day he steps on campus,” Calhoun said. “I say this to a lot of people about Chaz. Chaz is not ranked as a 5-star when you look at the rankings. He’s ranked as a 4-star. But I look at it overall as a person because I am with him every day.”
“He’s a 5-star and there ain’t no doubt about it.Because of how he is going to make them better in the locker room and in the weight room and on the field. He’ll be a 5-star in the hallways going to class. He will be a 5-star alumnus when he graduates and leaves their campus. That’s everything he is bringing and he is also going to do everything he can to make the people around him better on and off the field.”
“He’s going to do nothing but win. That dude is a winner. He’s going to work to be a winner and he’s going to win because that’s who he is. It is awesome to see a kid take his academics even more seriously than his football and he is an unbelievable football player.”
Simmons brought up ESPN’s “The Last Dance” with his reply to that topic.
“We’ve all seen that, right?’ Simmons said. “We’ve all seen how Michael Jordan is so internally motivated. That is a perfect example of Chaz Chambliss. You never have to get him up. You never have to get him ready for practice. You never have to get on to him about his grades. You don’t have to get on to him about not doing something the right way.”
DAWGNATION RECRUITING
(the recent reads on DawgNation.com)
- BREAKING: Chaz Chambliss commits to Georgia football
- Taking a deep dive at how well Georgia has been recruiting Metro Atlanta of late
- Elite 2022 defensive athlete Daniel Martin already has a “family” feel at UGA
- HEDGES: The rival national programs between UGA and another No. 1 class
- Brock Bowers: Nation’s No. 3 TE knows what he needs to do before his college decision
- De’Jahn Warren: The “nugget” for the nation’s No. 1 JUCO prospect with UGA
- Elite cornerback Marquise Groves-Killebrew is a “No. 1 priority” for 2022
- Decrypting that recent tweet from 5-star LB Smael Mondon Jr.
- Prince Kollie: The ILB target who had 1,085 yards as a receiver in 2019
- Lovasea Carroll: DawgNation goes one-on-one with the 2021 RB commit
- Dylan Fairchild: Elite O-line target includes UGA among his top six schools
- What exactly are these virtual recruiting visits like right now?