Jamaal Jarrett: Why Georgia football line coach Tray Scott is already recruiting him hard

Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This entry covers the latest with prized North Carolina DT prospect Jamaal Jarrett of Grimsley High School in Greensboro. He will be back at UGA this weekend.

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“Biggggggggggg Yooooung Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaal.”

That was the intro to the audio message Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott left recently for 4-star North Carolina prospect Jamaal Jarrett. It usually serves as the introduction to all of their conversations.

That’s “Young Maaaaalll” as in young Jamal. Not “Mal” as in “maul” the offensive front. Even though that fits.

It was a six o’clock in the morning message at that.

He plans to be back in Athens this weekend. It will be his second trip so far this year.

Jarrett is also a big coincidence for UGA in the 2023 recruiting class. Let’s see if any of this stuff rings bells. ...

Massive mountain of a young man. ... Out of North Carolina ... Scott was in on early....The recruiting services were not certain whether to rank him as a DT or an OT. ... Really intrigued by the chance to play for Scott.

Stumped? Maybe this picture will help.

4-star DT Jamaal Jarrett was actually still considered an offensive line prospect halfway through his junior year by some recruiting services. For Georgia, he's a DT all the way. (Courtesy photo) (Courtesy photo/Dawgnation)

Jarrett is the bigger fella on the left. That somewhat smaller and leaner dude to the right is Jordan Davis.

That sentence was just as hard to type as it probably was to read.

“Jordan Davis and I are neck-and-neck there,” Jarrett said. “The same exact weight and everything. So he’s a little bit more built there, but I will get there.”

6 feet. 5.5 inches. 340 pounds. Give or take. That’s where he is now. Jarrett’s wingspan has been measured at 81 inches.

As far as coincidences and comparisons go, that side-by-side picture is the only one that feels right. Davis is a future member of the College Football Hall of Fame based on all the honors he earned for his 2021 season.

Jarrett has been named the defensive line MVP at the last two stacked camps he has attended. He went to the Rivals camp in North Carolina last weekend just to show those analysts that he wasn’t an offensive guard prospect anymore. It was the Atlanta Under Armour regional before that.

247Sports and On3Recruits still both rate him as an offensive lineman. Rivals now rates him as a DT.

“Man, I’m full-fledged on the defensive line now,” he said recently. “I just play where ever my high school coach needs me to play on offense. As far as playing in college, I want to stick to the defensive line right now.”

Jarrett is the sort of talent that will his own name at a school. Not just another big prospect in a No. 99 jersey for DawgNation to get excited about.

If we’re being honest, the only true Jordan Davis parallel here would be the example he set at Georgia.

“I definitely want to go down my own path but just seeing what Jordan Davis did means something,” Jarrett said recently. “Big guy coming down from the Carolinas just like me. Showed me that I could do it if I go to Georgia. I could do exactly what he did or even better. It shows me a dude from the Carolinas making it out, making a name for himself and making it to the league as fast as possible. Putting up numbers. I can see myself becoming that or becoming better than that in the future.”

Does that mean a 4.78 laser time at the combine in the 40?

“I’m going to try, man,” Jarrett said. “Coach Tray Scott he makes sure them boys are conditioned.”

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Special relationship at work already with Tray Scott

Scott was already recruiting Jarrett during his junior year. That offer came late in the evening in May of 2021.

He was already watching Jarrett’s game films last fall. There would be things he liked. And then things he did not.

“One game I didn’t do badly but it was not my best game,” Jarrett said. “Coach Scott was like ‘You didn’t think I saw that?’ on one of my plays. He was like ‘I love you man but what is this? You got to get better than that man’ and I was like ‘I’m sorry, coach and I will’ and he just recruits really hard, man. That’s all I am going to say about that. He recruits me really hard.”

Jarrett said Scott waited until he talked to his parents before he extended that offer. He waited to offer him until he was on the phone with his parents first.

“That just showed me that he really cares about me and my family,” Jarrett said.

The 4-star prospect has already checked out UGA this year. Jarrett has also been to all of his in-state schools from the ACC. He also visited Tennessee earlier this month.

Jarrett said he watched Georgia’s Pro Day last week on the SEC Network.

“I was looking at Devonte Wyatt as well,” he said. “Watching what he was doing. It was crazy watching what Jordan Davis was doing and Devonte. I was even watching their defensive ends work and seeing how they worked their hands and stuff. It was all pretty cool.”

What does he like best about Georgia right now? Jarrett rattled off a list of staff members beginning with Scott and coach Kirby Smart.

“They always treat me right,” Jarrett said. “They already treat me like a part of the Georgia family. They are all good family men. They all introduced me to their families in person over the phone. They really open their arms up. The Georgia coaches love me.”

He estimates he will drop his top 5 list in a month. Jarrett is working through about 11 schools right now. He has no questions right now about Georgia. He is also very well informed about North Carolina.

Tennesse is another school that is creeping up on his radar.

He plans to play AAU basketball this spring. Jarrett also throws the shot put and discus for the high school track team. That’s a great reflection of his athleticism at his massive size.

Jarrett said he will make sure he has enough credits to graduate early. He’s not sure that will be the choice, but he will be prepared in the event he decides he wants to be an early enrollee.

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Jamaal Jarett was at UGA for the championship celebration

Jarrett arrived in Athens “mad early” back in January. He got the “royalty treatment” on that trip.

It was his first visit. He was the first recruit to arrive. It gave him a chance to get one of those 5-star cinnamon rolls, some french toast and a biscuit at Mama’s Boy in Athens. He spent about $20 on breakfast that morning.

The way the fans treated the team was “awesome” in his mind.

He was on the same high school team last year with 5-star senior DT Travis Shaw. Shaw played the “5″ tech on that front. Jarrett played the zero technique.

“Georgia primarily sees me at that and as a ‘3′ tech,” Jarrett said.

That visit came with a set of expectations.

“I’ve always had an interest in Georgia,” he said back in January. “If you listen to my teammates, they would say ‘Dang Jamal you are always talking about Georgia’ so Georgia has always been a high interest of mine, but they moved up even more.”

“If I was to drop a top five tomorrow, Georgia would be on it.”

Michigan and Vanderbilt were also contenders back then.

“I’m not going to tell you all of them yet,” Jarrett said with a big laugh. “I’m not going to tell you everything. I haven’t really thought about all of that just yet.”

North Carolina and N.C. State has always been among his top schools, too. Miami, Florida and Tennessee were also on him hard in January.

“UNC was always right there,” Jarrett said. “They were my first offer so I’ve got mad respect for them.”

What has he been looking for? He started with strong academics.

“I just want to go to a good school that has a good environment so I don’t just be bored in that city,” he said. “Just something I can do besides just play football.”

He’s looking at a major in sports science and technical engineering. He’s thinking of a way to heal himself via sports medicine. Another option for him is communications.

He said the Jordan Davis speech was his favorite part of that championship celebration at UGA.

“Man just seeing Jordan Davis at the end,” Jarrett said. “It was crazy. When he had that speech at the end, I was like ‘Dang he came a long way’ and the dude almost cried up there. He went through all it took from his high school process. First coming in and how everything was hard and now he is about to be a number one draft pick.”

Their bodies might be similar. Their games are different. They are not copies. Does he see his story in how Davis came to Georgia?

“Yes, sir,” he said. “I do.”

When they spoke, Davis told him something he won’t soon forget.

“He told me ‘Keep your head up, keep your grades up and keep pushing yourself 24/7′ and he was like ‘we’re big men so you get doubted on, you get slept on but you just go to prove yourself and work hard so people can walk up to you and ask you for a picture one day.’”

Jamaal Jarett probes a potential decision timeline

Jarret had plans to visit UGA three times previously before that January visit. The rental car broke down one time. There was another rainstorm that sideswiped another potential trip.

“I was trying to get to Georgia for the longest,” he said.

He’s thought of this summer as a possible commitment timeline. That would be on his birthday. Or sometime during the beginning or the middle of his senior year. That’s what Shaw did for his process.

His former teammate closed down all of his recruiting and went into ghost mode. That was to see which schools really wanted him.

“I might do something like that to see which schools really want me and are really coming at me and narrow it down,” he said.

Georgia was already set to get an official visit back then. That hasn’t changed. He always roots for the underdogs. That’s why he was pulling for the Bulldogs in the national championship game.

“Alabama they win too much for me,” he said. “So when Georgia smacked Alabama I was like ‘this is something else’ and ‘they are changing something over there’ when they did that.”

SENTELL’S INTEL

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