Kirby Smart has sealed the deal on commitments in every possible way under the sun. Elite OL prospect Sedrick Van Pran-Granger very likely broke new ground, though.
Van Pran-Granger had wanted to make his choice known on the traditional February signing day. Then it was the Under Armour All-American Game.
Things. Just. Kept. Escalating.
It all just came to a point at the late July cookout event in Athens. That’s where the Bulldogs trotted out the food, the frisbees, the ring toss, the Super Soakers, the water balloon catch and throws and everything else for a 5-star cookout.
Sam Pittman no doubt teed things up for his future pupil, but then it all became crystal clear.
Smart and Georgia had the nation’s No. 3 center after a Slip-N-Slide run.
“I think when I recently went to UGA when they had the ‘Slip-N-Slide’ and stuff and coach Smart he got [the slide] on with the recruits,” Van Pran-Granger said. “He had on like a polo and some cargo shorts. I think that stood out to me. He wanted to get down and just have fun with his players. He wasn’t even dressed for the occasion but he just went with it.”
“Just to show that loves us and that he wants to have a little fun with it. So I really appreciated that.”
Van Pran-Granger had long thought he wanted to be coached by Pittman. He thought highly of joining a UGA to the NFL pipeline that might see four starters off the 2019 line selected in the 2020 Draft.
Watching Pittman’s boss skid face-first on that slide cinched it.
“That was the final straw,” Van Pran-Granger said.
That was the “why” here. It is the time of focus on the “when” with his choice.
The “when” behind the Sedrick Van Pran-Granger decision
It was just time.
Van Pran-Granger wanted to secure his spot in the 2020 class at Georgia. Pittman had promised to save him a seat for a long time, if necessary.
The team-first senior at Warren Easton High cares about the promise of his final season with his brothers in New Orleans like few seniors do. A lot of elite prospects say that, but Van Pran-Granger would be fine with not taking any recruiting calls or chatting in interviews this fall.
He’s said he will go from “The E to the G” with his college choice. But his mind and methods are focused on his present. This young man means it. The 6-foot-4, 305-pound senior just took a month-long sabbatical from social media.
It could have been any of that. A combination of all of those things would be a fine answer.
That just would not be the correct answer. This was a family decision.
Sedrick Van Pran-Granger recently said that it would be a good thing to see his father’s name in all future DawgNation stories about him.
“I love my father,” he told DawgNation. “Hard-working guy. So much respect for him.”
His Dad gave him the green light with this. It will mean quite a lot for those that worry if this commitment will ever budge.
“It was my Dad,” Van Pran-Granger said. “My Dad kind of was pushing it for me. You know I just kind of figured it was right and to just go with and kind of focus on my senior season. So I’m going with it.”
The Georgia line coach was “ecstatic” when he told him he was coming. He said Pittman had been wanting him to take that center spot in this class since he offered him last summer.
“Coach Pitt always believed in me and my athletic abilities and also my mental capabilities,” he said. “He’s always wanted me on board and I’m just really happy that a guy who has been showing me love since Day 1 that I get to play for him and I think he’s a really awesome coach.”
“He was really excited. I’m really excited.”
Sedrick Van Pran-Granger has a message for DawgNation
When asked about what he wanted to say to the fans, the young man took a minute. He wanted to shape what he was about to say.
It was more than just gratitude for picking up 500 new followers in less than 24 hours.
“My message to the fans is that I plan on giving you guys a great three to four years,” Van Pran-Granger. “I’m not going to say I want to change the culture in Athens but to enhance the culture to kind of get things going in my own way. I’m the type of guy when I am at a school that I really build a love for a school and I become attached.”
“So definitely I will be all Georgia football and I can’t wait. Go ‘Dawgs.”
His father gave Pittman his blessing first to coach his son. When Pittman heard that news, he wanted to let Van Pran-Granger and his family know exactly what that meant to him.
“He was really telling my Dad he was so thankful that he gave him that blessing to coach his son,” Van Pran-Granger said. “I think it was very good. Coach ‘Pitt” is a real genuine guy. He was just so happy to have me as a ‘Dawg. It was surreal, man.”
“Because being a recruit is not a normal thing. When you are just playing ball you are just happy to be playing and kind of think you might be there as a recruit one day. But when you are actually there it is a lot different. Just being able to play for the best o-line coach in the country is just crazy, man.”
If folks want to worry, they can about LSU pulling another John Emery Jr. flip with a prized Georgia commit. This one is just different. In a lot of ways.
Van Pran-Granger even addressed that.
“It will be extremely hard,” he said. “Extremely hard. I don’t see myself switching at all.”
He did take a spin or three around that “Slip-N-Slide” himself. His future teammate Corey Wren, another 2020 commit out of New Orleans, was sort of his wingman for a few runs.
“We spent a lot of time there together,” Van Pran-Granger said. “He and I were on the same team together going back-and-forth on the ‘Slip-N-Slide’ so we had a lot of fun.”
How did that go?
“I am controlled man,” he said. “I was controlled. A big man coming that can move.”
A few more things to know about Sedrick Van Pran-Granger
Van Pran-Granger got his first big SEC offer from Georgia. It was also his first big recruiting trip for the season opener in 2018.
The seeds for this commitment were planted almost 51 weeks ago. They really took hold after he opted to become an offensive line recruit in the summer prior to his junior season. That’s when Pittman first offered ahead of all of the SEC, including some six months before in-state LSU.
“I always thought about it,” the future graphic design major said. “I definitely always thought about it especially from that game when you start trying to envision yourself in that black and that red and it just like ‘Man that is nice’ but once you actually get in the situation and it all actually happens it is a totally different thing and a totally different feeling.”
“I’m still relishing the moment man,” he said on Sunday night. “I still can’t believe it.”
He shared a few quick hits on what to expect from his recruiting moving forward.
- SVPG will definitely take his official visit to Georgia. It will be in December. He’s not sure about any other trips to check on other schools at this time.
- He cannot enroll early. Warren Easton does not allow that. Look for him to join the Bulldogs in late May of 2020.
- Ashaad Johnson, the 4-star RB for the Easton team, has already heard Van Pran-Granger’s best pitch about coming with him to play in Athens. Johnson, a 200-pound back, rates as the nation’s No. 11 RB for 2020.
- “I’m trying to get him over here of course,” Van Pran-Granger said. “But at the end of the day that is my brother and I respect his decision. So you know as of right now, I’m an active recruiter for Georgia so I’m trying to get him over here but you know at the end of the day if that is not what he thinks is best for him and his family then I do respect that.”
- He said he never really had a true leader, but for the longest stretch, he was undecided between Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
- “I’m glad things worked out the way they did,” Van Pran-Granger said.
- Look for him to play center, guard, tackle and on the defensive line for Warren Easton.