Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry documents what is going on already between Georgia and hot TE recruit Oscar Delp of West Forsyth High School in North Georgia. 

The expectation was for Oscar Delp to share a window into his recruiting. His mother’s status as an alum of South Carolina is interesting.

Yet so is the fact the Gamecocks have yet to offer when power programs like Georgia, Michigan and Stanford already have done so.

He was likely to share his take on crispy routes and getting in and out of breaks while also expressing an affinity for physical play at the tight end spot. He’s applied a great range of the skills he showed as a lacrosse player when he was younger as a junior on the field.

He can move and will flash the hands. Delp was timed at 4.66 seconds in the 40 this past January at the national All-American Bowl combine. He paired that up with a 4.35 showing in the pro agility drill.

Let’s see how much the last month altered his college outlook here.

We expected him to say certain things that happen in every interview with a hot TE prospect.

DawgNation did not expect the wit he displayed in casual conversations. Or for him to drop impressions into the midst of things like it was his favorite double move.

Delp came off as easy to engage in conversation as it is for him to break off an icy Instagram caption. The best part was his Dylan Fairchild impersonation. He broke that out while discussing the All-American brawler’s reaction to his Georgia offer.

Delp said his West Forsyth teammate started “freaking out” about his Georgia offer.

“Oh we’ve got to get out there together,” Delp said while parroting Fairchild’s voice. “It is insane. Can’t wait for you to see it. You’ve got to make the move. Commit to the G.”

What did he have to say to all of that?

“Yeah, that might be it,” Delp said.

Delp delivered voice drop from teenager to something in the Barry White-dressed-as-Darth-Vader for-Halloween range to mimic Fairchild. He said he “just had to” tell that story that way about Dylan “Manchild” Fairchild.

“I’ve been talking to the Georgia coaches,” Delp said. “He talked to them about me also. They’ve asked him some questions about me.”

He seems like a fun personality. It might be why his teammates call him “The Big O” these days.

Oscar Delp is the teammate of 2021 Georgia All-American OL commitment Dylan Fairchild. (Oscar Delp/Courtesy photo)/Dawgnation)

How Georgia feels about Oscar Delp in the 2022 class

It is hard not to like a funny tight end. Delp said that Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley told him he’s the priority in the 2022 class, too.

“He’s told me I’m the guy they want,” Delp said matter of factly. “He told me to take my time. That offer will be there for me if that’s the place I want to go to. He said I’m pretty much their No. 1 guy right now.”

Hartley has likely seen the tape from the Mays game which will be embedded below this story. The Bulldogs offered Delp shortly thereafter.

If he has, then he likes him for more than his impressions.

“I was really shocked when I got the offer,” Delp said. “We had been talking for like a month every week on the phone. After our first game, I knew I did well. Played well. He was like ‘Stay patient with me’ and ‘you’ve got something big coming your way’ and kind of hinted at it a little bit.”

Delp was quarantined to COVID-19 tracing for his next game. He couldn’t play.

“That game went by,” Delp said. “Then I was kind of wondering if he wants to see play another game before he offers me. Then we were like talking in normal conversation and he was like ‘I’ve gotten to know you and you have a full ride to the University of Georgia and we want you’ and I was just kind of sitting there. Stunned. You know?”

Oscar Delp said that Georgia having Dylan Fairchild on the roster will definitely help the program’s chances. He described the two as “best friends” who see each other every day. (Dylan Fairchild/Courtesy photo)/Dawgnation)

“I was thinking like ‘Did I just hear that’ from Coach Hartley? I was just shocked.”

This offer mattered. Kind of like that offer from Michigan with all the ties to that state in his family.

“It is definitely going to be an offer I am going to consider,” Delp said. “Like very highly. It is the University of Georgia. Great school. Great football program. I mean an hour from my house. They are starting to use the tight ends like where I would fit in this year and in the future. Which is also a really good feeling. They are definitely going to be a school I will look at a lot.”

When Delp saw Darnell “The big Zero” Washingon catch that pass and tear through Arkansas like a 6-foot-7 Bulldog in a china shop, he couldn’t help but imagine.

“I was kind of trying to envision if that was going to be me in two or three years,” Delp said. “I feel like I could fit in very well in that offense. Once they got it rolling, it started looking pretty smooth.”

He can already see Hartley as a guy he’d like to play for.

“Coach Hartley is an awesome guy,” Delp said. “He’s one of those coaches you can talk to for an hour straight and keep on talking. The conversations flow every time. I’m always getting texts from him saying ‘Attack the Day’ and he’s always pumping me up. He’s really an awesome guy. I enjoy talking to him a lot.”

Fairchild will boost Georgia’s cause there.

“Definitely,” Delp said. “I mean Dylan and I are best friends. We’re together every day. I know they recruit kids by who they are and if I am on a team with 150 Dylan Fairchilds, then that would be an awesome team.”

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Oscar Delp said he has been told by the Georgia staff that he is their No. 1 target at TE for the 2022 class. (Oscar Delp/Courtesy photo)/Dawgnation)

Why Oscar Delp plays football 

Delp gives the everyman’s answer for why he plays the game.

“There’s just something about it every day going out there with people that I consider my brothers,” he said. “I have 150 of them. We’re all out there every day putting the work in and it pays off with a great feeling once it does. I’ve built relationships that I am going to probably have for the rest of my life.”

He’s probably the width of an iPhone shy of the 6-foot-5 mark and currently will weigh in at 220 pounds. Delp has always been this tall. He cited that he was already 6 feet, 3 inches when he was in the eighth grade.

West Forsyth was using him as an outside receiver until this fall. That’s when he got in the weight room and packed on some muscle for armor because he was moving to tight end and was going to be asked to block, too.

Sound familiar? That’s the Georgia plan with Hartley. Take a big body with hands and speed and ball skills. Then chisel them up to be ready to play inside. But not too much. That will allow to then flex them back out as a tight end at Georgia.

“I think my route running as a tight end is very crisp,” Delp said. “That is something I really work on in the off-season. Kind of all those small little things when you are being pressed and the footwork I’ve worked on that a lot and it is starting to pay off in games.”

Delp is no stick figure out wide. He said his bench press is up to 315 pounds and he can squat 405 pounds. His power clean is also now in that 265 to 275-pound range.

South Carolina was the school for him growing up. But the Gamecocks have yet to offer.

“I grew up a huge Gamecock fan growing up,” Delp said. “I had Jadeveon Clowney and Connor Shaw and Marcus Lattimore all over my walls. I wouldn’t say it was my dream school but it was the school I rooted for.”

He has a lot of family in Columbia. As stated previously, his mom grew up there and she attended South Carolina.

“They have not offered,” Delp said. “But I have been talking with them and I have a pretty good feeling that something will be coming soon.”

When he’s not lifting or practicing or working on his game, he’s hanging with friends or on church retreats.

“My family is very religious,” Delp said. “We believe in our faith. Away from football, I’m really just a kid hanging out with my friends, following God and just doing everything for Jesus Christ.”

What does the decision timeline look like here? 

A commitment should not be expected anytime soon.

“I’m definitely going to need the dead period to end so I can get out and see all of these schools,” he said. “Right now the only school I have seen is Clemson. I was there last year at a camp and I really didn’t even see the school that much.”

“I really don’t want to make a blind decision based on phone calls and virtual tours that much. I want to get out there, see everything, and see what it is about. If the dead period ends when it is supposed to, then I think maybe I can make my decision in February of 2021, but I’m really not sure about that yet.”

Delp isn’t sure yet if he wants to enroll early in college as of yet. He has a 3.9 grade-point average but he’s only started to pick up these offers by the bushel over the last month.

He’s blowing up in the midst of the COVID-19 recruiting cycle, but he is set to wait on his chance to check out these programs in person.

“Most coaches have told me that I am the guy they want and they are going to wait for me to make a decision and I will have a spot no matter when I commit,” Delp said. “That has really helped a lot and allowed me to relax and not stress out a little bit.”

“But it is definitely hard not being able to go on these visits right now and go up and see games at least.”

SENTELL’S INTEL

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