Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel will bring at least five days a week. 5-star Bryan Bresee told DawgNation exactly why he wants to return for another good look at UGA on G-Day.
Nation’s No. 1 overall prospect for 2020. 5-star strong-side DE from Maryland. He visited UGA on March 4 and knew before that visit was over he wanted to return for G-Day.
The previous paragraph found its way into a different font because there’s probably no better recent example about the national reach of UGA recruiting than that. Georgia is already getting the type of consideration that the nation’s elite programs do when it comes to national prospects from way outside the SEC’s footprint.
Justin Fields was the nation’s top prospect for some time during the last cycle, but he’s from Georgia. Jadon Haselwood ranks as the No. 2 overall prospect for 2019, and despite a visit to Oklahoma next month, he’s solid with the Bulldogs. Another Georgian. That same narrative can apply to 5-star Trenton Thompson in the class of 2015, too.
Sure, there are way out-of-state examples such as 5-star quarterbacks Jacob Eason in 2016 and Texan Matthew Stafford in 2006. But those were QBs.
The appeal there meshed with Mark Richt’s appeal as a QB coach. Bresee seems more aligned with the Bulldogs attracting top talent on both sides of the ball with Kirby Smart’s defensive background.
“During the visit right about at the end my parents and I really liked it,” Bresee said. “So we decided to come back down and get sort of a game-day atmosphere on it with everything we liked to back up what we saw.”
He liked it. His family liked it. They wanted to come back to see more.
“Just seeing the whole campus and walking around with Coach [Tray] Scott the whole day and then meeting Coach Smart we just liked it,” Bresee said. “It felt comfortable down there. I think my family liked it a lot as well. My mom and dad really liked it, as well.”
Georgia actually has an unlikely advocate for its educational experience all the way up in Maryland. Bresee has a neighbor who attends Georgia. They have already told him about life in Athens and how much they enjoy being a Bulldog.
RELATED: For an in-depth look at Bresee, check out his first DawgNation profile
Another neat little wrinkle for Bryan Bresee with UGA
It is known Smart and the Georgia staff don’t really like the concept of a sprawling junior day with prospects galore and a whole complex full of elite talent.
The Bulldogs prefer smaller intimate meetings with elite recruits. Personal attention. Relationship building. They want that 1-on-1 time with coaches, coordinators and families.
It worked. That’s because Bresee visited Clemson on a Saturday. That was one of those hyped junior days. The Georgia visit was just him and a select few members of the staff.
Both visits likely made an impact. Clemson is a great program, a championship program, and it now has elite facilities that rival anything else in college football.
But the Georgia way turned out to be a good way to recruit a 5-star prospect, too.
“Clemson was a little bit different because it was a big junior day,” Bresee said. “It wasn’t so personalized. It was kind of a broad campus tour and more for the whole group to see. Georgia was just a visit specific to me. I was the only recruit there.”
He also got to see the work-in-progress which is Sanford Stadium right now. That west end zone project is coming together.
“That stadium was really cool,” Bresee said. “It is under construction right now but we were getting the whole story about the hedges and got to get some deep history in it. That was pretty cool.”
Scott made sure Bresee knew how he would fit into the defense at Georgia. He measured in at 6-foot-6 and right at 275 pounds.
“Coach Smart was telling me that they like me a lot at Georgia and to keep coming down and giving it more looks,” Bresee said. “He said to keep coming down and that I would like it more and more every time I come down.”
The coaches noticed that his father had a large bee on his shirt, too. The fans on social media did the same. They had to explain that it was because of Damascus High football. “The Swarm” have won three consecutive state titles in Maryland and are also winners of 55 of their last 56 games.
“They didn’t know what that stood for,” Bresee said. “We had to tell them.”
Bresee tried on the spiked pads and the Bulldogs chains made famous by senior DT John Atkins on the field before games last season. Bresee wore his customary No. 44 jersey.
The trip also included a visit to the academic center. It was a Sunday. So he got to learn just a little bit about the potential business and finance majors he’s thinking about.
About that next trip for Bryan Bresee
Bresee has been rated as the nation’s top player for 2020 on 247Sports for quite some time. He held onto that status when the service dropped its first big expanded rankings.
“It is nice to have that attention and to be looked at so highly by 247,” Bresee said. “It doesn’t change the way I look at the game, but it makes me want to work harder to prove why I am in that position.”
He will have his whole family in tow again for G-Day on April 21.
“Just want to go down and see what a game day will be like down there,” he said.
The staff told him that all 93,000 of those seats are expected to be filled. And then some.
“Yeah, that is just crazy,” Bresee said. “Especially for a spring game.”
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