This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star WR CJ Wiley. He ranks as the nation’s No. 13 WR and the No. 84 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 12 WR and at No. 81 overall.
There was something different about CJ Wiley today.
If one didn’t know what happened last night with his abrupt commitment to the Georgia football program, it would have been a mystery.
Especially compared to their previous experiences around him. It was like he ate three Happy Meals. The smiles came easier. Wiley’s laughs lasted longer.
Did he get a new car? Maybe a new pair of cleats or receiver gloves? Does he have a new significant other?
What he got was a new team. The homestate Georgia Bulldogs. When he was getting ready today, he saw a UGA T-shirt near his dresser, he grabbed that and put it on.
It was his first day for the AJC Super 11 pick to put on for his home state. Jeezy style.
“I would say last week I knew it was going to be Georgia,” he said on Thursday. “But yesterday I made it official. I talked to the coaches last night.”
What was the reason?
“I would say I could see myself playing there,” Wiley said. “It was the best fit for me. I’ve got a good connection with my OC. Coach [Mike] Bobo and my receiver coach. Coach [James] Coley.”
His head coach at Milton High is a Georgia grad and a former Bulldog walk-on. But Ben Reaves Jr. also now coaches a team rated No. 2 in the nation by MaxPreps.com.
Reaves was stoked about Wiley’s news. His Milton High teammate and lifelong buddy Ethan Barbour was equally enthused.
Barbour committed to UGA last fall and moved to play with Wiley at Milton for his senior year. Those two have been on teams in eighth, ninth, tenth and 12th grade. They will now spend at least three seasons together in Athens.
“He [Barbour] said something [last night] in the group chat,” Wiley said on Thursday. “He said like ‘he’s relieved’ now or he’s at ‘peace’ and then he posted a lot of pictures on his [Instagram] story.”
Who did Wiley make happier last night? Barbour or Reaves?
“To be determined,” Reaves said. “But if that winds up being a tie, I’m okay with it. I know how happy I was.”
Wiley also weighed in about the happiest member of the Milton football family.
“I would say my coaches and Ethan,” Wiley said. “They were both hype. Coach Reaves and his brother they both said ‘Go Dawgs’ and ‘Congrats’ and stuff and Ethan was like ‘Go Dawgs.’ He was happy.”
Barbour was always in Wiley’s ear about the Dawgs. He didn’t know for sure last night either.
“I just shocked him,” Wiley said with a smile.
The Georgia football staff were also very excited by Wiley’s news. That Kirby Smart “Go Dawgs” tweet came as quickly as Wiley scorches a “9″ route.
“They were excited,” Wiley said on Thursday. “It was like a big excitement on the phone.”
Wiley told Georgia coach Kirby Smart first.
“I was like asking him how he was doing and all that,” Wiley said. “I was like ‘Coach, I just want to tell you I’m coming home. Yeah, I’m going to be a ‘Dawg’ and he just got excited.”
When Wiley said that, he had the biggest smile DawgNation has ever seen from him. By far. That’s over the course of at least eight interviews since the end of last season.
What did Smart do when he dropped that news on him?
“I know he said something wild,” Wiley said. “I forget.”
He said it sounded something like a big yell and a “heck yeah” when he heard that news.
Those words that cemented the next great weapon for Bobo and Coley. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Wiley can take the top off defenses with his NFL frame and 4.4 speed. He was clocked in the 10.7 range in the 100 meters this spring.
He seemed very much at peace with it.
“I just feel relaxed now,” Wiley said, “Everything is done.”
CJ Wiley: The backstory behind his BIG Georgia football commitment
Wiley’s visit to UGA for the Auburn game last month meant something. Was there a moment along that unofficial visit that planted the seed for this week’s news?
“I would say the stadium,” Wiley said. “I looked in the stadium. I said I could see myself playing here. The atmosphere was good. A lot of the coaches greeted me. The players greeted me. I got to speak with some of the players after the game. I told them congrats on the win and stuff.”
He said that welcome and that visit was helpful.
When he decommitted from FSU right after his Texas A&M visit, it wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. Wiley had already planned to decommit that Sunday night before his trip to College Station.
“I wasn’t really thinking nobody,” he said of that time. “I really just wanted to revise and rethink really between Texas A&M, Georgia and LSU.
In the end, it did come down to the Bulldogs and the Aggies. Wiley said he plans no more game visits except for one.
“I’m going to be at the Georgia versus Tennessee game,” Wiley said.
Here’s an interesting twist: Wiley’s older sister, Logan, is an outstanding freshman volleyball player at Georgia Tech. There needs to be a house divided license plate already on order for the Wiley family.
“She was just like congrats,” CJ said of his sister’s reaction. “I think she was like on a plane to her game so I told her so she wouldn’t be shocked.”
When he decommitted from FSU last month, he saw the reactions online.
“I saw a lot of the comments,” he said. “It was like ‘Come home to Georgia’ and stuff like that.”
When he did just that last night, he also looked at a few comments.
“I read some of them,” Wiley said. “You know [Georgia freshman safety] KJ Bolden? I think he said ‘I told ya’ll” or something like that.”
DawgNation spoke to Wiley on Thursday afternoon in the same Brad Zettler LiveLOUD team meeting room when he chose FSU back in June. That stunned the room.
What changed in his mind from that day to today?
“I would say a lot of people know this,” Wiley said. “Florida State offered me like freshman year. They have always been solid through all that time. That’s where I thought like home was for me. But I had to make a best decision for myself. I just see myself playing at Georgia for the next three or four years.”
Wiley said that Coley has told him that Georgia will move him all over the field. Even though it is likely he will wind up as that boundary “X” receiver in Athens.
A coach’s view of the CJ Wiley commitment to Georgia football
Wiley’s work ethic is the stuff of lore around Milton. He said he’s catching 100 balls on the JUGS machine every day after practice.
The goal is to go 100 for 100. If he drops one, his intent is always to start over on that set.
Reaves was able to keep his zeal to see him in the red and black in check.
“Ultimately, if CJ is happy I am happy,” Reaves Jr. said. “Selfishly as a Dawg fan and as an alum, like I told him, I would love to see him go to Athens and play ball. But I was going to be good even if he stuck with his initial commitment. But at the same time, I took the alumni hat and the Georgia fan hat off. He and I kind of talked through all the reasons it did make sense. All the reasons he would have a bright future there that I knew about and that the Georgia coaches had communicated to me.”
“I was able to given him two different viewpoints. As a fan, thrilled to see him go there and can’t wait to watch him suit up every game. But then as his coach, I would be happy for him no matter where he ended up.”
Wiley has 40 catches for 640 yards and eight TDs in 10 games. That said, it has some wondering if he’s a little off the pace he had last fall. It was quite a pace. The 4-star led the state in several criteria with his 68 catches for 1,473 yards and 14 touchdowns.
But that big junior year means he’s a marked man. He’s always got a safety high over the top. He’s also barely played in the second half or not at all in four of Milton’s 10 games this season.
The attention he’s gotten has freed up Barbour and his running back TJ Lester. The Eastern Kentucky commitment has already eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark and piled up 17 touchdowns in 10 games.
Wiley won’t get doubled during his time at Georgia. Not with all the weapons at tight end and on the other side of the formation. Georgia also has 5-star WR Talyn Taylor in this same recruiting class to pair up with Wiley.
Coley has also recruited impact talents like speedster Landon Roldan and 4-stars Thomas Blackshear and TJ Williams to the program. The Wiley commitment cements this WR class as the best for Georgia in the last four recruiting cycles. At least.
“He’s going to be an eight to 10-catch a game type of guy,” Reaves said of Wiley. “The truth is with his stats this fall is we want to spread the ball around intentionally. There really hasn’t been a lot of games he’s played into the second half. He really hasn’t had nearly the play count and targets to really put up big numbers as opposed to last season.”
The postseason comes next week. The ball finds the best players in the biggest games. That will be Wiley.
“That will give him more playing time and more opportunities to get his stats to where it is acceptable for the outside viewer,” Reaves said. “But ultimately, what makes him special is he really could care less. He just wants to win and do what he can for the team.”
Reaves broke down his view of the Wiley commitment timeline.
He said the Bulldogs told Wiley how much they believed in him and how much of a priority he was. When he chose FSU, that didn’t change. UGA stayed firm and the program told him that wasn’t going to change. They were going to continue recruiting him until the last minute.
“Just their persistence and the continued love and the patience that they showed proved to him that they really do want him as bad as they say and that what they said to him was not just a recruiting pitch,” Reaves said.
It matched up with what Wiley was looking for all along.
“The main thing is he wants to find a program that will turn him into the best man possible,” he said. “That will build his character and that will have consistency and also give him a chance to go play in the NFL. I think the consistency part right now that FSU once had is what scares him and had him wavering. There are a lot of uncertainties there.”
“I think just the fact Georgia checks all those boxes and you are going to have a chance to play for a national championship is what he was looking for initially. In round two, it was still what he was looking for and another school just checked those boxes better than Florida State this time.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
