This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting shares the recruiting decision with 4-star OT prospect Juan Gaston Jr. out of Westlake High School in Atlanta. He ranks as the nation’s No. 16 OT and the No. 164 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 14 IOL and at No. 187 overall.
Juan Gaston Jr. stepped off his high school practice field Friday night and walked down some stairs to the floor of the Westlake High School gymnasium.
He then tipped off his pending commitment decision that will come as a suprise to Georgia football fans and DawgNation.
Especially since all the national analysts pointed to him staying in-state and choosing the Bulldogs.
And most especially since Gaston came out for his ceremony in a white UGA windbreaker.
He then shared the first of several dramatic bursts of narration for his ceremony.
“Each jacket that I take off, the team is out,” Gaston said at the beginning of the event.
“So the first team out is Georgia,” he said.
The crowd went crazy as he removed the first of several shirts he had on underneath that white UGA windbreaker.
It was the orange of those Volunteers in Knoxville that everyone saw next.
“The second team out,” he said. “Tennessee.”
He then quickly shed that Rocky Top top.
The crowd saw that his latest turn revealed an Oregon shirt.
“Last but not least,” he said. “Oregon.”
That left him with a South Carolina shirt on.
That’s when his parents started to look at one another. A bit stunned, we can say.
“So I guess we’re going to South Carolina,” his mother Phenix Gaston said.
Gaston never told anyone. Except two members of his football team. Those three are as tight as it can get.
He then pointed to the stands. Everyone saw one of those teammates file out of the audience member to hand him an Oregon hat.
The crescendos kept coming as the crowd kept finding gear after gear of energy as Gaston kept shedding choices.
But that wasn’t it.
If one looked away, they might have seen his last act of commitment decision trickeration. His other Westlake team handed him a red hat.
Gaston then put on that Georgia hat.
Unbelievable.
He was, after all that, still going to be a Dawg. Gaston said he didn’t have his decison finalized until about two o’lock on Friday morning. That was about 18 hours prior to the ceremony. He said he figured it out while playing the EA Sports College Football 25 video game with his teammate.
He was playing with Penn State at the time.
Check out the video below.
What Georgia football is getting in Juan Gaston in the 2025 class.
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart and offensive line coach Stacy Searels seem to like to see their bricks for the 2025 reup of their “Great Wall of Georgia” fashioned out of that GA red clay.
After all that theatre, they got another jumbo-sized one in the 4-star OT. That came after Gaston Jr. shared the word that he has made his commitment inside the Westlake High School gymnasium.
Well, finally.
Gaston becomes the 22nd commitment of the 2025 class. He’s also the fourth OL prospect and all four members of this year’s class hail from the state of Georgia.
The Bulldogs were able to gain a strong footbhold into this recruitment and never really let up. Gaston had already scheduled his first official visit this summer to UGA way back in February.
What stood out to him about the Dawgs?
“They’re just a great team overall,” he told DawgNation back in May.
The Bulldogs were able to build upon that feeling along his official visit. He loved the photo shoot and really enjoyed himself. The only surprise for him was those early wake-up calls and meetings on that OV.
He also got a look at that future 2025 and 2026 O-line depth chart on that visit.
“They are a winning program and they are losing five of their starters,” Gaston approximated during a June interview. “They say I have the potential to be a starter when I get there.”
What went through his mind when the UGA staff said that was a possibility?
“Ok, I have a chance at starting at UGA,” Gaston told DawgNation in June. “Might be a smart decision to go there and stuff like that.”
This wasn’t the easy pull for the Dawgs here. Oregon was a dream school for Gaston growing up and the Volunteers also gave him a lot to think about.
Dan Lanning’s Ducks finished second here.
Georgia also gave him a pretty superlative comparison as a player parallel.
“When they pull up my tape when I go on a visit, they say I look just like Mims a little bit,” Gaston said earlier this summer. “So I think I can be next.”
That’s a nod to former 2021 5-star Amarius Mims. Mims only started a handful of games during his time at UGA, but was still taken with the 18th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft this spring.
His decision came down to relationships. That’s what Gaston had told DawgNation it was always going to come down to.
“A great bond with the coaches and players on the team,” he said back in May.
Check out the junior tape below for Gaston.
This was a different timeline for a recruiting ceremony tonight at Westlake.
Gaston was practicing with his Lions on another sweltering day in Fulton County just an hour prior to his ceremony.
When he came inside, he cooled off, grabbed a quick drink and it wasn’t long before he told the world he was going to be a Bulldog. The 6-foot-7, 350-plus pounder is the son of a former Georgia Tech basketball. His namesake averaged 3.6 points per game during his 36 games during the 1995-1996 season.
It somehow all came full circle tonight. Gaston’s first college visit every was to check out UGA.
Juan Gaston Jr: What’s the position fit?
The national recruiting sites differ on whether Gaston is pure OT prospect or an IOL. On3 rates him as an interior OL while 247Sports has him at OT. ESPN and Rivals also assess Gaston as an OT.
That’s just semantics because Gaston is another massive human/road grader for Searels’ room.
To place tonight’s decision and the stockpiling of similarly-built size athletes in the proper perspective, Gaston now becomes the ninth UGA offensive lineman of the last three recruiting cycles to eclipse the 6-foot-6 mark on the height chart.
Gaston is also the fifth OL that will sign with UGA with a listed height that was at least 6 feet, 7 inches tall.
It appeared the young man grew tired of the recruiting process. He had originally planned this summer to take his decision well into his senior year, but decided after his official that he was done with the recruiting process.
His commitment news wasn’t going to wait until October.
The No. 20 player in Georgia for this cycle (247Sports Composite) also shared word through his coaching staff this week that he wouldn’t be granting any more interview requests prior to his school ceremony tonight.
Gaston told DawgNation after his commitment ceremony that he was finished with his recruiitng process. His mother echoed that.
He said he wasn’t certain whether or not he will enroll early at UGA in January at this time.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
