Tony Grimes: The 5-star CB from Virginia settles his plan for this fall

Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry leads with the latest on the classification status of 5-star CB Tony Grimes and then notes a recent development with prized ILB target Xavian Sorey Jr. in Florida. 

There was a point very recently where it looked like Tony Grimes was going to have to make a big decision. The global pandemic left significant doubt about whether or not there was going to be high school football in Virginia in the fall of 2020.

If that was the case, the nation’s No. 1 cornerback prospect for 2021 (247Sports Composite) was going to have to decide whether he wanted to reclassify as a 2020 graduate. That’s a similar story to what new Georgia QB J.T. Daniels opted to do in the summer of 2018.

According to his father, that decision has now been made.

“This past Friday, we received word that the [Virginia High School League] would be moving forward with Virginia Sports,” his father Deon Glover said. “With that in light, Tony will stay and play his final high school season.”

Are you a member of the DawgNation forum? This information first appeared on our recruiting message board prior to publication of this post. 

If he had chosen to proceed and classify as a 2020 recruit, it would have meant that he needed to take an online course over the summer to become eligible to graduate and enroll with one of his top four schools this fall.

Those schools were:

It would have meant that each of those schools would have had to free up a scholarship to fit an impressive talent like Grimes under the NCAA-mandated staple of 85 student-athletes for football. They likely would have done so. Grimes is that special of a player.

That’s not to say that the Bulldogs might have needed a shoehorn and a tub of butter to squeeze him through the doors of the football facility.  The Bulldogs are already at an estimated 89 scholarships for football heading into this fall after the recent transfer of the aforementioned former 5-star QB from USC.

To compound the issue, the Bulldogs didn’t offer a rosy cornerback depth chart for immediate playing time for this fall. The very reason that makes the Bulldogs very attractive for Grimes to crack the two-deep rapidly as January 2021 early entry would have scaled back his reps this fall.

Georgia has seniors Mark Webb and D.J Daniel returning to play cornerback or the “STAR” position this fall. There’s also redshirt junior CB Eric Stokes and true junior Tyson Campbell at that position, too. Daniel and Webb will exhaust their UGA eligibility this fall and strong seasons from Campbell and Stokes will certify them to be clear Day 2 picks in the 2021 NFL Draft, if not go even higher than that.

Daniel doesn’t get enough credit for how well he played last fall when thrust into action in some very tight moments for the Georgia defense.

The Bulldogs also welcomed 5-star CB signee Kelee Ringo in the 2020 signing class to campus earlier this month. While that creates an enviable future for seasons to come, it did muddy the short term playing time puzzle for Grimes even further.

Ringo was ranked as the nation’s top cornerback prospect in the last cycle. The thought of the Bulldogs potentially adding the top cornerback prospect in back-to-back recruiting cycles doesn’t seem as much like hogging the market, but perhaps a necessary step.

If the Bulldogs are to reach their championship goals over the next few years, then they will have to shut down the prolific wide receiver talents that both Clemson and Ohio State have stacked up over the last few years, too. Georgia signed perhaps its best haul of wide receiver prospects in program history within its 2020 class, but the talent the Buckeyes signed in 2020 looks to even be a notch above that.

Ohio State signed the nation’s No. 2 WR in 2019, the No. 1 WR in 2020, the No. 5 WR in 2020 and the No. 10 WR in 2020.  Marcus Rosemy was Georgia’s highest-rated receiver signee for 2020. He was the nation’s No. 8 wideout for the last cycle.

It also seems pertinent to add that the Bulldogs also signed Tyrique Stevenson in the 2019 cycle. He was rated as the nation’s No. 3 cornerback prospect for the 2019 cycle. He certainly had his moments last fall as a true freshman and is poised for an even bigger impact in his second season at UGA.

When we also make sure to mention that Georgia also signed the nation’s No. 8 cornerback in 2020 All-American Jalen Kimber out of Texas, then we certainly begin to understand why Charlton Warren, Dan Lanning and Kirby Smart will be able to sleep well at night when it comes to the future of the Georgia secondary.

The Bulldogs will lose starting senior safety Richard LeCounte to the NFL after the 2020 season, along with the clear possibility of Campbell, Daniel, Stokes and Webb. And yet somehow the future could not be brighter for that position group in Athens.

Especially since Grimes now looks very likely to remain as a 2021 recruit. It does appear that the Bulldogs will have to roll up their sleeves to make sure they can hold off North Carolina as a true rival down the stretch when it comes to that 5-star recruitment.

As a reminder, check out these two clips below. It will allow the DawgNation reader to remain informed about just why Grimes is vital to the 2021 recruiting board and how this positive development with Virginia High School football can’t really be seen as anything but positive news for the Bulldogs in that recruitment.

Did you know the weekly DawgNation.com “Before the Hedges” program is now available as an Apple podcast? Click to check it out and download. 

Xavian Sorey Jr: Prized LB target is on the move

Xavian Sorey Jr. is one of the top remaining targets on the board for Georgia in 2021. He rates as the nation’s No. 5 OLB prospect for the 2021 cycle on the 247Sports Composite.

Georgia really started to close the gap on Alabama with the prized Florida athlete once North Gwinnett All-American Barrett Carter began trending to Clemson.

Sorey recently released his top five schools and it was an ALL-SEC grouping. He feels that Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and LSU are his top choices at this time.

He’s also decided to move from his Graceville High program and transfer to Florida boarding school powerhouse IMG Academy.

Sorey is seen as a raw but special athlete who is capable of playing in the middle or out on the edge for an SEC defense.

He’s got some impressive junior film, but this clip is the one which really attracted a lot of attention earlier this year. It features a high-flying dunk on the hardwood.

That junior tape also appears below.

It does seem like Sorey’s decision will eventually come down to Alabama and Georgia. That will certainly seem repetitive for both the rest of this blog and the entire 2020 season.

Alabama vs. Georgia: Get used to it all over again

What’s the one school standing in the way of Georgia and an early No. 1 ranking this fall? It will likely be the Crimson Tide and that circled date on everyone’s schedule for Sept. 19.

Georgia will travel to Tuscaloosa. An impressive board win there by the Bulldogs could vault the program to the nation’s No. 1 ranking.

What’s the one school standing in the way of UGA and another No. 1 recruiting class for the 2021 cycle?

That will also be Alabama.

The Crimson Tide are currently the trendy pick to secure Sorey’s signature on a letter-of-intent on the 247Sports “Crystal Ball” feature.

As it stands right now, that’s not the only recruiting race the two SEC rivals will be tangled up in. Consider the following:

While everyone will be focused on that Saturday in Tuscaloosa, the Bulldogs will also have to win those battles on the trail to compile their best possible recruiting class for 2021, too.

Mims, Ferguson and Turner all rate among the top 10 biggest remaining targets for the Bulldogs this cycle.

DAWGNATION RECRUITING

(the recent reads on DawgNation.com)