This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 3-star DL Jeramiah McCloud. He ranks as the nation’s No. 45 DL and the No. 424 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 41 DL and at No. 452 overall.
Jeramiah McCloud’s story sounds complicated right now, but it really isn’t that complex when you listen to him explain it all.
Watch the way he moves and knifes into the backfield. The twitch to a 285-pound DLs game makes sense given that he grew up as a skill player. He was a flag football demon who starred at RB and other skill positions.
When he was halfway through his high school career, he was a 225-pound linebacker. He thought he was going to make his living off the edge.
“Tenth grade year I was a linebacker,” McCloud said. “I used to be fast fast. I was always good at the game.”
But then a trusted coach told him to put his hand on the ground. That was when he was playing at Gadsden County High School in Florida.
“He said my life would be different once I put my hand in the dirt,” McCloud said. “I was a defensive end. Once I was a defensive end, I actually was very dominant. That’s when my recruitment blew up my 11th-grade year. When my coach told me once I put my hand in the dirt, my life was going to change and it did change actually.”
Check out that junior film below.
The 3-star Florida commitment also has big dreams. Those are not just to spend all day ripping trophy bass out of a lucky fishing hole.
“My dream come true would be me being under the college lights,” he said. “Having a big sack. Then me walking on the [NFL] stage and getting drafted. That’s my goal for football.”
While he remains publicly committed to the Gators, he knows that he is now a wanted man in Athens. And he knows that track record for the Georgia football program and line coach Tray Scott when it comes to making his dreams come true.
“That’s the biggest thing with Georgia,” he said. “I know their development. Coach Scott is like totally open. He’s going to tell you. All freshmen just don’t see the field early. But you actually see the development those freshman had when they are sophomores, it is totally different. When you do get on the field at Georgia somehow and someway guys get drafted.”
He just took an important unofficial visit to UGA this weekend for the Tennessee Tech game.
“That Georgia offer means a lot to me,” he said. “Because I’m from Georgia. I grew up a Georgia fan. That was the best team growing up. Like watching them with Todd Gurley and people like that. With coach Kirby Smart from Bainbridge, having a coach from Georgia coaching Georgia so that just means a lot knowing that’s the best team in the nation that wants me and wanted to offer me.”
“That’s how I take it. I think Georgia is kind of different. With me being from Georgia because a lot of people don’t offer the backyard like Georgia does. I think that it means a lot.”
He got to speak to Georgia coach Kirby Smart at the game on the field prior to kickoff. McCloud also told DawgNation he’s planning a return official visit with his mother sometime later this fall.
It could be for the Auburn, Mississippi State or Tennessee home games later this fall.
That will all add to the picture of what comes next for him.
“Honestly I want to take the official with Georgia and just see,” McCloud said. “That will probably see how my recruitment goes from there.”
He said he’d like to take a visit to check out Georgia and “probably” LSU.
Scott went over his film last Saturday. He was showing him things.
“He was watching my film and showing me my film saying like that’s why he wants me and that’s why he needs me,” McCloud said. “Saying stuff like that. I definitely like coach Tray. I feel the love coming from him. He wants me. With our relationship, we have a good relationship.”
What does Georgia football see in Jeramiah McCloud?
Most schools look at his 6-foot-3-plus frame and see a “3″ technique. That’s lined up right over the guard.
“A lot of schools see that I can move around and maybe go to an EDGE or maybe from a ‘5′ to a ‘3′ (technique),” he said.
There are offers that go out right now or that have gone out for the last several months that could be classified as “keeping the recruit warm” types of offers. They have an offer they can tout on their social media and to attract other recruiting attention, but a lot of times those prospects aren’t at the top of the board and are backup plans.
That doesn’t seem to be the case any longer with UGA and McCloud.
‘It feels like I am a priority right now because the way Coach Scott and I, he’s texting me, like when they were going through just getting out of camp he got me and my Mom in a group chat and we talk almost every morning. He’s sending a video of him breaking down the film watching me. We talk outside of just football. Coach Scott is a good person. I can talk to him about personal stuff and he’s a great listener.”
“I definitely feel like a priority.”
When he committed to Florida back on May 2, the Bulldogs had just offered him in late March. It was after a strong performance he turned in at the Under Armour Next football camp.
He had also decomitted from Mississippi State in late April.
“Right before I committed to Florida Georgia offered me,” McCloud said. “They were in it, but it wasn’t heavy heavy [with the attention] like it is now. Now once I let coach Scott know. I just told him when he came to visit me in the spring. He asked me ‘Do they still have a chance?’ and I told him ‘yes sir’ and once he heard that, it has been on every since. I just talk to him a lot. Heavy.”
McCloud did just take an impactful visit to UGA for the Tennesse Tech game weekend. He went up there with another recruit high on Georgia’s radar that just so happens to be his teammate Ousmane Kromah.
He clicked with the Dawgs that day. Especially after getting the real talk from Georgia’s current roster. Especially a couple of current players in Gabe Harris and Raylen Wilson. Harris connects to his South Georgia ties. Willson played at a nearby school when he was at Gadsden County in North Florida.
Soo....how big of a chance does Georgia have now?
“They have a great chance,” McCloud said. “Because when I went up there Saturday me and ‘Oos’ we loved Athens. It is a great place to be. When ‘Oos’ and I were in eighth grade, we watched, I’m not sure if you know the players, but we watched Jake Pope and KJ Bolden and a couple other people that were like the top [high school freshmen] recruits in Georgia. They’re from Georgia so just being with them they were the top guys being from Georgia and we watched them. Just being on the team with them, that would be great.”
“That’s what we talked about too while we were in Athens. With the in-state players, it is different. The chemistry would be different. I talked about that with Gabe Harris too with him being from Thomasville. I watched him play, too, and I ended up playing against him and on a team with him before.”
Check out his 2024 highlights so far. That first play shows off a good range of his skills. It is not often you see a DL knock a pass down out of the air, catch it and then have the ability to return the ball for a score.
“When people watch me on tape, the first thing I want them to see if the physicality,” he said. “Because I’m very physical. I’m violent with my hands. That’s something definitely and the way I move at this size people will be very surprised.”
He’s very twitchy, but also very physical at the same time.
“I have both of those in my bag,” he said.
McCloud was an unofficial visitor for the Florida home opener against Miami. He called it “very weird” and “very different” to watch the Gators get thumped at home and then see the Miami players call the recruits out and tell them not to go to Florida and to come play with the Hurricances.
Why did he choose the Gators back in May? It came down to his relationship with the Florida defensive line coach.
“The reason I chose Florida was because of coach Gerald Chatman,” he said. “He and I have a great relationship. When he first got to Florida, he just told me ‘we’re in it together’ and he’s been real since day one. Before he got there, I didn’t even have the offer from Florida yet.”
Harris and Wilson made sure to tell him all about life as a Bulldog.
“They were telling me it is worth it,” he said. “Georgia is the place to be. That was mainly my favorite part of the visit getting to talk to the players and see their side of it with them being at Georgia.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
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