Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. The call here is the second read from DawgNation on the developing recruiting relationship between Georgia and 4-star Arizona LB Quintin Somerville.
Quintin Somerville had more than a few ‘wow’ moments on his first recruiting trip to Georgia last month.
It all started to sink in when he looked around the facility. He couldn’t miss that image of Bulldog legend A.J. Green.
He locked another image of Green in his mind years ago. That’s when he was just a kid in Arizona. He saw Green at Georgia playing in front of a big crowd on TV. Making big catches.
Somerville was just six years old. Already enthralled with Georgia back then. It was why Somerville chose an uncommon social media reaction to his UGA offer.
There’s history there. It was part of the reason why his family made a quick trip to see UGA. The Somervilles made it out for a “Junior Day” roughly 16 days after he received that offer.
The plot kept getting interesting.
The 6-foot-3, 235-pound junior even found out his high school teammate would be in Athens for that same weekend. He learned about that shortly before his trip. 5-star Kelee Ringo also signed with UGA out of Saguaro High School (Scottsdale, Ariz.) in the 2020 class.
If it seems like a lot of coincidences are lining up here, then it should.
Ringo wasn’t going to say beforehand. He did not seek to hype up the trip for his friend. Somerville just knew Ringo would eventually find him.
Then he’d flash a look. It was his way to say “I told you so” when it came to all things UGA.
“Oh my gosh,” Somerville said. “Oh my gosh. That was it … He said like man are you blind? We went to dinner after the day. I didn’t get to see Kelee much during the day when I was touring the facility. But we went to dinner with Kelee and some of the other recruits and the coaches that were there. He was like ‘Bro, what did I say?’ and you could just see the kind of look on his face when he walked in.”
Somerville was expecting a lot for his first trip. He was hoping to be enthralled. All over again.
Georgia hit the bulls eye square with that notion.
“It kind of exceeded my expectations,” Somerville said. “Georgia just kind of sticks out. Georgia is a big football factory and everyone is excited and passionate around the football team. But I kind of learned a lot more around the different aspects Georgia has. I thought it was by far the best visit I have been on thus far.”
He said the best part was his meeting with Kirby Smart.
“He didn’t even talk about football really,” Somerville said. “He just talked about family and life and everything that has been going on. Then he told us obviously that the football part is going to take care of itself. It is a big football school, but then there is a side of the academics that I didn’t really know about.”
“[He talked about] Georgia being the No. 2 school in the SEC for academics and how they hold their players to a high standard in that aspect, too. I thought that was really cool. Then there was especially that part about coach Smart touching base with my family. I just thought that was really special to me.”
The academic appeal caught him off-guard.
“That was what really surprised me about the trip,” he said. “That was big time.”
When he got back to Arizona, everyone wanted to know his the trip went. Family. Friends. Teammates.
What word did he find himself coming back to in order to describe it?
“Incredible,” he said. “That’s the only way that I can put that.”
Somerville ranks as the nation’s No. 5 strong-side DE and the No. 75 overall prospect for 2021. That is on the 247Sports Composite ratings.
He also holds a 3.8 grade-point average at Saguaro High in Arizona.
If it sounds like he checks a lot of boxes for what Georgia is looking for at OLB in 2021, it should.
Quintin Somerville used the words “special” and “incredible” a lot while describing his first visit to check out Georgia. (Quintin Somerville/Instagram)
Quintin Somerville on UGA: What he knows after one trip
His family arrived early on a Saturday morning. They left about 28 hours later on Sunday morning.
“The first ‘wow’ was driving by the stadium,” he said. “We got to drive on the bridge on top of the stadium. I’m sure you know exactly what I am talking about and just kind of seeing that view. It was incredible.”
His parents came along. His younger sister, Lauren, also made the trip. She’s a high school sophomore and a student athletic trainer at Saguaro High School.
She got to meet Georgia’s Ron Courson. He can certainly be described as the Herschel Walker of athletic trainers in all college football.
Somerville laughed his way through the rest of that story.
“She got to meet Mr. Courson the head athletic trainer and that was spectacular for her,” Quintin Somerville said. “She feel in love with the city and she says she’s all Georgia now. She’s not going to restrict me from going to school there now or anything like that. She kind of fell in love with that place.”
His father also left with a clear impression.
“My Dad enjoys helping other recruits out,” Somerville continued on. “He liked to learn all the things the coaches at Georgia had to say to the families of recruits. Recruits obviously like me. About what to do and how to prepare. He thought it was incredible what coach Smart had to say. He kind of fell in love with the place, too.”
It was a quick trip, but the elite recruit saw enough to get a gauge of what an SEC football town is all about.
“It was incredible just seeing a place where football means that much to everyone,” Quintin Somerville said.
Which member of Team Somerville had the most fun?
“Probably my sister,” Quintin Somerville said. “She really fell in love with it. Really dreaming about it.”
When Somerville spoke, it sounded like the 4-star on the other side of the line was smiling big while he recapped every moment. His tone consistently gave off that joy along that conversation.
When he tried on the Georgia jersey, he picked out a No. 9. That is his Saguaro number.
“Special,” he said of the feeling. “I saw myself in the mirror and I was like ‘Wow’ and I never thought I would be here. Putting on those gray pants especially. It was something special. I never expected to be right there doing that in a thousand years when I was younger.”
“Here I am. That’s what I was thinking. It was something I had always dreamed of.”
Here are a few quick-hit things he felt comfortable in saying after his first Georgia trip.
- Somerville plans to return for another unofficial visit this spring
- He definitely plans to take an official visit to Georgia
- The Bulldogs definitely moved up. “I plan to release my top schools shortly in the next couple of months and you will definitely see Georgia on that list,” he said.
Quintin Somerville: The decision date is already set
He will look to move quickly with those trips. That’s because his commitment date is locked in.
Somerville chose a decision plan that never fails to impress. He will use the moment to honor family.
How did his mother react to that?
“She’s kind of amazed by the fact I want to do it for her,” he said. “She’s loving every minute of it. .. She really kind of knows I love her and she knows how I feel so she wasn’t really surprised. She is just proud of me and everything I have done and I kind of feel that. I know she’s going to cry on that day. That’s where we are with that right now.”
Somerville has been thinking of doing that to honor her for some time.
“That is just for everything that she has done fore me throughout this process,” he said. “She’s my rock and she means the world to me so I guess that’s kind of where that comes from.”
Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning would be his potential position coach in Athens. Georgia views him as an OLB-type who can fill multiple roles in the scheme. Those two got to chat, too.
“He sees me playing the outside linebacker position spot with my hand down or in a two-point stance,” Somerville said. “But kind of rushing the passer a lot of the time.”
But that chat with Lanning went beyond his positional versatility.
“He kind of told me about his journey and what he has gone through to get to this point as a coach,” Somerville said. “Just kind of learning about him as a person was huge for me. That’s because we don’t really get to learn about these coaches before we kind of go to the schools. Or a lot of players don’t get to know these coaches on a personal level and about their lives before they choose a school.”
“I just thought that was huge.”
He feels the Georgia offer “flipped his recruiting around” over the last month.
“A lot of schools have reached out to me since this Georgia offer,” he said. “It was kind of the pivot point I guess you might say with it. It is huge. I never in a thousand years would have expected to get this far but we are kind of now rolling along.”
The rising senior had 29 tackles for losses and nine sacks last season. His Saguaro High team had won six consecutive state championships in Arizona prior to the 2019 season.