The recruiting attention on 4-star Roswell junior free safety Xavier McKinney picked up exponentially in July and August. He had the chance to attend prospect evaluation camps at Alabama and Clemson this summer. Those were enough to earn his first scholarship offers.
“Well, in the summertime I was looking for the first team to offer and I was still working to where I wanted to get,” he said “ And now they have started offering and I’ve started blowing up and things have gotten crazy for me.”
Who was his first offer? Did that SEC West titan also offer him? He answers those questions in the video interview above. His latest two offers have been from Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
How does he feel about UGA? He said if the Bulldogs were to offer, then they would go right into his top group.
“That would be exciting,” McKinney said. “I’m in Georgia right now and it would be close to my family so I feel like that would be a good place for me to be if they offered.”
His offer list includes South Carolina and Tennessee, and he already knows what he’s looking for at the next level.
“I’m looking for a place that I can call home that’s kind of similar to Roswell,” McKinney said. “Somewhere I am comfortable and somewhere I think we can win and I can be a big impact to the team.”
The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder is rated by the 247sports composite as the No. 13 safety in the nation for the 2017 class, and he is already serious about the weight room.
“He is as instinctive and as natural a ballplayer as I have ever seen,” Roswell coach John Ford said. “When I was at Harrison, I was there when (future Auburn great) Darvin Adams was there on both sides of the ball. Darvin could kind of do it all. I hope Darvin doesn’t read this, but I think Xavier is already far better than he ever was on both sides of the ball.”
Adams went on to become the only receiver in Auburn history to record two seasons with more than 900 yards receiving during their career.
Jeff Sentell covers 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.
