This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star EDGE Chase Linton. He ranks as the nation’s No. 33 DL and the No. 293 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 26 EDGE and at No. 246 overall.
Chase Linton didn’t mince any words on Monday morning when breaking down his official visit over the weekend at Georgia for the Mississippi State game.
“I’m not going to lie,” Linton said. “It just boosts UGA on that list of mine that is there but is not really there if that makes sense.”
The 4-star EDGE recently told DawgNation that he’s down to FSU, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU and Rutgers. Rutgers was the school he initially committed to back over the summer, but he stepped back from that decision once his recruiting picked up considerably.
“I’m trying to rank these,” he said. “The people that I am really considering over these visits and that visit puts them high on the list.”
What was the biggest way that UGA helped itself over the weekend?
“By actually showing me how they develop players and how they would develop me,” he said. “Because that’s really important to me. The main goal is the NFL. So they are consistently getting guys there and they are consistently being good players there. Not just getting to the league. That’s important to me.”
Did he leave Athens this weekend feeling like there was a fit?
“Yeah,” he said. “I can say that.”
He expanded on that by saying he felt the Georgia was a fit both on and off the field.
“I’d say it fits all the boxes,” he said. “But they are not the only school that I think fits all the boxes.”
That’s how he summed it up, but there were other details DawgNation gleaned from his recap:
- It was his first gameday visit to check out Georgia football at Sanford Stadium
- The box for the potential fit for his college major was checked. The Terry College of Business at UGA certainly represented itself well there. “That business school is awesome.”
- His player host, Damon Wilson, was a major asset for him to learn about UGA.
- His favorite part of the visit was his coach meeting with EDGE coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe and defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann. “The DC was very direct about their program and what they can do for you and how they can develop you,” Linton said.
- The sitdown with Kirby Smart happened prior to the Mississippi State game. “He was just talking about his program, how I fit and what matters to him,” Linton said. “Like football is great and all that, but he is trying to get you right for when football ends because it is going to end at some point. So he is trying to make sure his guys know what to do when that day comes. I thought that was really respectable.”
- “They showed me why they needed me,” Linton said. “They showed me how I would be used and they put my film side-by-side with one of their better guys that’s playing around that’s about to leave to go to the league and they talked about how they developed him. How he looked when he first came in. How they can turn you into something great and maximize your potential. So I got a whole presentation on that which I enjoyed.”
- Georgia showed him images of junior LB Jalon Walker and previous clips of elite pass rusher Azeez Ojulari, among others. Ojulari, a second-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, had two sacks this weekend for the New York Giants.
- The weight room was something he had to see for himself on his OV. “The weight room was absolutely beautiful,” he said. “The strength and conditioning coach is a really great guy. He’s loud and all that, but he’s not always loud. I’ve met some strength and conditioning coaches that are constantly yelling. Like they will be yelling at three in the morning. They’ll be yelling. Some of them are actually loud and some of them are loud because they feel like they have to be. You can tell when it is forced. He [the UGA strength coach] was a real cool and collected guy, but also really ripped. He was pretty buff.”
- Linton said his father’s perception changed about UGA on the visit. “He came in having some doubts but he left thoroughly impressed,” he said.
Chase Linton: What really stands out now about the Georgia Bulldogs
Wilson was a great ambassador for the Dawgs. He gave a clear road map of the daily life in Athens.
“At Georgia, they take things seriously,” he said. “Damon is serious about this football stuff. It is not a joke to him. I can appreciate being around someone like that because I’m not around everyone who is like that. It gets on my nerves sometimes when folks aren’t serious like that. He and I have that in common and I thought that was pretty cool.”
What comes next for Linton? He said he’d like to make his commitment decision as quickly as he can. He told DawgNation on Friday night that he wanted to have his decision locked by the end of November. Georgia Tech is scheduled for an official visit this weekend.
After this weekend visit, he knows he doesn’t want to even stretch it out that long.
“I am going to be taking official visits and [start[ wrapping my head together around [them] and then I am going to make a decision probably earlier than the end of November if I’m being honest with you.”
Georgia laid out their college projection for him on the visit.
“They saw me like a hybrid,” he said. “Like I’d be rushing from everywhere and doing a whole bunch of different things. Maybe putting my hand in the dirt to a two [point stance] technique and put me out in a bunch of space. A whole bunch of stuff.”
What sort of role with name, image and likeness (NIL) play here in his decision?
“I mean it is really cool and all that,” Linton said. “But it is not everything. It is not everything. People seem to get wrapped up in the money but they don’t realize that this is where you are going to live for four years. I don’t want to transfer. I’m trying go somewhere I’ll be at for four years for where I can fully develop. A friend of mine told me like this ‘if there is no money involved think about where you would go’ and that’s what I’m thinking about.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
