This Sentell’s Intel rep is about the latest with 3-star junior college DL prospect Brien Taylor. He ranks as the nation’s No. 4 junior college DL and the No. 9 overall junior college prospect for 2024 on the 247Sports Composite ratings. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the nation’s No. 4 junior college DL and the No. 14 overall junior college recruit.
Junior college DL prospect Brien Taylor Jr. is big, long and physical. Go ahead and watch his film right here from the jump.
Big. Long. Physical. Skilled.
Taylor said he’d never had a dream come true before. Never.
Now it feels like he’s living a dream being targeted as a priority prospect by schools like the University of Georgia. The 6-foot-4-plus and 270-pound prospect just took his official visit to UGA and came away impressed.
“It went really really well,” he said. “I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about it so far. I’m just going to take these other visits just to make sure. But everything about Georgia was just all that. For real.”
Taylor said he had an elevated opinion of what his OV would turn out to be. That was a pretty high bar, then the ‘Dawgs cleared it.
“It was way better than I thought it would be,” he said. “I thought it would be like well, I don’t know, but because I’d never been there before I was thinking like they had won back-to-back national championships and had like they got all these NFL players. I was thinking when I got there that it would be strictly business and they would treat their players like robots and whatnot.”
“Because it is like that in some places. But it is not like that over there. They handle business but it is like a family a little bit.”
Taylor said it was cool to have another junior college prospect in town with him. Jaden Hamlin, a 3-star DT out of Mississippi, was also on his official for the Ole Miss game.
“It made everything better,” he said. “Like we both are living the same thing. We both got pretty much the same story. We bought come from the same thing. That’s another reason why Georgia wants both of us. Some of us older guys coming in working and doing what we have got to do.”
Taylor said that he plans to see Tennessee this week. He will fly out to Knoxville to see the ‘Dawgs play again on the road.
He said that he will visit Florida later this month, too. Mississippi State is also a possibility. These visits to these palaces for college football are amazing to him.
“Like for the longest I didn’t know how to feel,” he said. “Because I’ve never had a dream come true. Ever. With all this happening in my life right now, this is the first time I’ve had a dream come true so I’m excited. But at the same time now, I didn’t know how to feel. It was like ‘Dang, what now do I do with it?’ and now it is all about handling business.”
This decision will not just come down to football, he said.
“This won’t only be about football in college,” he said. “I want to have memories of college football that I will be able to tell my grandkids.”
The NFL ‘Dawgs made a difference in the Brien Taylor official visit
Did the ‘Dawgs fit the definition of what he is looking for?
“Yeah, they did,” he said. “They really did.”
That family aspect there was what resonated with him.
“This was my first visit when I got to talk to a bunch of NFL players,” he said. “They came back to Georgia for that game and they were telling me to go there. They were motivating me. Like showing me that this is what you get out of this [playing in the NFL] if you come to Georgia and you play your cards right.”
“There was the fact that they were celebrating that and how Georgia got them there. That was probably one of the best moments of the visit for me. They are doing something that I am dreaming to do and now I’ve just got to keep unlocking these dreams.”
Taylor said those players made their dreams come true by going to Georgia and making it to the NFL. But then they came back to support the current team and still be a part of the program.
“They showed me how like everybody feels about the football players at Georgia,” Taylor said. “They are always welcome to come back to Georgia and they welcome them back with a whole lot of love.”
He spoke to Nolan Smith, but it was mainly Jordan Davis. Davis told him what he needed to know about Georgia on a player’s path to the NFL.
“It was a good talk,” Taylor said. “It was very much in the moment. I don’t remember everything exactly what it was in the moment but it was like ‘Come here and handle your business’ and Coach Scott is going to get something out of you and you are going to have fun at the same time.”
“They are winning. Constantly. Every week.”
His favorite part was seeing those NFL ‘Dawgs return to Sanford Stadium for a big game on their NFL bye weeks.
“Just talking to them and seeing them all come back happy and smiling and stuff,” he said. “I can tell it is not just a place where I can come in and shine. They aren’t only shining while they are there. They are actually coming in and building a relationship with the coaches and all the people there in the program at Georgia.”
“Those relationships make them then want to come back. They want to come back after they have already made it. So that was something good for the program that I got to see.”
He loved the chance to put on the Georgia jersey.
“My first thought was ‘I look good in this uniform’ for real,” Taylor said. “I could see myself in that uniform. For sure.”
Tray Scott left “Bteezy” with a big message about Georgia football
Georgia was one of Taylor’s top schools coming into the visit.
“Not even off the name alone,” Taylor said. “Coach [Tray] Scott and I it feels like we clicked the first time we spoke. Just the energy I get from him and the staff. Now that they are the back-to-back champs, they still are humble enough to recruit JUCO players. I don’t know how to describe it really, but somebody of that caliber showing that much love really stuck out to me.”
Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott did not mess around with how he values the chance to plug Taylor into the Georgia defense.
“He sees something in me,” Taylor said. “He gave me that scholarship for a reason. I have just got to be able to fulfill that and just work and I’m not scared of any work. I’m not worried about that part.”
“He told me to just stick to the standard. Play to the standard and work to the standard and I’m going to get what I want out of this. It will be like something mutual. They get a hard-working player that will help contribute to the winning and contribute to the team and helping the younger guys coming in.”
“Then it will be me getting what I want out of it. Me getting an education and then going on to the NFL.”
Taylor said another highlight was the chance to speak with Georgia coach Kirby Smart.
“He’s a real-laid back dude,” Taylor said. “It wasn’t what I thought it was. He’s just real cool. I ain’t gonna lie. He is like really chill. I can’t tell you everything he said. [He was acting] like somebody who hasn’t done anything. A lot of people of his caliber would not be acting like that. He is down to earth. He was calling me humble but he’s the main one who is humble for real.”
What does he now like the best about this opportunity to play for the Bulldogs?
“You’ve got everything that you could ever need and really want there,” he said. “Really.”
The locker room impressed him. The meeting rooms. The player lounges. The treatment areas. The weight rooms. The locker rooms. It was like his long and winding junior college path took him to the Disney World of big-time college football.
“It made me think like where I would be at right now if I had already been there and at that level,” he said. “I have done got where I’m at now physically on my own. No type of shelter or anything. No strength and conditioning coach.”
What was the plan that the ‘Dawgs had for Taylor in their defensive scheme?
“They have got me playing like a ‘9′ technique all the way to a ‘4i’ and dropping back in coverage sometimes, too,” he said.
Taylor had already taken official visits to Oklahoma State and Auburn prior to his UGA visit.
“They were both real fun,” he said. “That’s when I realized I had to take all my visits to see where home is at for real.”
The Bteezy story: The stuff you need to know about this young man
Taylor celebrated a birthday on Monday. He turned 21 and he has had a life.
When he was in high school, he was over 310 pounds. He was an offensive tackle, but he could play all across the line. He could snap so he gave his team value at center. He was the best snapper so he played center in his senior year of high school.
But he didn’t take football seriously. Or the classroom. If he had prioritized football and had his grades right coming out of high school in the class of 2020, he said he’d have likely gone to Alabama.
When he got to the JUCO level, he started taking it seriously and working out. Eating right. Getting in the right shape. That shift in his body led his new coaches to move him to defense.
“The pounds and the weight just flew off me, man,” he said. “I think the lowest I got down to was 248 last year. I was really cut up and the coaches put me on defense. That’s how that happened.”
He said he grew up a product of a harsh environment in Houston.
“There’s a whole lot of stuff that went on,” Taylor said. “The people that really know me know that I beat the odds. You know what I am saying? Without even stepping foot on any campus of a school that offered me. Just by having that chance here that not everyone who grew up around me had, I really beat the odds.”
“I said what I was going to do and then I did it.”
There were a lot of young men who didn’t make it out of the environment he grew up in. Where he grew up, he said that he had to have a “stronger mentality” to be the one to change the situation his people were living in.
“Facts,” Taylor said. “That’s true facts.”
Taylor tried the junior college route in 2020, but the pandemic canceled the fall season for everyone at that level. Then he sat out the 2021 season. He had to get his life in order.
“When I was off a year from playing football it made me realize some things,” he said. “Not playing football for a season made me realize how much I really do love football.”
While he did that, he worked for U-Haul.
What does he like the best about playing football?
“To be honest it is the family part,” he said. “Some of my closest friends ever in football is through the football life. Football is really family-oriented. I like scoring touchdowns and stuff but people don’t realize there’s a whole lot more than that that comes with football. There is all the glory and money that come with it, but those bonds that come with it, man, those are different. For real.”
“The locker room vibes. Seeing everybody happy after a win and everything. It is just different. A whole lot of people will never get to experience that feeling. Football is just different.”
He wants to major in business with an eye on a career in the real estate market. Taylor will have three years to play two seasons at the Power 5 level. What’s his football dream?
“Two years from now,” he started off. “It is toward the end of the season and I’m getting ready. Wherever I am playing, I’m getting ready to compete for a natty in about a month. That’s where I see myself two years from now.”
SENTELL'S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
