Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry previews the upcoming March 1 visit for Raneiria Dillworth to UGA. “RaRa” is quite a talent coming out of North Carolina.
His given name is Raneiria Dillworth. Yet if everyone out there could be so kind, he’d like for college football fans to start calling him something else.
RaRa Dillworth would be his preference. That goes back to his younger days.
“It has been my nickname for a while now,” he said. “But my mom says that nowadays just give the crowd something they can ‘RaRa’ about. That’s what she has always been saying, though.”
Just make sure to say it fast. It is only fitting. Dillworth states he has been timed at a combine with 4.35 speed in the 40. That was a laser time.
“It was in the middle of my sophomore year,” he said of that feat. “So I may just be even faster.”
That might cause some skeptics to roll their eyes with a high school linebacker. It should. That type of speed is quite rare for any position at the varsity level.
Consider taking a look at him on film first. Does he play that fast? He plays with elite speed for any high school position on film, but most definitely as an inside linebacker.
This 4-star LB certainly plays fast on film. That’s what really matters. He has rare short-space quickness and a burst to get to an impressive top-end gear. It led him to another lofty feat.
Dillworth was credited with 203 tackles in 14 games last fall. That stat line will include 29 stops for losses and four touchdowns. He’s rated by the 247Sports Composite as the nation’s No. 19 OLB and the No. 225 overall prospect for 2021.
While we are on the subject of head-shaking information, let’s also note that he just turned 17 on December 26.
It is highly impressive to note that all of those plays, including that kickoff return TD, were made by a 16-year-old junior. That proves the notion that whatever Dillworth is going to do, it will be fast. He even grows up fast.
“Every school that I talk to they basically tell me that I am one of the fastest linebackers they have ever seen,” he said. “They said I move fast on film.”
He plans to make a silent commitment on April 17th. That will honor the birthday of his grandmother Rhonda Jackson, but he will not announce that choice until May 9.
“My grandmother thankfully is still living with us,” he said. “But I love my grandma. I just want to do it on her birthday. I feel like it is a good time. It is already around the time I had planned on committing. I can do it before the season with this, too. So I can actually focus on my senior season.”
“I’m trying to win a ring.”
A frenzied March to a decision for RaRa Dillworth
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound rising senior outlined a specific visit schedule with DawgNation earlier this week. He will certainly have his foot on the gas when it comes to making his college decision.
“Hold on a second,” Dillworth said. “Let me go to my phone to pull up all the dates right.”
- March 1 – Georgia (first trip)
- March 7 – Alabama (first trip)
- March 20 – N.C. State
- March 21 – South Carolina
- March 28 – North Carolina
- April 1 – Oklahoma
- April 4 – Tennessee
- April 11– FSU
- April 17 – Silent commitment
- May 9 – Public decision release
If that’s not enough of a busy schedule, he will also compete on at least one weekend in the midst of all of that at a 7-on-7 event. That will be in Virginia Beach.
RaRa Dillworth: The things to know here
In his early “RaRa” days, he was the kid nobody could hawk down on those Pee Wee fields. When he was playing defense, he was the one chasing everyone else down.
That has been a constant. Kind of like his No. 8 jersey.
Dillworth played on both sides of the ball last fall. Look for him to get more use in the backfield as a senior for Glenn High School (Kernersville, NC) in 2020.
Why has he primarily been a linebacker? With that speed, it is a natural question. He says he fell in love with the position as a freshman.
“But my favorite part of football is my aggressive nature,” he said. “I just love to hit people.”
When looking at the top 5 edit that ended the last passage, it was interesting to note the recent change. But it is important here to add several layers of context to his recruiting process.
- He has never been to Athens before, but the Bulldogs still made his top 5
- North Carolina State is no longer in his top 5. That spot was taken by Tennessee.
- Those dates up above are all unofficial visits. When he commits on April 17 and then releases it on May 9, he will look to take his only official visit to check out his future school
- He released that top 5 back on February 3 but says he has two extra schools to think about here. N.C. State and Oklahoma are also in the mix.
- What do these schools tell him? “They say that I am versatile and I can play sideline-to-sideline,” he said. “I can actually cover in space. A lot of linebackers can’t turn their hips and stuff but I can cover in space. I can make plays.”
- South Carolina is recruiting him as an outside linebacker. Alabama is looking at Dillworth as a walk-up or a roll down safety. North Carolina’s plans are similar to what he hears from the Crimson Tide. “Most teams want me as a little rover who can come down,” he said. “Come down to the box. Maybe even come over and cover the tight end.”
- He’s been to North Carolina the most out of those schools. Dillworth has already visited Tennessee.
- When he competes at 7-on-7 events, he will line up at cornerback and at safety.
- Dillworth told DawgNation that his grade-point average hovers right around the 3.0 mark. “I have to get mostly all As and Bs now,” he said. “My mom don’t play that.”
- He also plans to enroll early in January of 2021. Was there any doubt about that?
RaRa Dillworth: What’s the fit feel like with Georgia?
Georgia has its own view of Dillworth and his unique skill set.
“Georgia actually has got me as an inside ‘backer but I feel like I’m good with linebacker but I am actually all good with safety,” he said. “I just want to play. That’s all.”
Glenn Schumann is recruiting him. He was recruiting him and his family long before he had that offer from UGA.
“When I first spoke to coach Schumann he told me that I was different, man,” Dillworth said. “He said I was different and my speed is out of the world. Some people don’t believe that I have got the size and that speed, though.”
As stated before, his weekend visit will be his first to Athens. How did UGA make his top 5 without a visit?
“The coaches were showing me, real love,” Dillworth said. “[Schumann] was texting my mom before I even had an offer. I already knew so much about them. They already cared about me before I even had that offer. Then after that, the coaches were FaceTiming me a lot. I just couldn’t get down there because I had a lot of stuff planned.”
“It was just that they were always showing love. My mom was telling me ‘I really like this school’ and she already looked into their program and said it would fit me real well.”
Dillworth is already on a “Coach Schu” basis with Schumann.
“With ‘coach Schu’ a lot of coaches don’t tell you the real,” he said. “He was just like real straight-forward and telling me this is how I would play you. This and that. He’s wasn’t sugar-coating it and just speaking to me like it was real. He was telling me the ins-and-outs of Georgia. Just you know, the facts.”
He added that his mother considers Schumann “to be a great man” and noted she frequently texts him.
Let’s take note of an interesting sub-plot with this. That will be the connection Georgia has to Dillworth and his teammate Jahvaree Ritzie.
Ritzie is a remarkably athletic 4-star DL in the 2021 class.
“He plays hard and he’s my boy,” Dillworth said. “We might be going to the same college. “It just depends. He’s just always a hard worker on and off the field. Track. The classroom. He does it all.”
The 247Sports Composite has Ritzie as the nation’s No. 14 strong-side DE and at No. 210 overall for 2021.
His teammate made it to Athens first. It was back in January for a “Junior Day” weekend. Ritzie then made sure to share what he saw with Dillworth.
“He told me ‘Rah Rah I’m not going to lie to you but you need to get down there to Georgia because it is something different down there about Georgia’ and that’s what he told me,” Dillworth said.
Dillworth said he wants to see everything about Georgia this weekend.
“I want to make sure if I am going to go to Georgia that it is home,” he said. “I don’t want to go play anywhere I don’t feel comfortable.”
Academics will be big here. A true family feel will also loom large.
“If my Mom doesn’t like it, then I won’t like it,” he said. “I want to make sure my Momma likes it. Top facilities? I am not even worried about that. I want to go somewhere they can build me into a man. On and off the field. I want to grow into a man somewhere and be close to my coaches and my teammates. Just make sure we have a real good relationship.”
Distance from home is not a concern. He does aspire to play for a championship program, though.
He gets called “Alligator” a lot by the guys on his Glenn team. But that is not because he is being recruited hard by the Florida Gators.
It was partly because he made 107 solo tackles out of those 203 in 2019.
“My friends and teammates call me ‘Alligator’ because I am always taking and snatching up all their tackles,” he said. “I’m always taking all of their tackles away.”
He’s certainly been giving everyone something to “RaRa” about.