Treyaun Webb: Elite young commit predicts UGA’s 2023 class will “break the internet”

Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry details a conversation with elite 2023 Georgia RB commitment Treyaun Webb. 

Treyaun Webb recently discussed a topic we’ve seen before on the Georgia recruiting beat. Webb, an elite athlete from the 2023 cycle, committed to Georgia shortly after an unofficial visit for the Missouri game last season.

But what Webb said about the 2023 class sounds bigger than what we have seen in previous years. Bolder. Especially given that he and his peers will not sign until at least December of 2022.

The Trinity Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.) resident is part of a text message thread of elite 2023 recruits from around the nation that has already gotten quite busy networking. DawgNation has been able to confirm that one specific text thread already goes about 30 members deep.

“If everything goes as planned our class should make history,” Webb said. “It should break the internet. The most 5-stars in a recruiting class. The most 4 and 5-stars ever in a recruiting class.”

When one is made aware of those things, they look for clues through social media. Who’s dropping those dog emojis on offer posts?

Who’s thinking “future teammate” when they see a skilled player like Webb post a video of his 500-pound squat as a rising sophomore in high school? Georgia offered him to play running back for Dell McGee. The video below explains why.

As stated before, we’ve seen this in past years. The 2017 class was seriously linked up 12-15 months before they signed. The same goes for the 2018 and 2019 classes, too.

But this feels different. Especially among young men that still have three more seasons of high school ball to play. They also look like elite rising juniors or SEC-bound seniors. Not sophomores.

We have never seen it at this rate, though. Things can change. They almost certainly will. That is as normal for these 15, 16 and 17-year-olds as the fact they will get bigger, faster and stronger.

Webb knows the class well enough to list a dream class of teammates. When asked for a sample of names, he could not just list three or four guys.

There is some debate about what position he might play at the next level. But when asked to rattle off a few names, he was thinking like a running back.

“Obviously I want to play with some offensive linemen,” he said. “So Payton Kirkland, Bradyn Joiner and TJ Shanahan for my linemen to run behind.”

Kirkland picked up a significant offer from his dream school UGA on June 25. Joiner picked up his Bulldog offer earlier this month. Georgia offered Shanahan way back on May 28.

The lone 2023 commit also added elite skill guys Brandon Inniss and Richard Young to his “break the internet” recruiting class. Young would pair with him for a lethal RB duo. He was offered by UGA in the spring.

“But then on defense, I would love to play with Justin Benton, Peter Woods and also Michael Daugherty.”

Benton is a highly-regarded legacy who already calls UGA “home. 

Woods, who plays at Thompson High in metro Birmingham, is also one of the elite DL prospects in the country. He tweeted out his UGA offer back on Jan. 30.

Daugherty, who plays for Grayson in Metro Atlanta, recently told DawgNation the Bulldogs stand very well with him at this time. He earned his UGA offer back in May.

“I’ve been playing with and against Mike since we were in the seventh grade,” Webb said.

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Treyaun Webb (center left) is currently committed to his dream school in UGA. He was a freshman in high school last year on this gameday visit to UGA for the Missouri game. He committed a few days after that trip. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)/Dawgnation)

Big 12 power Oklahoma coming after Treyaun Webb

When Webb committed to Georgia shortly after the Missouri game last season, he was the only commitment in the 2023 class.

He still is. The logical reaction for the skeptics out there would be something akin to wait-and-see mode. He’s committed to Georgia now. Tight ends coach Todd Hartley also established a great early relationship.

The natural thought was to see how that commitment holds. Especially when a clear national elite talent for the 2023 cycle started to stack up the offers. Check out the big offers for Webb since he chose Georgia:

That’s not even counting the 15 other major college offers in that time span, including his first offer from an HBCU school in North Carolina A&T. Webb also had about six major offers before he chose UGA.

“It has all been happening so fast,” Webb said. “A bunch of schools recruiting me and all saying different things. I’ve been taking it day-to-day.”

He realizes those schools want him badly enough to offer while he is committed. They bring up that he has plenty of years to change his mind. How does that test the strength of his commitment to UGA?

“Right now it is good,” he said. “I am just taking it day-by-day. I’m still talking to coach [Dell] McGee and coach Hartley when I can. I also have open ears to any other school. My recruitment is day to day right now.”

How does he feel about that pledge?

“I like Georgia,” he said. “Obviously it is my dream school. I love Georgia. The coaching staff. Everybody knows how I feel about Georgia with my relationship with the coaches. It is just Georgia. There is really nothing else to it.”

What keeps him committed? Webb said it was relationships. Those with Hartley and McGee do run deep. He knows the staff. He knows what it is like to stand inside Sanford Stadium for a big Saturday night game.

With those other schools, that is all an unknown.

“I know what they are all about,” he said of Georgia. “I’ve been to the campus so many times. I know how the coaches feel. The coaches know about me and how I like to do things. I’m familiar with those coaches and coach [Kirby] Smart. I’m real familiar with all those coaches right now. That’s the main reason why I am still committed.”

But he did mention open ears as a 2023 commit. He’s talking to the coaches at Alabama, Florida, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Penn State, among others. Those are the schools on him heavy right now, along with Georgia.

He said that Georgia’s coaches aren’t on him as hard right now as those other schools.

“They still talk to me whenever they can,” Webb said about the UGA staff. “I know they have a busy schedule with starting practice and stuff and they have a busy schedule. Putting the players back on campus and all. They talk to me as much as they can but it wasn’t as much as they used to.”

When he can take visits again, Webb said he would want to see Oklahoma, Penn State, Alabama, LSU, Oregon, Florida and Georgia. That was the order he rattled off those schools on his mind.

“I’ve been real heavy with Oklahoma right now,” he said. “I’m in touch with Oklahoma almost every day.”

He’s already heard from running backs coach Demarco Murray and head coach Lincoln Riley. What intrigues him about the Sooners?

“Obviously the system,” he said. “It is a high-powered offense. I’ve talked to coach Murray and coach Lincoln Riley about it already. They say I would excel in that system. I like to catch the ball and run the ball. I like catching the ball. That offense is going to help me show my pass-catching skills because in the NFL guys want to see you catch the ball. Look at Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey excelling right now. They can do both. I like that.”

That sounds like a decent-sized section of the new Todd Monken playbook, too.

Treyaun Webb became the first 2023 commitment for Georgia last November. He is still the only public commitment and was wearing a Georgia Bulldog shirt under that hoodie that day. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)/Dawgnation)

What keeps Treyaun Webb committed to Georgia 

The running back position at UGA means something to Webb.

“Georgia breeds running backs,” Webb said. “I would love to score touchdowns in that stadium. I’ve seen D’Andre Swift do it plenty of times. I’ve seen Todd Gurley do it plenty of times. Sony Michel. Nick Chubb. Especially that night against Oklahoma in that famous Rose Bowl game.”

“I’ve watched that game plenty of times. I watch that game almost every day when I watch film.”

Georgia fans should not sleep on a great many things about Webb, including another recent impressive lift. The 6-foot-1, 196-pound sophomore also power cleaned 275 pounds recently. Still with three more seasons of high school football to go.

When Webb said that part about being “day to day” with his process, it wasn’t the strongest endorsement of his current commitment.

But he still remembers why he chose the Bulldogs.

“Obviously the relationship with the coaching staff,” he said. “I’m not going to commit to a school that I don’t know anything about. The atmosphere obviously. I’ve been there plenty of times so I kind of know that place like the back of my hand.”

“That’s basically the reason why I am still committed right now. I haven’t really seen those other schools.”

He said it would take a lot of effort from another staff to weaken his commitment to UGA.

“I want to feel like a top priority,” he said. “Because the one thing about Georgia is they made me feel like a top priority.”

Revisiting a great Todd Hartley-Treyaun Webb story

Webb is a likely 5-star prospect in the 2023 class. That’s not a risky projection. It will wind up a very contested recruitment. Players with his all-around ability are always coveted.

But there’s a long history here with Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley and Webb. It goes back to the spring of his seventh-grade year. Webb was practicing with the varsity at Trinity Christian as that’s permissible for up-and-coming talents in the Florida High School Athletic Association.

Hartley was still on the Miami staff at the time.

“He came to my practice to watch Marcus Crowley because Marcus was committed to Miami at the time,” Webb said.

Crowley would end up signing with Ohio State in the 2019 cycle. But there was a portion of that practice where he was winded.

“Normally I was on the sidelines just watching,” Webb said. “But all of our other running backs were either injured or sick that day. So it was just me left. A scrawny little seventh-grader. Just a 12-year old playing against 18-year-olds.”

Webb asked the coaches to put him in. When he got that chance, he shined. Like an older prospect deserving of an offer from the Hurricanes. Especially considering his age, his size, and how he looked on the practice field that day.

He was maybe 165 pounds. Close to hitting the 5-foot-9 mark on the height chart.

“I was breaking long runs and scoring touchdowns on our varsity,” he said. “Coach Hartley loved it and I guess that’s why he offered me.”

Webb announced that offer way back on May 3, 2018. It was actually his second offer after Valdosta State that spring.

What position will Treyaun Webb play in college? 

There’s another layer of intrigue within all those offers. Webb is such a multi-talented prospect that he’s slotted by 247Sports as an athlete. Not a running back like the offense from UGA.

Auburn, LSU and Tennessee want him to play defensive back. Others see a running back. There are other coaches who have offered that tell him they can see him playing slot receiver.

“I’m just waiting to see how my body fills out and what I look like when I get older before I make that decision,” he said. “Right now I play everything.”

Logic indicates here that we haven’t seen many future DBs or slot receivers that can squat 500 pounds and power clean 275 before their sophomore seasons. That is trending into Nick Chubb territory with that weight room work at such an early age.

He’s mainly a running back at Trinity Christian, but he also plays a lot at defensive back.

Georgia is still recruiting him as a running back. The simple evaluation here is he will be a dominant back in the SEC.

“The most fun position for me to play is at DB,” he said. “But I am also a natural at running back. I like playing both. I like scoring touchdowns. That’s the fun part of playing running back. But I love playing DB.”

It is ironic (or maybe fitting) that Webb spent a lot of time chatting with former Georgia great Robert Edwards on that Missouri visit before he felt ready to commit. Edwards was an ALL-SEC level cornerback at UGA prior to a switch in the middle of his college career to tailback.

The Washington County native went on to be selected in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots.

Webb has focused on his top-end speed for his sophomore season. He’s worked on being able to break more long runs and maintain his stamina for the course of an entire game. He knows he will get more carries and his overall strength level.

He has set big goals for 2,000 rushing yards and 1,000 all-purpose yards for his sophomore season. That’s while playing a lot of reps at defensive back, too.

In his mind, he is an all-around back. That’s why other elite RB prospects will look at Georgia’s stable and favor recent standouts like Chubb or Todd Gurley. Or they will bring up that O.G. goal line stalker Herschel Walker.

Webb’s got his own preference.

“A close second for me behind Herschel is Sony Michel,” he said. “I like Sony because Sony can do it all. Sony was that do-it-all running back. I like Sony.”

SENTELL’S INTEL

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