BREAKING: 5-star junior ATH Deyon Bouie has made his college decision

Deyon Bouie chose a most special occasion to honor a loved one on his commitment day. The 5-star ATH in the class of 2022 made his college commitment known on his mother Maria Bouie’s birthday.

“My freshman year I told her that before my 11th-grade season was over that I was going to commit somewhere on her birthday,” Bouie said. “I told her that my freshman year again after we won the state title. I said ‘Mom, Georgia just dropped the offer’ and that’s my dream school since I was a kid and I can’t turn it down.”

Maria Bouie, a sergeant in the National Guard, is actually an FSU fan. But she was touched by the honor.

“I am so happy he did that today,” she said. “I am honored and anxious actually. I’m anxious. I’m excited and I’m glad he chose today to do it.”

Her son picked up the nickname “Smoke” for various reasons growing up. She said that he’s always been that way in trying to do special things for her.

“It’s kind of a blessing actually,” she said. “As he was younger, he was always very protective of me. My boys have always been really protective of me. I admire that about my boys. Especially ‘Smoke’ since he is the oldest. He’s always been that kind-hearted child for as long as he has been ‘Smoke’ growing up. That’s my Deyon.”

The catch here was she didn’t really know. Bouie had arranged an Instagram live presentation of all his top schools. He had cakes for all of the schools in his top seven, including her Seminoles. She could be heard cheering for FSU when the camera panned over to the FSU cake.

Why did he choose Georgia? It does help that a pair of former Bainbridge Bearcats are on the Georgia coaching staff, including coach Kirby Smart and defensive graduate assistant Nick Williams.

“It is just really family,” Bouie said. “Family really. Like Nick Williams, I talk to him every day like every at all hours of that day. Just building that family. We’ve got a bond. I don’t want it to break so we are going to keep it going.”

Bouie told both Williams and defensive backs coach Charlton Warren some time ago.

“Their reaction had me excited,” Bouie said. “I didn’t know how they were going to react to it. It was a good reaction. They were hype. They were ready for me to blow it up and tell the reporters and stuff.”

Bainbridge junior ATH Deyon Bouie has now committed to play for Georgia. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)/Dawgnation)

Deyon Bouie: A big addition to the 2022 class at Georgia 

Brookwood junior cornerback Marquis Groves-Killebrew already knew this news was coming. A good while ago.

Groves-Killebrew has been talking players all over the country to join him and build Georgia’s 2022 class. Especially Bouie.

He is always talking to Bouie, among many others How did Bouie recreate those routine conversations?

“C’mon, man,” Bouie said while mimicking Groves-Killebrew. “Stop playing. Commit.”

“Tell all those other guys to commit now, too.”

“Quit playing.”

“C’mon. Just waiting on all of ya’ll.”

“Still waiting.”

“I’ve already committed. You get to be next.”

Bouie is the next. Today. He becomes the highest-rated member in a three-man class of all homegrown Georgia prospects. That decision pushed the Bulldogs from No. 8 to No. 5 nationally for the 2022 class on the 247Sports Team Composite ratings.

“We talk like every night,” Bouie said of Groves-Killebrew. “We’ve got a group with all the kids called ‘Georgia’ and they want to jump on and join the train with us, too. He’s excited.”

Bouie has not played at all this season after suffering an ACL and MCL tear during off-season training earlier this winter. He is not expected to be back for his junior season.

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound ATH impressed as a freshman who worked his way into the lineup on the 2019 Bainbridge state championship team. He’s rated as an athlete, but his future does appear to be on the defensive side of the ball at cornerback.

Check out his impressive sophomore film below.

Deyon Bouie: About that “Smoke” nickname

Bouie has been known as “Smoke” for just about as long as he has been playing ball. Why? That’s a nod to his impressive all-around athleticism.

“When I was in the fifth grade, I used to play with this team called the ‘DC Warriors’ and I was bigger than everybody and I could outrun all the other little kids and all of them. Coach called me ‘Smoke’ because ‘Smoke’ is ‘Smoke’ and I could smoke everybody. That’s where I get it from. I just grew up with that.”

The Bainbridge High School coaching staff and his teammates will all call him that, too.

But that’s not the tried-and-true reason where that “Smoke” nickname comes from. His mother, Maria, told DawgNation she gave him that name when he was younger.

She said that he had very dark lips when he was a baby.

“Like he was a smoker or something,” she said. “That’s why I named him ‘Smoke’ with that. Because it is crazy because it is fitting now. He’s ‘Smoke’ and fast like he is quick with it and everything. His lips looked a little black like a puff of smoke.”

He’s just a different athlete. His mother said he was already riding a bicycle at the age of two.

“He just took to it with no training wheels,” Maria Bouie said. “He was just so advanced athletically when he was younger.”

Bainbridge coach Jeff Littleton also noted that Bouie has always been a tremendously gifted athlete.

Littleton would know. He’s been a part of four state championship teams as a player and three as a coach.

5-star Deyon Bouie becomes the highest-ranking commitment of Georgia’s three recruits in the early 2022 class. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)/Dawgnation)

Smoke signals: The need to know now about Deyon Bouie

What does he do best on the field? Bouie breaks it down so very simply.

“I don’t let my man catch the ball,” he said this fall. “That’s my main job really.”

Check out that touchdown he scored in the state title game back in 2018.

SENTELL’S INTEL

(the recent reads on DawgNation.com)