Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. The play sheet today recaps the vital official visit from 5-star ILB target Noah Sewell.
Unofficial visit > Official visit
That’s how Noah Sewell views his two trips to Georgia.
The 5-star ILB still views his summer unofficial as more important to his understanding of the program. Georgia’s chances of signing him in the 2020 class really ascended from that visit.
That’s not to say that the official visit didn’t go well for the Bulldogs. It did. Very well.
Sewell’s impressions of the atmosphere swirling around the Notre Dame game are still quite vivid even a week after that game.
“Just the fans man,” Sewell told DawgNation. “Just the people there. A lot of people there just from watching the game. Then there were a lot of people who came for the game but didn’t have tickets to come to the stadium. They were there just to be there. I just imagine all of those people who came for the game in that stadium and there still weren’t enough seats for everybody.”
The red lights in the stadium also stunned him.
“I did not really know what to expect,” he said. “I just thought the lights went out. I was like ‘what happened’ and then the red lights started turning on and everyone pulled out their phones. I have no words. No words can describe that feeling right there at that moment.”
How did the full visit go? His feelings there are reflected in one of the key takeaway quotes in Sewell’s official recap with DawgNation.
“It was just so fun,” Noah Sewell said. “There was not one time we didn’t stop laughing.”
That quote is one of the four need-to-know takeaways regarding that visit. What were the other three?
Read on.
Noah Sewell: 4 big things to know about his UGA official
- Sewell felt the gameday atmosphere was unbelievable — “I could not hear one word inside that stadium,” he said. “My dad was trying to ask me if I wanted some water and I was like ‘I cannot understand you’ and he was like one seat away from me.”
- That said, the second day of his official visit could ultimately become more important — That’s because that “can’t stop laughing quote” came on the second day of the trip. Why? There were two big pieces for Georgia to get right on this official. The first was to show him an impressive game-day experience. ✅The second was for the players on the team to continue to welcome him in and establish a deeper kinship with him. Sewell wants to join a unit of like-minded players that know him, accept him and create an environment he can plug into and thrive in. Georgia did that by setting up a paintball “battle” with him and his potential teammates on the second day of his official. The paintball, which will have its own section of this blog, certainly accomplished that. ✅
- What is the most important thing to him about UGA? — “It is just the linebackers. The linebacker room. How they are. They always compete with one another. No matter what no one is going to hate on each other. Everyone is trying to make each other better.”
- Sewell’s family has already given him their blessing to attend Georgia. — That came before he set his official. The Sewells are a no-nonsense family. They don’t believe in wasting their time or the times of the schools which recruit him.
Noah Sewell: Georgia won the game and at paintball, too.
A few images from that paintball battle made it to social media. The visual below sets the stage for what it was like when a few Bulldog defenders and staffers joined in on the fun.
We’ll just pop off several of his quotes about the paintball match. As if they were some more of those pink-and-blue splashes that afternoon.
“I had an incredible time out there. Some funny moments out there, too. Hanging out with Tae [Crowder] and Trez [Marshall] and Channing [Tindall] and all of those guys. There were a couple of DBs that came, too. It was just so fun. There was not one time we didn’t stop laughing.”
“It was just a fun time. I just love getting to know everyone there a little bit more. It was just a great time.”
“All I know is I don’t even know what was going on with that. There were so many things going on. I tried to fight with my own teammates but my teammates ended up shooting me. That was not much help for me.”
“But it was a good time. I really loved it out there.”
“It was like a team thing. We had to all go out and we were separated into teams and my team was full of linebackers and there were a couple of linebackers on the other team with the two DBs.”
“Yeah, we lost. We didn’t know how to spread out.”
“Being able to aim is a huge part. Because it is not a straight shot with these paintball guns.”‘
‘The most fun part of my visit was paintball. Oh my gosh. I think it went like three straight hours.”
“As a matter of fact, my own teammate, Trez, shot me right in my forehead. I wasn’t even ready for that one.”
Sewell said he’s probably a 4-star paintballer. Georgia graduate assistant and quality control coach Nick Williams was there. So was another GA and former Bulldog in Bacarri Rambo. Ryan Williams, another graduate assistant coach on offense, also pulled up.
“Rambo came out all decked out,” Sewell said. “He was like ready for war. He came out in a ‘Call of Duty ‘ like scarf or something. I was low-key kind of intimidated by him with all of that. He looked like he knew what he was doing.”
When recruits visit Alabama on an official, they wind up at Nick Saban’s lake house. They are in motorized ATVs for part of their trip.
Georgia was able to create a special “playtime” moment for Sewell. In its own way.
Noah Sewell recaps that UGA game-day atmosphere
The Orem High Golden Tiger (Orem, Utah) is not swayed by superficial things like facilities, gear, weight rooms or even big crowds. He’s said in the past that the thing that will matter the most with his decision was going to be the people.
Not stuff. Not stadiums. But last Saturday night was just different.
It did affect him.
“I’m not really going to care about the uniforms or anything,” he said. “Just as long as it is there for us. I’d be fine with it. But I just love how Georgia runs things. I love the people. I love the people inside Georgia in that program. It is a real family environment over there.”
He explained why the unofficial visit mattered greatly. His father said that’s how the family is able to handle all the administrative-level tasks for a potential fit: Academics, academic support, sports and nutrition, facilities, locker rooms, dormitory tours, campus tours and weight room inspections.
“It was great for the unofficial to get out there and see everything,” Noah Sewell said of his summer trip. “Then when on this official was just the gameday experience and how all of that feel like.”
He described what he felt and saw.
“I would just say that it is something different,” he said. “It is something you will never see before. If you go to Georgia to a home game the whole stadium is packed tight. For the team. It felt like that to us. It is just a whole different feeling.”
Sewell plays with a lot of energy. He basically depletes his gas tank every time he steps on the field. What would it be like to feed off all that love and energy from the home crowd?
“Do you mean playing in that?” he said. “Playing with that? Playing in it? Oh, that’s just a whole different feeling. It would be like that’s a whole city in that stadium with you behind your back.”
He’s got that just about right. There were approximately 94,000 fans in Sanford Stadium that night. According to the most recent U.S. Census estimates, his hometown of Orem in Utah was listed with a population of 97,839
He also had a thought of how hard it would be to face Georgia in that venue.
“It would be hard to play against,” he said. “You can’t play against a lot of people screaming and you and yelling at you where you can’t think. You can’t control that.”
He said the visit helped Georgia’s chances.
“It was just getting back out there and catching up with coach [Glenn] Schumann and coach [Dan] Lanning and coach [Kirby] Smart and just talking with them and catching up,” he said. “But then just seeing where I stand on things with them. That was the biggest part.”
What has UGA done well aside from making a connection?
That subheading sets this section up well. That answer is ILBs coach Glenn Schumann.
“Definitely coach Schumann,” he said. “Coach Schumann has really proved himself to me. Just he’s the type of guy who will take care of you no matter what. He’s the type of guy who will make sure you succeed on and off the field.”
That was big for Sewell and his family.
Schumann was just the first person he named. But all of the people at Georgia were what won this visit. That was the fans and the crowd inside Sanford Stadium, but also the people inside that football building every day.
That’s the biggest thing his parents have relayed to him about what they like about UGA.
“They like the people inside the facility,” he said. “They love the people inside from like the nutritionist to like the strength and conditioning coach. The whole coaching staff. They just loved it.”
What could Sewell potentially add to an impressive ILBs room in Athens?
“I don’t really know about that,” Noah Sewell said. “I just always know that I will bring a lot of heart. No matter how hard things get, I will always just push through everything. Just give it my all.”
The bottom lines here on Noah Sewell
With all of this, we have a few quality contenders to close the Noah Sewell official visit recap out.
He told DawgNation the official and unofficial visits have done their jobs. He has no more questions about what it would be like to be a Bulldog.
We could also hit the publish button after sharing his thoughts on the parting words from Smart to close out the official visit. It would be an interesting way to end things.
“I was talking to coach Smart before I left and clearing things up on where I stand in the recruiting process and everything and where I stand in their minds,” he said. “What he said really got to me. Yeah, it did.”
Sewell plans to take two more of his official visits. There is one to Texas A&M for the Alabama game and another to Oregon for an undetermined weekend at this time. Then he will ponder his future.
“Hopefully, I can do it before my senior season ends,” Sewell said in regard to his college decision. “That’s where my head is.”
Yet with all that, it seems the best ending would be to share the way he answered a specific question.
It has little to do with the recruiting of the nation’s No. 2 ILB prospect, but a lot to do about him. He can do so many things between the lines.
The question was what is his favorite thing to do on a football field. The answer would likely be quite revealing.
And it was.
“Seeing the second strings go in,” he said. “That’s my favorite part. They put a lot of effort and work into preparing me and us for game day. They work just like we do. I just want to see them being out on the field and then doing their thing. I love to see other people succeed, too.”
RELATED: Want a bigger slice of the Noah Sewell story? Check out his official visit primer
That reply feels about as uncommon as a 266-pound ILB who can run with elite skill guys when it comes to the combine tests. Sewell has a 4.13 in the pro shuttle drill and a 4.75 laser time in the 40-yard dash.
Check out the HUDL film below from his first game back this fall. He missed eight weeks with a broken bone in his foot. Sewell said he played that night at about 90 percent.
“It was definitely hard,” he said. “I was out of shape but I am slowly making it back. Just got to get back into the playing a full game grind again.”