This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 5-star DL Justus Terry. He ranks as the nation’s No. 2 DL and the No. 8 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 2 DL and at No. 7 overall.

MANCHESTER -- Give Justus Terry credit. He’s going to do this 5-star highly-coveted DL recruiting timeline his own way.

Summer rumors had swirled that we could see his highly-anticipated college commitment come in the next few weeks or early months of the 2024 season.

As it turns out, those weren’t of the highest quality.

Terry dismissed those in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday with DawgNation.

The marathon is still on.

At least for the near future, look for that public commitment on the first day of the early signing period in December.

“I just think about really just holding everything off until December,” Terry told DawgNation. “You know just my family never had anything like me come through so I just want to make it big for them. You know just have a little fun with it. So I just want to hold off until December and you know make a decision then and just come together.”

“As far as the coaches, you know they always tell me the marathon continues and every coach tells me that. Not just UGA. It is just in a different way you know UGA they are coming with it. But every other coach is still hitting me up. Still telling me they want me to come and I will make an immediate impact.”

Terry played most of his junior season at 285-295 pounds. He’s noticeably different on the first day of August of his senior season.

The 6-foot-5 rising senior now floats within the 260-pound range. He looks better (and moves even better) than we saw him in February when he dominated the high P4 prospect-laden Under Armour Atlanta regional.

He had a tough decision to make this past weekend. Alabama, FSU and Georgia all wanted him to come to their end-of-summer events.

Those were the schools he took officials to this summer.

Terry chose to visit UGA last weekend in a decision that sounds like it had as much to do with guys like Isaiah Gibson, Bo Walker, Zayden Walker and the rest of the 2025 UGA commits as much as the staff in Athens.

He was part of a group at said cookout that caught Kirby Smart slipping. Smart was talking to parents one second and then in the crosshairs of a 4-star and 5-star ambush.

They lathered the two-time national championship coach up in friendly water gun crossfire.

“It was just a fun moment,” Terry said “Everyone was laughing. It was just fun.”

To escape a further delgue, Terry said Smart flashed some embers of the speed that made him an ALL-SEC safety back in his day.

Smart told them he would get them all back one day.

“I don’t know how he is going to get us, but he said it,” Terry said on Thursday. “I’m just going to be prepared every time I’m around him. I’ll keep my head on [a swivel] on my shoulders. .. He took off when we got him. I didn’t know he still had it in him.”

Here’s a question of the hour: Which schools are still in it?

“Like I said, the recruitment is open,” he said. “I’m willing to talk to anyone right now. But the ones who are coming the hardest are Florida State, Alabama, UGA and you know USC is still coming. Texas is trying to come in. Auburn is still trying to come in. Everyone is still punching in. So it is getting harder and harder but I’m just dealing with it. Holding it off until December.”

5-star Manchester High School DL Justus Terry is rated as one of the nation's top 10 prospects in the Class of 2025. He has made verbal committments in the past to both UGA and USC, but is currently undecided about his future college choice. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

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The must-read about what Justus Terry said about UGA this time

Terry made it clear over the course of our interview that Georgia is a team to watch out for here.

But without making it overly clear.

The recruiting industry seems to think UGA is the team in the best position here. I’d sign off on that.

It was the way he answered a few questions about Gibson, the culture at UGA and what he’s looking for.

But to be fair here, Terry has always said things like that about UGA.

He answered a question about UGA and used the word “home” among his train of thought. He later clarified that upon a follow-up.

He didn’t put much stock into the specific “use” of the word home there. But he did sign off on the notion Georgia is the program that has made him feel the most “comfortable” so far. He’s looking for a feeling in college that’s the same kind of cozy chill he gets in the Manchester locker room around his boys.

Has UGA had already shown him why he might sign with them in December?

Terry’s answer came at the same speed he will knife through offensive lines this fall There was scant hesitation.

“Yes, sir,” Terry said. “I just have a quote for it.”

“If it is worth having, it doesn’t come easy. So that’s just something I go by from UGA. You know you want to have championships and you know, the brotherhood and you know a lot of things. You know you want to make history at UGA. But it is like if it is worth having, it doesn’t come easy.”

“I want to have it. I know it doesn’t come easy. UGA is one of the teams that have shown me that.”

5-star Manchester High School DL Justus Terry is rated as one of the nation's top 10 prospects in the Class of 2025. He has made verbal committments in the past to both UGA and USC, but is currently undecided about his future college choice. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will see special 1-on-1 content with key 2025 prospects like Ethan Barbour, Ryan Montgomery, Elijah Griffin and Justus Terry

Quote rewind: Let’s go back to something Terry said earlier

If an interview could ever be seen as film study, we want to try something like “quote study” here.

Let’s flash back to what Terry said in an earlier quote regarding to running the “marathon” in his recruitment.

It was the part of a longer quote where he said “you know have a little fun with it” when it came to extending out his college decision.

Most might take that the wrong way and shake their head about young people these days. It makes sense to add a great deal of context to that.

It is the clarity that matters.

Terry and his Manchester football family has lost not one but two teammates since last December. The Devils lost their returning starting quarterback Daryus Bryant hours after their school prom last April.

Bryant was leaving Manchester’s prom in Columbus back in April before midnight. The police reported that someone started shooting at a red light. He was struck by gunfire and did not survive.

His father, Cartarsman Bryant, is the offensive coordinator at Manchester.

“We talked about, ‘Make sure you wear your seatbelt. Make sure you’re not speeding’, that type of thing,” said Bryant in an interview with Atlanta’s WSB-TV. “Never did we think you have to say, ‘Watch out for guys with guns.’”

Daryus Bryant was named an honorable mention All-State basketball and football player after his junior year. He was set to be a part of a loaded Manchester team that goes 60-plus deep and features 22 seniors that will still contend for a state title this fall.

Terry called him a “peacemaker” among the team.

His locker still sits untouched in the Manchester. It is a solemn reminder of a heart-wrenching nine months for Manchester High and its young people.

That’s why this season will be played in Bryant’s memory. Every time a patch of adversity hits, the Devils have made a vow they will all think of him. They will think of the good things and the ways he made them smile and that little patch won’t matter much at all.

There is a team motto for the “brother” they all lost they called “Rock.” It is now E.F.R. around the Devils.

Let’s hope Terry has as much fun as he possibly can with his college decision.

He’s had far too much grief after that tragedy followed the sudden death of another member of the football team the day before they played in the GHSA Class 1A state title game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

That’s far too much for any community to have to endure.

That’s why Terry says this season will be special for his Blue Devils.

“Really just to have fun with my guys man,” Terry said of the upcoming season. “Senior year. We have like the deepest class of seniors to come through in a long time. We have like 22 seniors. So I just want to have fun with my guys. You know they drive me. We’ve been playing since rec league and now we still have those same seniors. It is like man for us to still stick together from all the way to rec league until now. It is like we have to go out with a bang. We have no choice. We all have to put our all into it. 110 percent. We lost our quarterback who was a senior.”

“Long live No. 2. We lost him. Now everything is for him. Everything For Rock. That is just something we go by. ‘E4R’ now when we hear that our minds just click into something different and we know we have to go put in work. Just for him.”

Terry only gets this process once before a big-boy program (all but assuredly within a five-hour radius of his Manchester roots) has him doing non-fun things like running hills or up stadium bleachers every summer for the next three or four years.

This young person also has a unique entrepreneurial story. He’s been cutting hair for years. Terry has kept the chair at a local barber shop quite busy this week cutting hair prepping his classmates for their senior pictures.

He charges $15 a cut for kids and $20 for adults. He gives out free cuts to those who need it. A slow week will is about 10 clients. A busy week will have him cutting three or four times that amount.

Let him wrap all the fun he can around a hard-working life for any young person. School, football, weights and temp fades are a good reason why he’s not quick to return many text messages and phone calls.

There will be a lot of folks gathered around the podium in Manchester High in December when it comes time for Terry to let the world know where he will go play college football.

That will a lot of fun for one very lucky school, too.

Where ever he goes off to play, it will be at a very high level. That’s what the eyes clearly screamed Thursday afternoon watching him work out for his Blue Devils.

What does he want the world to know about his process here? Terry’s answer was one of several references during our conversation to his strong Christian faith.

“He’s just waiting on God’s time,” Terry wanted all the college football fans to know. “Everything is going to come. Just be patient in God’s time.”

We’ll have more on Terry on DawgNation.com and a special “DawgNation Conversation” with him on next “Before the Hedges” next Wednesday night.

SENTELL’S INTEL

(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)