Lyndell “Mack” Wilson did not go on any college visits this weekend.
The nation’s No. 2 OLB abruptly dropped Florida from consideration prior to a scheduled official visit set for this weekend. According to his mother, the 6-foot-3, 236-pounder instead just played basketball this weekend for his perennially strong Carver-Montgomery (Montgomery, Ala.) High School team.
Sandra Wilson, his mother, said she feels her son is down to Alabama and UGA and that her son was really “undetermined” about that decision at this time.
Yet if there was such a thing as a recruiting point spread, Alabama would be favored by at least two scores. UGA only climbed into the picture with the hiring of Kirby Smart as head coach.
Is that relationship enough to pull Wilson out of state and into the Eastern Time Zone? His mother said there was one key advantage the Crimson Tide has on UGA. They discussed that on the drive back from his official visit in Athens, Ga., earlier this month.
“The comment he gave me was he’s got a good relationship with Kirby but he wants to win,” his mother said. “It is kind of hard to say because I really don’t know what direction he is going in for sure. But that was the comment he made.
Wilson said she felt that either way her son goes that he “would win.”
When Smart was hired in December, the five-star prospect immediately put UGA in his Top 3. He scheduled an official visit for the weekend of Jan. 15. Did that visit give UGA a fighting chance?
“It is a possibility,” Sandra Wilson said. “It all depends. He and Kirby do have a real good relationship. It is really his decision and I am just going to back him up wherever he decides to go as a mother because at the end of the day that’s his decision and what he has to do. That’s not me who has to live his life.”
Wilson said her son also enjoyed his official visit to Alabama on Jan. 22. He’s been going to that campus since his freshman year. Shaun Dion Hamilton, a highly-recruited high school teammate, is a sophomore linebacker for the Tide.
“I would say he would feel more comfortable with everyone there with all the players at Alabama but then at Georgia Kirby (Smart) is the only person over there I would say he’s really comfortable with,” Wilson said. “That’s a real big difference to me.”
Wilson said she did enjoy her visit to UGA, but nothing really caught her eye. At the end of the day, she’s more comfortable with him going to Alabama. That’s natural. That trip is only about 110 miles to the in-state campus. The commute to UGA is about 230 miles and it’s also in another time zone.
Yet she also repeated it would be her son’s decision. She’s enjoyed taking all these trips and experiencing things she’s never done before, but is also ready for this process to be over with.
“I’m ready to see where he is going to go, too,” Wilson said.
Unless otherwise indicated, player rankings and ratings are from the 247Sports Composite.
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.
