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.”
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.
Smoke signals: The need to know now about Deyon Bouie
- Bouie plays at the same high school which sent both Georgia coach Kirby Smart and graduate assistant defensive line coach Nick Williams to Athens. Those two have been heavily involved in his recruiting process.
- The talented 5-star ATH picked up his Georgia offer right after the Bearcats won the state title in 2018. Georgia was his first offer.
- He has played and excelled on both sides of the ball during his time at Bainbridge
- His first name is pronounced DAY-ON
- Bouie has not played this season and he has been rehabbing a winter knee injury that saw his ACL and MCL torn during off-season training.
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)
- BREAKING: Nation’s No. 5 senior DT Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins chooses UGA
- Georgia 5-star QB commit Brock Vandagriff honored as an All-American
- 5-star junior ATH Deyon Bouie closes in on a rapidly-approaching decision
- Tyre West: Nation’s No. 4 junior DT is getting close to a decision
- Breaking down a legacy offer from UGA for elite 2023 RB Justice Haynes
- Rewinding an epic All-American performance from major target Terrion Arnold
- BREAKING: Elite Tuscaloosa DB Kamari Lassiter chooses UGA
- WATCH: Big announcements signal 2021 recruiting about to kick into overdrive
- COVID-19 concerns cancel the 2021 All-American Bowl
- Georgia football Freshman Report: Alabama 41, Georgia 24
- Amarius Mims: The 2021 class weighs in on how big the 5-star’s commitment was
- BREAKING: 5-star OT Amarius Mims commits to the Bulldogs
- All-American commitment Micah Morris remains strongly committed to UGA
- Surging in-state prospect Oscar Delp was told by UGA he’s the No. 1 TE for 2022
- What’s the latest with 5-star LB Smael Mondon Jr. and his decision timeline?
- Nyland Green: Pregame Skittles, a Chucky doll and a big upcoming decision
- Nation’s No. 2 safety Terrion Arnold describes the 2 things that stand out about UGA
- Jonathan Jefferson: UGA pledge blessed by Dad’s health after “bad case” of COVID-19
- Stetson Bennett: Poor dirt farmers and why the Arkansas win was so special
- Amarius Mims: The tall tales that go beyond a Georgia boy’s 5-star ranking
- How 5-star DT Maason Smith revived Georgia’s recruiting shot