Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep has the latest with 4-star Georgia commitment CJ Allen. He ranks as the nation’s No. 9 LB and the No. 120 overall prospect for 2023 on the 247Sports Composite ratings. The On3 Consensus also tracks as the nation’s No. 9 LB and the No. 123 overall recruit.

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Georgia commitment CJ Allen had the type of opening night last Friday that would have paced “Top Gun: Maverick” at the box office back in May.

The 4-star recruit ran for 1,080 yards and 16 touchdowns at running back in 2021. He was named the Region 3-AA Player of the Year after last fall. That’s a slick feat given that he was a junior on a non-playoff team.

The talent there renders all of those tried-and-true region meeting staples rather moot come voting time.

Allen appears to be on a new level for the 2022 season. He came charging out of the gate with rushing touchdowns of 19, 23, 53 and 79 yards in his season opener.

This is a good time to note that Allen is not a college running back prospect.

That’s just part of his double duty for the Lamar County Trojans. Allen ran for 233 yards and four scores last week in a 48-35 win against Wilcox Country.

“I would say I was just feeling it and preparing well the whole week,” Allen told DawgNation. “Going 1-0 the whole week. We did a good job preparing.”

When the prized LB commit carries the rock for 15 yards per attempt to begin his senior season, that’s something for DawgNation to get excited about. Especially against a strong Wilcox County program that reached the state semifinals with a 10-4 team in 2021.

The Lamar County star also recorded seven tackles, four assists and two QB hurries in the victory.

“I felt like it was an overall solid game,” Allen said. “Tackles weren’t up as high because they really weren’t running the ball. We also had many other guys stepping up. They scored a couple of times off of busted alignments.”

That strong start will continue the work Allen had last fall when he finished with 91 solo tackles, three interceptions and two Pick-6 scores from his linebacker spot.

The 6-foot-1 senior is now up to 226 pounds. That’s approximately 10-12 pounds more than last year without losing a step of his 11.16 speed in the 100 meters he clocked as a junior.

“I feel like I’m much faster and quicker,” Allen said. “I can feel it.”

Allen chose the ‘Dawgs in June after official visits to Auburn, Georgia and Tennessee. He’s part of a dream LB wrecking crew this cycle for Georgia LBs coach Glenn Schumann.

Schumman has already staked Georgia with commitments from Allen, Tallahassee standout Raylen Wilson and Tampa star Troy Bowles for his linebacker room in the 2023 cycle.

Let’s say this was the Olympic gymnastics competition. The judges holding up the cards are from Georgia’s SEC East rivals. In spite of all that, the Florida judge would even give ‘Schu’ a 10.0 for his work at that position in this class.

The ‘Dawgs cannot recruit the LB position any better than they have in this class with Allen, Bowles and Wilson.

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CJ Allen: The rankings bump that keeps on bumping

Check out the 79-yard touchdown run below. He actually broke several tackles on the effort.

If this keeps up for Allen, look for his rankings to continue to climb. He’s had an uncommon rise over the last few months.

Check out his history on the 247Sports Composite scale prospect rankings since early June:

The Middle Georgia three-sport athlete had been an under-the-radar gem prior to that spike. The majority of the recruiting industry still has yet to catch on. That’s why he’s still ranked around No. 120 overall in the combined composite rankings for 247Sports and On3.

That said, his pure 247Sports rating has climbed to the nation’s No. 2 LB and the No. 43 overall recruit. He’s the third highest-rated recruit in the Georgia class on those rankings at this time.

That sounds about right.

Allen’s current standing on the pure 247Sports rankings gives the ‘Dawgs a commitment from the nation’s No. 2 LB, the No. 3 LB (Wilson) and the No. 4 LB (Bowles) in this cycle. The three talented ‘backers are all ranked among the nation’s top 50 prospects.

Wilcox County coach Rob Stowe felt that Allen was a “dude” last Friday night. His team had scouted Lamar County to know what was coming by select formations and certain alignments.

It didn’t matter.

“Here’s the deal,” Stowe said. “We knew from scouting him last year and the scrimmages when he lines up in certain spots in the backfield there’s like a 90 percent or better chance that he’s getting the ball and running a certain play. We knew that and thought we had some certain schemes lined up for him.”

“But when you are that big and can break a tackle and have that kind of elite speed on top of it that’s why you get those long runs he had. I’m going to just be honest with you. I know he’s the No. 2 linebacker in America or whatever and all that good stuff and he’s a good linebacker. I’m not saying he’s not. I’m not saying he’s not going to go on and be a super SEC linebacker but in high school football he’s as good of a running back as we’ve seen.”

Wilcox County knows what high-level talent looks like. The Patriots have had All-Americans of late come through their program. Stowe has players currently at Auburn and Kentucky. He’s been out at the All-American Bowl in Texas in previous years.

What Stowe has to say about Allen sounds like what some other Middle Georgia coaches had to say about Roquan Smith running the ball and making tackles for Macon County back in 2015.

“He’s just special,” Stowe said. “It was one of those deals where we knew if he got a crack he was gone. Then when you are that big. Good Lord. I have to admit if I was a 150-pound safety I would have to ask myself how bad I want to bring this guy down, too. Just a great player.”

Stowe also noticed Allen had gotten bigger since last season.

“He looks faster,” Stowe said. “I really think he’s faster than he was. He’s well put together and in talking to their coach he says he’s just as good of a person as there is. That bodes well for his future and being a Georgia fan myself I’m excited about seeing him go on to Athens and do well.”

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will be able to see special 1-on-1 content with 2023 commits CJ Allen, AJ Harris and Jamaal Jarrett.

Lamar County's CJ Allen is a 3-star LB prospect out of Middle Georgia in the class of 2023. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

SENTELL’S INTEL

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