Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry is about all things Tyler Booker. Booker is an All-American OL from IMG Academy in Florida. The life-long Steelers fan grew up loving to see Hall of Famer safety Troy Polamalu splatter people. 

The best thing to share off the jump about Tyler Booker is why he works so hard. The Booker football goal is simple and to the point.

“Some people might say my goals are unrealistic,” Booker told DawgNation. “But I feel like they are very realistic with the track I’m going on. My goal is to be a Super Bowl champion. Hall of Famer. Just be a key component in somebody’s football program in college and the pros.”

“That’s what keeps me going. Somebody might say they do this for family. Or to buy their Mom a house. But if I do what I’m supposed to do with my main goal, all of that will happen. So taking care of my family can’t be my main goal. My main goal is to live up to my own standard and competing with myself every day. To outwork myself really every day to reach those goals.”

He’s an offensive lineman. No matter how confusing this clip makes things seem.

He loves making a man deflate and quit. But not as much as seeing the constant progression in his game.

There’s a good bit to know here about Booker that most maybe do not. The surface-level stuff isn’t hard.

The 6-foot-5, 325-pound rising senior has shined during multiple seasons at IMG Academy. He has one more season for a program that claimed its first mythical national high school championship in 2020.

There has been many an Ascenders team that watched that national title ring somehow slip from the fingers of the juggernaut boarding school program.

His work ethic is outstanding. Look what he was doing in his backyard during the thick of the quarantine.

He ranks as the nation’s No. 4 OT and No. 43 overall prospect (247Sports Composite) for this cycle. While it isn’t the easiest task to get a great read on Georgia’s priority O-line prospects for this cycle, his name is readily apparent. Booker is likely the highest-rated target the Bulldogs have a realistic chance to sign.

What is he looking for?

“It’s always been the same thing,” Booker said. “An opportunity to put a program in the upper echelon in college football. I feel Georgia is already there. But I really want to leave my legacy at my school. Not just the school, but college football as well. I wanna win multiple national championships. I want to be in the school’s Hall of Fame. I want to be in the College Football Hall of Fame. I feel the best way to do that is to win a national title at a school that hasn’t won one in a while. To really put a good school over the top to really make it truly great.”

There’s a lot more Booker material to discuss here:

  • Love this quote: “I think the thing that makes me really me is my violence I hand out on the field.” 
  • Random cool thing: His favorite movie is “Goodfellas” and any All-American OL this talented in the year 2021 that loves that movie seems too good to be true.
  • The Connecticut native has consistently favored Florida, Georgia and Penn State along his recruiting process. But there’s one school here (UGA) that has never really dropped off.
  • Georgia was the first big school to recruit Booker. That was defensive line coach Tray Scott when he was still seen as a defensive line prospect. 
  • The Bulldogs have a lot of relationships to cover here. Matt Luke is big. There’s also a line of names like Lovasea Carroll, Marlin Dean and Xavian Sorey Jr. that played with Booker a year ago. 
  • His best relationship for a good read on all things UGA might still be 2020 signee Warren Brinson. Brinson also played with Booker at IMG Academy in 2019. 
  • A summer decision is expected here. The restoration of unofficial and official visits would make that scenario much more likely.
  • Notre Dame and its academic reputation have impressed Booker of late. “Notre Dame and its degree are second to none,” Booker said. “I can do anything with a Notre Dame degree.”
  • Texas A&M is another school that has his attention of late. 
  • The Irish were not in the top 10 Booker dropped and that makes sense with where he is at right now. Booker said there some schools on his New Year’s Eve 2020 Top 10 are no longer in it. New schools have replaced them in his remodeled top 10.
  • He got to go see UGA for the Texas A&M game in 2019 and then Florida in March of 2020 before the pandemic hit. 
  • The likely future Kinesiology major would like to become a coach. He wants to pour everything the game has given him into kids in his hometown of New Haven. Pizza mecca? Yes. Football mecca. Not yet. 

With those elements established, let’s take a dive into the rest of his story.

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Tyler Booker: He predicts the future of UGA football

This will be a very short section, but some very specific Booker thoughts on Georgia football merit some high real estate in this Intel blog.

How does a young man from the true American pizza mecca of New Haven in Connecticut break down UGA football like he could be a guest host on “DawgNation Daily” soon?

He’s waiting to see when the Bulldogs stop knocking at the door and just rip the hinges off said door and claim a national title.

“I feel they have found the way in order to do that,” Booker said. “It’s the quarterback. All respect to Jake Fromm here. He is a really good quarterback, but I don’t feel like he was the guy to do it. I feel like JT Daniels could possibly be ‘The Guy’ and Brock [Vandagriff] can definitely do it. But I’ve actually played with Gunner Stockton in an All-Star game. I’ve seen him work during practice. I feel like Gunner is “The Guy” to do it and he can be “The Guy” to do it.

The Stockton decision was huge for Georgia’s chances with Booker. He said that was “most definitely” the case.

“If I do happen to go to Georgia with Gunner, then I really feel like we can get it done,” Booker said.

Booker was with Stockon for an FBU All-American Game in Florida. He hasn’t forgotten that week.

“He really led by example,” Booker said. “He did everything right. He asked for extra reaps and stuff and then looked the right way. He came out to the practice field a little bit early to get the most extra work with his wide receivers. You can tell a great quarterback by the way he carries himself. He’s everything you want in a quarterback and then some. Like a great quarterback should. To know I could be playing with somebody at Georgia at his level, he will find what it takes to put a team over the top and help them win every big game.”

Tyler Booker said that UGA was the first really big school to ever show any interest in recruiting him. (Tyler Booker/Instagram)/Dawgnation)

The big picture stuff with Tyler Booker

Booker is frothing at the mouth to get some visits in. That said, the mature outlook he holds on the topic is impressive.

“I’m handling it all the best I could have,” Booker said. “I’ve been giving each school an equal opportunity. Because I don’t have the ability to visit. So now I feel like I really needed to take a step back and actually go to the school for the program itself. The school itself. Not the uniforms. Not the facilities, you know? I like to look at it as a glass-half-full mentality.”

“I feel like I’ve gotten to know more things about these schools that I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to learn if I had visited.”

He’s found a positive in a neverending FaceTime and Zoom recruiting cycle.

“I don’t think recruits that came before me have been able to actually watch the film with coaches and use the Zoom to watch the film with coaches,” he said. “To actually see how they coach. I feel like that’s a big factor because I don’t know how many recruits ever got into a film session with their position coach before.”

“I’m doing that now and learning some parts of the offensive scheme but also more importantly how that coach coaches. That’s how he’d explain things to me as an incoming freshman and basically how he will be able to have me start. I’m also learning more about the strength and conditioning programs at these schools that I would have thought about eventually. But not right now.”

He’s absorbing how they actually coach their guys.

“They are teaching me their scheme,” he said.

Booker is hearing he can play guard or tackle on either side of the ball. He was a right tackle in 2020 but will shift over to left tackle in 2021. He also has some junior year film at guard.

The 2022 recruits have played all the 2K21 and Madden games they can. When things remain fresh and invested, that’s a sign he is on the right track with a potential fit.

“It is really the vibe you get off a phone call and how you feel about the relationship with the coach,” he said. “So if the conversation flows naturally with a coach on my end I’m obviously going to feel a certain way about a coach whenever they have an agenda to discuss when they are on the phone.”

His summer decision timeline is still intact.

“I want to cut my list down again before the final decision is made and only visit those schools on that list,” Booker said.

He will cut it to four or five schools. Does he have a final list release timeline?

“Maybe sometime in April or May,” he said. “I really haven’t decided yet. I’m still talking about it with my parents and praying about it.”

He’s built new relationships. It might mean two wild cards and two holdovers from that New Year’s Eve top 10 could eventually make up his final four. Or five.

Booker said he couldn’t name that list of four or five schools at this time. He’s still sorting it all.

Tyler Booker was able to visit UGA two times back during the 2019 season as a sophomore prospect at IMG Academy. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)/Dawgnation)

Tyler Booker: The big things to know here about Georgia 

He said to look for Georgia to make the final cutdown. That’s because of consistency.

The Bulldogs offered back in May of 2019. That was his fifth announced offer behind Rutgers, Virginia, Michigan and Texas A&M. He has told DawgNation a couple of times now that it was his first “really big” school to start recruiting him in his freshman year, if not the first to offer.

Scott offered him as a defensive lineman first.

“I have a great relationship with him and when I finally made the switch over to the offensive line, he was all for it,” Booker said. “He was like ‘Look I just want you to make you a ‘Dawg’ so I started talking to coach [Matt] Luke a good amount after that.”

He mostly talks to Luke now.

That one came four months ahead of the LSU, Florida, Auburn and Tennessee offers. It was 10 months ahead of Penn State and over a year ahead of Alabama. Notre Dame just recently offered.

“Georgia has especially stayed right at the forefront of my recruitment since they have been recruiting me,” Booker said. “I honestly can’t remember a stretch of time where I haven’t spoken to Georgia.”

How does he feel about UGA now?

“I honestly feel like it’s one of the best places for me to go,” Booker said. “I still have some things to look at and some other schools to really figure out. I haven’t committed yet, but I feel like they are definitely going to be there. I feel like they will definitely be in that [final] four or five. Whatever I cut it down to, I just know that they are going to be there and I know that I could have an instant impact on that school.”

“That’s something I have always wanted to do, but I am still nowhere near making my final decision. But I feel I really feel good about Georgia.”

The stacked depth chart of All-American OL signees will not deter him. He carries an unwavering belief in his ability and skill set.

“Just due to my work ethic and what I’ve been here at IMG Academy, I feel like there’s not a situation I could go to where I have not been prepared for,” Booker said. “My mindset is I’m the best offensive tackle in the nation and the best player in the nation. I have to earn the right to call myself that and day after day I have to continue to put in the work to prove it.”

“Whenever I’m about to hit some heavy weight, my mindset and what I am thinking to myself is ‘Prove it right now’ and ‘Prove you are great now’ when I do hit that heavy weight,” Booker said. “I challenge myself. I have that one-on-one battle with my mind. I call myself the best and prove it every day in my mind to back that up.”

Georgia tells him he would be pushed. Booker said Luke told him he produced the best offensive tackle in the NFL (Laremy Tunsil at Ole Miss) when he was at the college level.

“He says I have some of the same attributes as Laremy Tunsil and he says I could be next,” Booker said. “He can get me to that point and drive me to that point where I could be next on that level.”

He also knows 2021 RB signee Lovasea’ “LC” Carroll well, too.

“He knows how I feel about Georgia,” Booker said last November. “I’m very big on Georgia. He and I joke about it every now and then. If Georgia is good enough for LC, then Georgia is good enough for me. LC is special in the backfield. Our coaches say he is magical. To be able to play with that caliber of guy at the next level is very appealing to me. For Georgia to be able to get that caliber of player is very appealing to me.”

Here’s a good assessment of all things Booker on the field from The Olson angle.

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SENTELL’S INTEL

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