Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. DawgNation’s Jeff Sentell shares some of his images and thoughts regarding the recruiting visitors on hand for Georgia’s 39-22 win at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
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Georgia hosted another slew of visitors on Saturday for its 39-22 win against a good Kent State football team. There were a couple of official visitors, a couple of freshmen who should eventually be 5-stars and top 15 overall recruits and a good mix of All-American talent from the 2024 and 2025 classes as well.
There’s a gallery of images above with a lot of the biggest names, but we’ll also take a quick lap around who made the trip to see the ‘Dawgs win their fourth game of the season.
Georgia football hosted two official visitors for the contest.
5-star TE Duce Robinson/Nation’s No. 1 TE/No. 20 overall prospect
High School: Pinnacle HS/Phoenix, Ariz.
Hgt./Wgt: 6-6/225
Something to know: He’s also considered a dynamite professional prospect in baseball.
Official visits so far: USC and Texas
Official visits to come: Alabama
Outlook: This has been a very good visit for Robinson. However, I rarely hear official visits go poorly when it comes to the ‘Dawgs. Georgia is probably the premier place for a TE to get showcased in the country and this time and Robinson is a premier tight end. He looks like an NFL Draft pick walking in three years in a system like the one Georgia runs. That said, it feels like it will be quite hard to pull him off the West Coast and away from USC. That’s a team with a lot of momentum for its offense even though it has not really featured its tight ends this year with Lincoln Riley to this point. Georgia also already has a pair of All-American level tight ends in this class in Pearce Spurlin III and Lawson Luckie. Throw in the baseball factor here and the distance and it seems like the ‘Dawgs are going to be in this thing but should not be seen as the team most likely to sign Robinson. If Todd Hartley gets this guy for the ‘Dawgs, then he’s really just showing off at this point.
A best possible scenario for UGA: The ‘Dawgs could shift Spurlin to wide receiver in this class. He’s already been told to learn both spots and that might make room for Robinson to consider the ‘Dawgs even more strongly than he does now.
Perception of the game visit: It looked like he was plugged into the game and the offense. The Brock Bowers tight end touchdown and usage looked to have thrilled him. His family also enjoyed their day in Sanford. Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me was being able to easily spot Robinson by just looking up at the sky and then looking down in my peripheral vision. Outside of 5-star sophomore OT Mason Short, the 6-foot-6 Robinson towered over all the recruits on the field on Saturday. This young man will be open all day on Saturdays and it also looks like he has five tools and can hit a breaking ball on the diamond. He’s going to be a very well-paid athlete in the future in at least one sport.
4-star DL Markis Deal/Nation’s No. 14 DL/No. 112 overall prospect
High School: Naaman Forest/Garland, Tex.
Hgt./Wgt: 6-4/290
Something to know: Georgia made his summer top 6 that also included Arkansas, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas and Southern California.
Something else to know: Deal’s pure rating from 247Sports is very high. He’s slotted as the nation’s No. 7 DL and the No. 58 overall recruit for that service.
Official visits so far: Spring and summer OVs to Arkansas, USC and TCU.
Official visits to come: None scheduled
Outlook: Remember that stuff up above about Georgia and TEs and it being the spot for a young prospect to be? The same can be said about Tray Scott and his defensive line room. Scott has gone about his business looking for the right D-line talent for this class. He did exceeding well signing Bear Alexander, Christen Miller and Shone Washington in 2022 and seems to be looking for the right three in this cycle. That said, the ‘Dawgs have gone after a lot of big names with talents like Jordan Hall, Daevin Hobbs, James Smith and Deal that are still undecided. Georgia has also seen a lot of big names commit elsewhere like Vic Burley (Clemson), Kelby Collins (Florida), Kamran James (Florida), Xzavier McCleod (South Carolina) and Sydir Mitchell (Texas), among others. They’ve also already got a big commitment in North Carolina 4-star DT Jamaal Jarrett. It seems like Deal is in the mix, but my current read is he’s not part of the most likely trio for the ‘Dawgs. The chances of adding Hall and Hobbs to Jarrett in this class seem higher than to me than Deal or Smith at this time.
Perceptions of the game visit: Here’s the part that is hard to get past for both Deal and Robinson for me. If I’m a recruit that is deeply considering a school I don’t peg the Kent State game for the official visit. Sure, we can say it might line up with the recruit’s in-season schedule and potential off-weeks or better scheduling for his entire family. Yet by and large, logic usually prevails here. You take that into consideration with the other DLs that Georgia is recruiting hard, his other options and his earlier visits. It makes sense here that both sides really like one another, but needed to fall in love with one another this weekend for Deal to wind up in this class. We also just don’t usually see elite out-of-state prospects come into Sanford for a lesser game OV and go on to sign with the ‘Dawgs.
Deal is a name I have heard about in this class, but not one I’ve heard a LOT about. We also haven’t seen him take frequent visits to Athens over the summer and early fall as with other recruits. With all that in mind, Deal did look to be enthused to be in Athens and enjoying himself in pregame. He had a jacket and then took it off in the blazing Georgia sun. We also all can’t help but love the hair here for a defensive tackle.
He is also a very large human being. He’d fit in with Hollywood central casting as one of Scott’s Trench Mob.
With those two official visits broken down, let’s now turn the flow of the page to a steadfast commitment and a very big in-state unofficial visitor.
2023 Georgia TE commit Lawson Luckie was back on Saturday
Can’t say enough great things here about Luckie and his extended family. He’s a Georgia legacy and his father Mike Luckie has instilled in him the right attributes to be a successful football player anywhere but especially at the University of Georgia.
It chronicles his very special family and why Lawson is no better than the third toughest Luckie at the dinner table and that’s still a very great thing.
Something interesting about the visit: Luckie was the only Georgia commitment at the game on Saturday. That’s pretty rare for this group. There are a lot of die-hard commits in this class but it was hard for them to get to Athens that quickly for a noon kick after their high school games on Friday night.
Another interesting nugget about the visit: Luckie was at the game with his family. That included 2026 freshman DL prospect Carter Luckie at Blessed Trinity. Carter is already taller than Lawson and looks to have a very bright future in the game in his own right. He is also a fine dual-sport athlete, too.
Their mother, Hillary, shared this post on Instagram.
2024 5-star ATH Mike Matthews was also in Sanford on Saturday
Matthews is a vital recruit for Georgia in this state. The ‘Dawgs missed out on a pair of 5-star seniors in this class from Gwinnett County in S Caleb Downs and RB Justice Haynes.
Well, if the ‘Dawgs can sign Buford’s KJ Bolden and Matthews here, then a lot of those perceptions about even the national champions recruiting that in-state county well will begin to fade. Bolden and Matthews are both the type of players that belong among the nation’s top 10 recruits in the 2024 class.
Matthews has starred at Parkview for a couple of seasons now and he has the skill set to play receiver or safety at an ALL-SEC level in Athens. He was getting a lot of attention and special treatment on Saturday.
He had 48 catches for 764 yards and seven touchdowns last year when most of the recruiting industry had him pegged as a future defensive back. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound junior already has 19 catches for 419 yards and five scores this fall, including a 99-yard touchdown romp.
There has been some intel about Matthews looking to head out west with his eventual decision, but I think this weekend’s visit was a great visit and it should place the ‘Dawgs very much at the heart of his recruitment going forward. There is a long way to go in this one for sure. Matthews is the type of player that everybody in the country with a top-notch recruiting staff and a NIL collective effort is looking for.
I just can’t imagine the ‘Dawgs letting three players like Bolden, Downs and Matthews leave the state in back-to-back classes. They are all the type of players that can do the things that Malaki Starks is already doing for Georgia in 2022.
Georgia football: Spotlighting a few more unofficial visits on Saturday
I can certainly get over my head by rolling off the names of a few prospects that I think the ‘Dawgs did well with on Saturday. These are guys that are already priorities to Georgia whether they be in the 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026 cycles.
We do plan to write about them in great detail in the very near future, but here are the names I think that you good people already need to know about from Saturday’s visit list.
- 2023 3-star RB Jaylen Johnson, Appling County (GA): Give Johnson and Dell McGee a few more weeks here. This one will be intriguing to watch. Johnson already has 23 offers from some very good schools (Arkansas, FSU, Michigan State, South Carolina) but a UGA offer would be a tone setter. He fits the type of offense that spreads the ball out to the backs that Todd Monken has put on the field so far in 2022.
- 2023 3-star RB Jordan Louie, Meadowcreek (GA): The 3-star RB prospect is a West Virginia commit. He moved from Alabama to Georgia for his senior year and is putting up big numbers. I know every Georgia fan that follows recruiting is chewing their nails over the fact that Dell McGee doesn’t have his RB for this class yet. This looks to me like another wait-and-see recruitment for both parties.
- 2024 4-star ATH Kamron “Killa” Mikell, Statesboro (GA): This guy is a top 300-level prospect in the country and is terrifically undervalued. This three-sport athlete can clock a 10.50 in the 100 and was an All-Region QB last fall for his Blue Devils. He wants to be a dual-sport athlete in college with basketball and football and projects as an ALL-SEC level cornerback in college. The ‘Dawgs are in this, but I think Kentucky is the team to beat in this recruitment as of right now.
- 2024 4-star ATH Sacovie White, Cass (GA): White is one of the most talented players in the state right now. He can do so many things. He’s a speedy and shifty potential “Toy” in the Monken offense. Imagine what Isaiah McKenzie could have done in the current Georgia offense. Yet White is a physical specimen. He lives in the weight room and has the right mindset to not just succeed but thrive in a demanding program like Georgia. White grew up an Alabama fan, but the ‘Dawgs have prioritized him since this summer.
- 2025 5-star OT Mason Short, Evans (GA): The short on the 6-foot-7 Short is he’s the type of player that gets drafted in the first round one day. Prototype everything at OT. Short is already ranked by the services everywhere as one of the top three offensive tackles in the nation for 2025. He was hard to miss with his long flowing red locks of hair on Saturday.
- 2026 LB Tyler Atkinson, Grayson (GA): Clear priority for the staff already. He’s been trained by former Georgia great Marcus Howard and is already standing out as a freshman starter and playmaker for 7A Grayson. He’s already blessed with great length and has poured in the work on his technique. He’s a future top 15 overall player in the country.
- 2026 QB Julian “Ju Ju” Lews (GA): He leads a 6-0 team in Class 7A GHSA ball. He has 23 touchdown passes and four interceptions and is averaging 266 passing yards per game. Just a freshman. “Ju Ju” is the safe pick to be the No. 1 QB in the country for his class. He already has so many tools and it sounds like he’s in love with this Todd Monken office. Lewis could threaten some of those Trevor Lawrence, Gunner Stockton and DeShaun Watson career stat marks in the state of Georgia. He’s that good.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on DawgNation.com)
- Raymond Cottrell: Longtime WR commit doubles down hard on his future in Athens
- Freshmen Report on Georgia football: Why was that Oscar Delp TD such a big deal?
- Samuel M’Pemba: Why the ‘Dawgs are hunkering down to land this 5-star EDGE rusher
- Georgia 48, South Carolina 7: The pursuit of perfection matters to this Georgia football team
- Georgia football Gimme 5: Where does that “Big Baby” nickname come from?
- Freshmen report on Georgia football: ‘Dawgs 33, Bulldogs 0
- Sentell’s Intel: Watching EJ Lightsey get reps was an incredible takeaway from the Samford shutout
- Check out the elite recruiting move Kirby Smart had for 5-star EDGE Sam M’Pemba
- Dedicated ‘Dawg commit Gabe Harris makes his return to UGA after a trying offseason
- Cover 4 on Georgia football: Who will lead the ‘Dawgs in receiving yards this year?
- What did the priority targets think about that 46-point beatdown of Oregon?
- Freshmen report on Georgia football: ‘Dawgs 49, Ducks 3
- Watch out critics: That sterling Stetson Bennett stat line is pointed right at you
- Lawson Luckie: The real reason this remarkable young man committed to Georgia will touch your heart
