Georgia signed 17 of its 19 committed prospects during the early signing period. With that, there is still some 5-star work left to be done (and then some) for the Georgia football recruiting cycle in 2020.
Can Georgia find a way to end up with five or maybe even six 5-star signees for this cycle? Is there a way? That’s certainly a storyline to track for the next eight days and then the month after that.
That specific chatter of late has kept DawgNation up at night and busy on the myriad of message board forums that track their beloved Bulldogs.
With that, let’s just cut to the chase.
- The Under Armour All-American Game week starts on Saturday morning with the annual Media Day availability. The Under Armour All-American game on Jan. 2 will carry a trio of announcements which will be of great interest to those who follow Georgia football recruiting.
- Those announcements are for 5-star RB Zachary Evans, 5-star ATH Darnell Washington and 4-star CB Dontae Manning. The Bulldogs are definitely in the mix, if not outright trending, for those three players.
- The All-American Bowl has a chance to lift the ceiling of the Georgia class even higher on Jan. 4. That’s when 5-star priority target Kelee Ringo will also announce his college decision in front of a live NBC audience.
Those players have announced or shared on their social media accounts that they did sign during the early period but have kept those choices quiet for their ceremonies on ESPN and NBC.
Let’s start with Evans. He is the only member of that group who can potentially enroll early.
That 5-star RB rates as the nation’s No. 1 RB for the 2020 cycle. The popular 247Sports “Crystal Ball” feature currently lists a prediction summary of 19 predictions. Georgia is the pick for 63 percent of those forecasts. LSU currently has 32 percent of those opinions. There is another five percent of those estimates which were logged in as undecided.
If Washington did indeed sign with Georgia during the early period and then comes forward with that choice during the live Under Armour broadcast, he will become the highest-rated signee in the 2020 Georgia class.
The 6-foot-7.5, 260-pound future Saturday tight end ranks as the nation’s No. 10 overall prospect.
Ringo, who will release his decision on Jan. 4, could then one-up that status if it turns out his choice was also Georgia over Oregon and Texas.
He rates as the nation’s No. 8 overall prospect for 2020.
Georgia football: How good can this 2020 class still get?
Let’s continue the sense of urgency with this narrative and track a few things.
Georgia signed 17 members of an expected 23 or 24-man class for this signing cycle back on Dec. 18. That currently places the program at No. 4 nationally on the 247Sports Team Composite ratings for 2020.
That’s pretty sporty especially given the fact that No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Ohio State currently boasts classes of 23, 26 and 25 players, respectively. Clemson signed its entire class so far during the early period.
Alabama signed 22 of those 26 players earlier this month. Ohio State signed 24.
It has left UGA a lot of track up ahead to hawk those schools down between now and the traditional signing day on the first Wednesday of February.
Georgia is currently the “Crystal Ball leaders” for those three remaining uncommitted 5-star targets for this class.
If Georgia is able to add the talents of Evans, Ringo and Washington to the 2020 class, it would mean the following:
- Those three players would become the three highest-rated players in the 2020 class for UGA at this time.
- It would also send the 5-star tally of 5-star signees for this 2020 class up to four future Bulldogs. Georgia would then only trail Clemson in that column for the most 5-star signees in 2020.
- The Bulldogs would see their current 293.24 247Sports Team composite score rise to 315.26. That would be good enough to overtake those same Clemson Tigers for the nation’s No. 1 overall class for 2020.
- If Georgia retains the commitment of 5-star OT Broderick Jones by securing his signature on Feb. 5, then that would push the program into a tie with Clemson for the most 5-star signees in the 2020 class.
- Jones and elite OL Sedrick Van Pran-Granger of New Orleans are two elite prospects in this class who remain committed to Georgia but did not choose to sign during the early period. Those are two contested recruitments to varying degrees.
Georgia football: Snapshot of each All-American Game
Who’s playing where? That’s a good time to share that listing. DawgNation will have personnel in place at each game this week with a through coverage plan for both events.
The Under Armour game week is especially interesting. Aside from those live announcements, the Georgia program will be as well-represented in that specific game week as any event in recent memory. There will be daily practices, one-on-one drills and media availability leading up to the game on Jan. 2.
Consider the following about the Under Armour event alone:
- UGA representing strong at UA: Georgia will have seven signees from the early period at that game. Those names include 5-star OLB Mekhail Sherman, 4-star WR Marcus Rosemy, 4-star WR Jermaine Burton, 4-star DT Jalen Carter, 4-star WR Arian Smith, 4-star OT Chad Lindberg, 4-star S Major Burns and 4-star DT Warren Brinson. That player list includes seven of the 10 highest-rated commits or signees in the Georgia class at this time.
- Decision Days: The Under Armour game also offers the potential of adding three more signees to the class in Evans, Manning and Washington.
- Unsigned commit watch: Jones and Van Pran are also at the game as unsigned commitments. Their feelings on the status of their Georgia pledges will be of great interest to chronicle during the game week festivities.
- 5-star DE Jordan Burch: The nation’s No. 5 overall prospect committed to South Carolina, but opted to wait until February to sign with the rest of his Hammond School teammates. He is also in attendance at that game even though his media availability will most likely be very limited.
- Bottom lines: 8 signees, 3 decision announcements, 3 unsigned priority targets
The All-American Bowl will not be quite that busy, but it will have the following UGA signees competing at that event outside of the eagerly anticipated Ringo announcement.
Georgia signees and targets at the All-American Bowl in Texas.
- 5-star CB target Kelee Ringo
- 4-star RB signee Kendall Milton
- 4-star OT signee Tate Ratledge
- 4-star WR target Xzavier Henderson (also will announce on Jan. 4)
- 4-star CB signee Jalen Kimber
- 4-star DT target McKinnley Jackson