FRISCO, Tex. — Sign the nation’s No. 1 player. That usually provides a short-term benefit to the current recruiting class. But the ripples of landing Nolan Smith have stretched out to Calfornia for 5-star rising junior Korey Foreman.
This is a pretty good 5-star connection to think about here.
Foreman rates as the nation’s No. 5 overall prospect on the 247Sports Composite ratings for 2021. That’s pretty good. The 6-foot-5, 266-pound defensive end from California likely elevated that stock with his work over the last week at The Opening finals.
The Centennial (Corona, Calif.) standout was named the overall “Defensive Line MVP” for the week. That was an honor that probably had the first six letters of “Bryan Bresee” earmarked for it.
Foreman took that prize, though. That’s how dominant this guy was once the pads came on in Texas.
When asked about his college offers from SEC Country, Foreman rattled off the following in this order: Vanderbilt, Florida, LSU, Alabama and Mississippi State.
What about Georgia? He tweeted out an offer to play from the Bulldogs back on April 30.
“Oh yeah Georgia,” Foreman said. “My bad.”
Did that offer leave an impression? Maybe. Maybe not. That’s that part where Mr. Smith from Savannah comes into this story. He’s already in line for a lot of playing time despite just enrolling in January of this year.
Smith had a pretty good spring and drew some praise from the staff, including head coach Kirby Smart. True freshmen in their first spring usually earn praise from Smart at about the same rate that kickers fling manhole covers around in Scott Sinclair’s weight room.
Foreman will be watching what Smith does this fall. He will also pay attention to what his former Centennial teammate Drake Jackson does at USC, too.
“Well being an underclassman I like watching Nolan Smith and Drake Jackson,” Foreman said. “Of course [Jackson] was once my teammate. But yeah Nolan Smith is really good. I feel like he’s doing really well at Georgia.”
“Being a teammate with him, that would be nice. But like I said I’m just taking things slow.”
What Korey Foreman knows about his decision so far
Foreman is not in any hurry to make his college decision. He feels like he will need to take a Southeastern and Midwest tour to start shaping up his college decision.
“I have literally only been on the west coast,” he said. “So hen I explore I will tend to figure out where I feel like I fit best and where I will be put in the best position.”
Oregon is in the mix. USC in the race here. He’s already been to that campus enough to find familiarity there. Building rapport with the coaches will matter here for him with any school. He will also want to get to know the players on the current team, too.
Colleges cannot reach out to these 2021 prospects until Sept. 1 of their junior years. That’s when Foreman will likely be flooded with contacts.
Foreman said he measured in at 6 feet, 5 inches and weighed right at 266 pounds. He scratched his first 40 with an early stumble. The 5-star junior also wasn’t really happy with his second because of a bad start. But he showed maturity by owning up that he “only” ran that one in 5.0 seconds.
“I didn’t want that out there but we are interviewing so it is already out there,” he said.
That showing did nothing that would alter the perception of what a special player he can be.
A few more things to know about Korey Foreman
He just committed to play in the 2021 All-American Bowl out in Texas.
Where will he play college ball? That’s is already on his mind.
“That’s where I wake up at every day,” Foreman said. “Do I want to go Pac-12? Do I want to go SEC? Everything is just, it humbles me. I take everything slow and I like to sit there and just think about what I want. Not what everybody else wants me to do.”
The location of moving away from the Pacific Time Zone will not be an issue for him.
“A lot of schools feel like it is a problem for me to leave home,” Foreman said. “First of all, I would like to address to them that traveling isn’t really a problem for me. It just depends on where I feel I fit best. I don’t want to go somewhere and I would never want to have to transfer from a school. I would never want to have to de-commit.”
“If I’m committing I would have to stay loyal to that school. That’s why I am taking my time.”
Korey Foreman vs. Tate Ratledge
Smith is a potential link to Athens for this young man. But elite OT commitment Tate Ratledge will be another.
“I lost to him on Monday and Tuesday,” Ratledge said on Tuesday. “I lost to him on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday he really made me look stupid.”
RELATED: Elite OT Tate Ratledge uses the Opening as a true learning experience
The nation’s No. 5 OT prospect for the 2020 class said that Foreman got him like “five times” during the week. Ratledge said he’s never faced an athlete like Foreman on the field in pads before. Ever.
“He started chopping and I’d get mad and go at him and next thing I know he’s right by me,” Ratledge said. “Whoo. Whew.”
Foreman humbled Ratledge during the first few encounters in Texas. It forced Ratledge to really study the film of those reps.
“If he’s not the top player in his class after this then I don’t know who could be,” Ratledge said. “Good night.”
Ratledge even enlisted the opinion of Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman for some instant feedback.
He rebounded to win all three reps against Foreman on the final day of the Opening finals.
Those two came out of that event with a high level of respect for one another.
“That’s probably the best matchup I have had in my life,” Foreman said. “It is really nice going against people this good. I love the competition. I love to compete. Tate is a really good athlete. Losing it humbles me. So I don’t really take it to the heart. I take it and put it in my mind.”
“What am I going to do next to not make myself lose? What am I going to do to push myself to be the best and strive for greatness?”
He set Ratledge up the first two days. Nobody in the 2020 class has made Ratledge look like that. Not 5-star Clemson commit Bryan Bresee. Not 5-star Clemson commit Myles Murphy.
He set Ratledge up the first two days. Got him lunging and not waiting on a Foreman move to counter.
“These first two days he figured out the spin move is something that I do,” Foreman said. “But I don’t tend to do it all the time. I tend to do it when I know how to bait or you know set up an O-lineman. He bit on it these last two days but he realized and then he sunk [his hips and feet] and he stayed in place. So I couldn’t really counter off of that.”
“So I’m going to give him props. He got me right then and there.”
Foreman chose football because he felt he was “great” at it. He also played baseball and basketball but he noted that he was just merely “good” at those sports.
“Just God-given ability I would say,” Foreman said. “I’ve tried every single sport. I don’t like being in the house. I feel like the football category just fits me best.”
He is just 16 years old and will not turn 17 until November. Yes, he does get that a lot.
It will be pretty hard to shake the visual from his third straight humbling win against Ratledge on the second day of the OL/DL camp at The Opening. A bunch of players opted to gather around and watch them work.
We’re talking the skill guys. That’s not something that happens every day of the Opening. When he blurred by Ratledge for the final time, it sparked this reaction from Ohio State CB commit Lejond Cavazos.
“That boy different,” Cavazos said.
That’s not an exact quote, but that string of words sum up what he said.
Cavazos was pretty much spot-on when he said that. Everything was thinking that. He just spoke those words into existence.