This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star IOL commitment Cortez Smith. He ranks as the nation’s No. 6 IOL and the No. 132 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 11 IOL and at No. 157 overall.
Cortez Smith has been through approximately 300 workouts by now with local offensive line trainer Kevin McAlmont. McAlmont is a guru and it shows when Smith hits the grass.
There has been a purpose to their sessions over the last two years.
Perhaps the better term would be a path to all that hard work and sweat equity.
When Georgia started to recruit Smith heavily years ago, they started bringing up the name of a current player who was performing like an all-timer for the program at the center spot.
That was Sedrick Van Pran-Granger. The three-year starter just left Georgia for the NFL this spring after being a vital cog in as many national championship teams (two) and he was on the field for losses (two) in his career.
It’s going to take a lot for somebody to follow those tracks.
McAlmont and Smith have already been doing a lot to build him into the player SVPG was for the Dawgs.
“We’ve been looking at Van Pran since he got here [to train] with me,” McAlmont said. “Everything we have done over time has been in comparison to one day be better than Van Pran. Because we always go to Georgia. We study film. We send videos. We text in group chat. We do all of this stuff with me and him and his Dad and we talk every day about what has to happen to use [Sedrick] as the starting point.”
Team Smith knows SVPG led Georgia’s offensive front to a 42-2 record and those two national titles.
They know he’s been a captain on the team. For several years.
“There was everything he did there and everything he did off the field,” McAlmont said. “He was a leader in everything he did which was he was a stand-up guy and that type of stuff. I’ve been really looking at him since Day 1. This is what we’ve been trying to do. No disrespect here to him, but we want to be better than Van Pran just because we’ve seen it before. We’ve seen it with Van Pran and we have a head start.”
They’ve watched a lot of film of SVPG plowing holes and making calls and checks for UGA.
“He’s a great center but everything we’ve done and we’ve prepared for is to emulate him and move past him,” McAlmont said. “The starts. Everything. He’s a great center. Probably one of the greatest centers in Georgia history. At least top three. But everything we’ve done is to emulate what he does. Because he does everything right on and off the field.”
That No. 63 left some big cleats to fill. It could be intimidating. It could also be something Smith might not want to be.
He could choose to be his own man, but that’s just not his nature. The reigning GHSA Class 7A state shot put champion likes the challenge of being the first true center that UGA has recruited since Van Pran-Granger.
“I love it,” Smith said on his commitment day. “A lot of people might say I’m not being myself but I mean shoot I want to be great. I got to have a role model to go off of.”
He knows what that entials.
“Of course, he’s a great center,” Smith said. “Of course like football wise. But of course he’s a great vocal leader. He’s a really dependable person on and off the field to be a good teammate.”
Is that a tough deal to follow?
“I embrace it,” Smith said. “It is pretty easy because like it is Sedrick Van Pran. But I just want to be great. I’ve got to go off somebody’s tracks to get possibly better than him one day.”
Smith will be a true center on Saturdays.
“He does well in just doing the little things, right, man,” McAlmont said. “Right now we are just trying to get stronger. We’re trying to get him ready for college. I know he’s still in high school, but we’ve been trying to get ready for college for the last year.”
“Trying to change his body. Looking the part. Just moving to get his feet faster around the hills so he can move faster on grass. But they are going to get a good kid. Yeah,he’s kind of quiet but I feel like the football at a place like Georgia is going to bring all of that stuff out of him. He’s going to have to come out of it.”
When Georgia goes looking for a center, the program aims to be very sure of what they’re getting.
“Georgia doesn’t really recruit a center,” McAlomont said. “They don’t recruit like a true true center. Everybody they have had so far as been playing guard first. Or tackle. Or they have been moving him. But I’ve been working at center with Cortez for years. Since seventh or eighth grade. Now, I know he’s been playing tackle in high school because of the number or where the team needs him to fit in best with their best linemen but I feel like the interior for him is where home is for him.”
“Yeah he can play guard and tackle, but I feel like the first thing he’s going to be in at Georgia is at center. A real true center.”
Check out Smith’s “DawgNation Conversation” below.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
