Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings. This entry is about the latest with All-American TE Oscar Delp.
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Oscar Delp was one of many recognized on Wednesday afternoon at the annual luncheon for the Corky Kell Classic. That event, which kicks off tonight at West Forsyth, is now in its 30th year.
Delp and his Wolverines will play host at approximately 8:30 p.m. to Carver-Atlanta. The 6-foot-5, 228-pound senior is ready to finally start playing. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 3 TE and the No. 97 overall prospect on the 247Sports Composite ratings at this time.
This time a year ago, he had zero offers. He was very much an unknown prospect with no offers and 15 career catches for 246 yards at this time a year ago.
The 2022 All-American Bowl pick exploded with three catches for 47 yards and two scores to open his junior season. Michigan came with an offer less than 24 hours later.
The first clip on the game highlights from that night pretty much says it all.
Delp announced his final four schools last week. Those are Clemson, Georgia, Michigan and South Carolina. It is unique to note the symmetry there of him including the first school to offer him among that final group.
That is just another example of the kind of considerate young person that Delp is. In all things.
How is Delp better than the player who finished his junior season with 43 catches for 730 yards and nine touchdowns in nine games?
“I feel like I’m stronger,” Delp said. “My bench has gone up close to 30 pounds. My squat has gone up close to 40 or 50 pounds. I’m definitely stronger in the weight room. I’m definitely faster on the field and I feel like I’m a good 228 pounds right now.”
He averaged a whopping 17 yards per reception, but look for that number to increase in 2021. That’s because he has a quality quarterback in Keegan Stover. The rising junior threw for 19 touchdowns and four interceptions last fall despite missing time due to injury.
Oscar Delp: His recruiting will come into focus next month
Delp said on Wednesday that the long-time plan is still the plan. He does plan to commit on Sept. 30 to honor his mother, Mary, on her birthday.
“I know where I am going to be for my first game,” Delp said. “The Georgia-Clemson game and then after that, I am just kind of just figuring out which schedule works best for me and the games just line up and where I can go see. But I plan on getting to every campus.”
He’s not doing Zooms. The phone calls and the recruiting via text message still continue on as per the norm. Those are the daily occurrences. Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley has had a message bright and early for him just about every day since he zeroed in on him as Georgia’s only tight end target in the 2022 class by September of 2020.
Delp did go off for 325 yards receiving and five touchdowns in his first three games as a junior. He managed big explosive plays of 29, 46 and 54 yards in doing so.
When he went down to four schools, the process did not get easier.
“It really just stayed the same and kind of sped up in a way,” Delp said. “I already knew that those were going to be my four and I think some of the other schools pretty much knew that already and were kind of distancing me already, too.”
“Once I released those four, it kind of made those four schools all come harder at me.”
He’s maintained for a while that he needed gameday visits and weekend atmospheres to further advance his decision. Will it be something as simple as the gameday vibe that sends the most chills down his spine winning out here?
“That’s definitely going to be a big part of it,” Delp said. “I think that just where ever I go and I just know that is home for me I think that’s going to be the end decision and all. Really right now you can’t go wrong with any of those four schools. I think really once I get on campus and where I get that decision is where I will end up.”
How final will that decision be? What happens is South Carolina’s top tight end catches 75 balls this year? Or what if the Bulldogs do or do not utilize their tight ends at an ALL-SEC level this fall?
It will be hard to gauge how the full season is going to go for any of those schools just off the first four games of 2021. After all, he will have made his decision by October. Perhaps even sooner than that.
Will his decision be final by Mary Delp’s birthday?
“I think it will be,” Oscar Delp said. “That’s why I have kind of taken the slow route like I have been and doing all of the things I have been doing. When I know where I want to go, then that’s where I will be. I don’t want to be one of those guys that’s in the portal in a couple of years. I want to find somewhere and I want to be there for the next four years.”
He believes that each of those four schools has already done all they can. Clemson is not going to win this thing in the next two weeks after back-to-back-to-back brilliant phone calls, edits, text messages from key members of the football staff.
The same goes for all of those schools.
“They’ve really done all they can,” Delp said. “My feelings for all those schools are definitely there right now and they are not really changing. I think the next thing is just getting on campus just so I know where home is and just making it final.”
He said that he hears the most consistently from two members of the UGA staff and one member of the 2022 recruiting class. That player there is not the answer that most might think.
“I think that Coach [Kirby] Smart and coach Hartley are definitely preaching it a lot right now,” Oscar Delp said. “De’Nylon [Morrissette] is also another guy that has been hitting me up a bunch. There’s really a ton of them, though. It is pretty much everyone there. They are all working as one piece and they are all working together on me.”
Oscar Delp: What will the 2021 model Delp play like?
At the dawn of his last varsity season, he should feel like a better player. Bigger. Faster. Stronger.
That is very much the case here.
“Last year I was about 225 or 227 but I feel like it wasn’t all muscle. But I feel now I’m a good 228 right now with a lot more muscle.”
He’s also gotten faster. Delp said he was hand-timed at 4.55 and 4.58 seconds in the 40-yard dash last week. He ran a laser at the Opening in 4.63 seconds. It was on an AstroTurf surface, he said, where a lot of guys were slipping.
“I’m definitely confident I am a 4.5 guy [in the 40] right now,” Delp said.
The benefits of playing through his first spring 7-on-7 season and his work at the Elite 11 workouts in California have also helped.
“Just getting to go play with some of those high-caliber players and getting to go play with guys like Gunner and A.J. [Swann] and getting to go play with some college guys too at some of these private workouts over the summer has definitely made me a better player.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent recruiting reads on DawgNation.com)
- Georgia legacy OL prospect Drew Bobo is now down to a final 3
- 5-star DL Mykel Williams still sounds solid to USC but will likely give UGA an official visit
- Big Bear Alexander lists UGA among his final 2 schools
- BREAKING: In-state speedster Cole Speer commits to UGA
- Nation’s No. 3 TE Oscar Delp is down to four schools
- AJ Harris: 5-star junior CB sounds locked on a final five, eyes decision timeframe
- Justice Haynes: Dell McGee told the legacy RB just how important he is for 2023
- Bradyn Joiner: Elite 2023 OL “felt like Nick Saban in shoulder pads” at UGA
- Christen Miller breaks down all the love he got recently from UGA
- WATCH: New Georgia commit Griffin Scroggs breaks down why he had to be a Bulldog
- BREAKING: State champion OL Griffin Scroggs commits to UGA
- BREAKING: 3-star Texas WR Dillion Bell commits to UGA
- Georgia recruiting: Recapping the Dawg Days of Summer that ended the on-campus summer visits
- Cole Speer: “If I had a dream school growing up, it would be Georgia.”
- 5-star junior safety Joenel Aguero is already very high on Georgia
- Priority 2023 in-state CB target Kayin Lee dishes on his best trip yet to UGA
- BREAKING: Elite RB target Branson Robinson chooses UGA
- Kayin Lee: Georgia and Ohio State made two very big impacts on this 2023 priority DB
- Carlton Madden Jr: Fast-rising prospect says “it just feels like it is right” about UGA