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. 7 overall prospect for 2025 for both the 247Sports Composite and the On3 Industry Ranking.
MANCHESTER -- The latest with 5-star DL Justus Terry remains interesting. Especially since he’s the nation’s highest-ranked remaining undecided target in this recruiting cycle.
Especially after watching his homestate team and the program he was once committed to take down No. 1 team on the road in convincing fashion.
And most espsecially since he shared some very interesting feedback about the Dawgs after his official visit with the Texas Longhorns.
Let’s aim for efficiency here and try to churn as much Intel on Terry out as possible over the next several bullet items.
- Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott told him long ago his recruitment was going to be a marathon and the Bulldogs would be there for every step of it over a multi-year priority recruitment that dates back to his freshman year.
- As a result, Terry has long referred to his process as a “marathon” and the finish line for that final commitment remains the early signing period. He told DawgNation on Tuesday he’d now like to extend that process until as late as possible. Terry now hopes to take that decision date to the third and final day of this year’s early signing period. That would be December 6 of this year. The ESP now opens two weeks earlier than it has in years past. That period now begins on December 4.
- “I think I might do it the sixth,” he said. “On the last day. Just make it big. Just, hey, bring everything home.”
- These are the teams the 6-foot-5, 270-pounder said are still in it: Alabama, Auburn, FSU, Georgia and Texas.
- What will his decision ultimately come down to? “I think it is going to come down to where I am most comfortable at and you know I feel comfortable at a lot of places,” he said. “Not just Georgia. Georgia. Texas. Alabama. Florida State. I feel at home at a lot of places. It will really come down to where I am comfortable at, who I want to grind with and who I want to play with. Just who I want to surround myself with everyday for three to five years and grind. So that’s what it is going to come down to.”
- He’s planning to visit UGA for at least one more game this fall. He’s also planning visits to see Alabama (date TBD), FSU (vs. Florida), Auburn (vs. Vanderbilt) later this fall. Texas is also telling him to come back for another visit and he said he’d try to return for another home game.
- “I’ll definitely catch another home game,” he said about UGA. “I don’t know which one yet, but if they call me and say come up I will come up anytime. That will be no problem getting up there.”
- “I’ll probably make the Georgia Tech or the Tennessee game,” he said. “For sure.”
- He hasn’t heard from new 5-star Georgia DL commit Elijah Griffin. Not yet. Griffin is the nation’s No. 1 DL and when Terry was committed to UGA, he was the one publicly pitching Griffin to join him. Now, those roles are reversed. “I haven’t heard from him yet, but I know it is coming,” Terry said. “You know me and E we connect real easily. He can hit me anytime. I can hit him anytime, you know our bond is there. I’m looking forward to it.”
- Griffin said after his commitment ceremony he hoped Terry takes as long as he needs and just enjoys his process, but then added that Terry knows where home is.
- Terry laughed when he heard that. “You know me and E it is all jokes,” Terry said. “We are just going to keep poking at each other for sure. Hopefully, we end up on the same field playing together. But hey it is whatever God takes me. I’m just walking the walk.”
- He said he could always tell that Griffin would wind up at UGA. “Me and E always talk. I could tell when you are from Georgia, Georgia is an easy pick. So you know me and him, we’ve always been connecting on the Dawgs. I just saw it coming.”
- A lot of the national recruiting insiders point to UGA as being the team to beat. When they name another contender after that, the usual pick is Alabama. Terry said he is aware of that. He’s even noticed the 100 percent crystal ball predictions of him to UGA. “I’m open,” he said. “I look at them all equal. I’m just exploring my options. I’ve seen the thing where they said that Georgia is 100 percent with the predictions, but I was like you know it looks like that. But I look at it like it is all equal. I can land anywhere. At the end of the day, coaches say they can develop you which they can. But it is up to you to put in the work no matter where you go. So I just look forward to going to where ever I am comfortable at putting in the work to make myself better. Develop myself.”
While he was in Austin on his Texas official, he got the chance to see Georgia’s defense turn in its best performance of the year. That impressed him.
“You know, the Dawgs put on a show,” he said. “Seeing the D-linemen get rotated in and out. You know a bigs group. A pass-rushing group. I could see it. I could see the future in Georgia.”
What was it like watching the players he knows on the Georgia team execute like that?
“It was good,” he said. “Just seeing how them boys have fun. You know Jalon Walker, Mykel [Williams[, Warren [Brinson] all the people in the trenches were just connecting,” he said. “Together. That’s what I like to see.”
He said there was one big thing that stood out to him watching the Georgia defense on Saturday in Austin.
“It was just seeing how they work,” he said. “Seeing how smoothly everyone was connecting. You know I’m big on a bond type of guy. I want the brotherhood on the field and off the field. That’s what I am big on. Seeing the brotherhood on the field, like it made a big jump for me. I can just picture myself out there with the future Dawgs you know just making plays and getting licks so that’s something I was looking forward to.”
Terry said he was sent a message from Georgia defensive line coach Tray Scott after the game. It was a picture of Georgia junior Mykel Williams getting named the SEC Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performance in the Texas game.
Terry included the message “Young ‘Quez up next” with that news item.
“That’s my middle name,” Terry said. “Valquez. He calls me Quez. It was like ‘Young Quez up next’ and you know how that be. The marathon continuing and it is all good words.”
Terry said he had the best barbecue of his life in Texas. How does he now feel about the Longhorns?
“They have been coming hard lately,” Terry said. “They told me I am a top priority guy for them. So I’m just taking everything in and exploring my options.”
The other update on 5-star DL Justus Terry
While all this talk about schools and visits and is what makes the recruiting world go around, there is also the matter of the high football player here.
Not just the college prospect.
Terry was named the Homecoming King this year at Manchester, but he’s hit a speed bump on the field this fall.
Terry has missed all but the first game of his season with a “sprained knee” he suffered in the season opener this year. His Devils made the state finals a year ago in GHSA Class A and are strong contenders to win it all this season.
Terry told DawgNation he has a Nov. 11 checkup with his doctors to see about when he could be cleared to return to the field.
“The first game back, a player went into my knee so I had a sprained knee,” he said. “Since then, I’ve just been rehabbing and grinding to get back. You know I don’t want to rush the process and come back too early and something happen. So I just want to take my time with it, but for sure I will come back. I can’t miss my high school season. I have to play in more games.”
It happened on offense while he was playing guard. Terry was pulling on the play and the defender hit his running back and their momentum crashed into his knee He said it caved it in.
That wasn’t the first time he has hit adversity with injuries in his career.
“Ninth grade year I had two knee injuries in one season,” he said.
The first time was a drill at an Alabama camp the summer before his freshman year. He said he hyperextended his leg and fractured his fibula bone. He also saw his kneecap pop out of place later that season in a game.
He missed approximately four or five games that fall and came back for the playoffs. He said he’s missed five games so far this year.
Terry said he’s still working out two times per day. He’s rehabbing the knee at least two times per week and then on his own.
“I will be back,” Terry said matter of factly on Tuesday morning.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
