This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star safety Lagonza Hayward. He ranks as the nation’s No. 9 S and the No. 117 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 10 safety and at No. 119 overall.
When walking the halls of Toombs County High School, make sure to stop at the Blue Angels picture.
That’s by the office of football coach Buddy Martin. Through that door one will find a few key pieces of program signage.
They read “BAD” and that’s the slogan of the No. 1 team in Georgia’s Class 1A Division I.
“BAD” stands for “Be A Dawg” or “Be a Dog” depending on one’s SEC allegiance. Toombs County’s teams are also named the Bulldogs.
Their football team is home to 4-star safety Lagonza Hayward. He’s a physical and relentless bad dude on the football field. Both Georgia and Tennessee still want him to “BAD” for their teams.
When he goes to church every Wednesday, he hears “Go Dawgs” all the time from members of his community.
As it stands, he’s still more blue tick hound than Dawg. The Hayward recruitment, along with 4-star LB Christian Gass, comprise the two biggest ongoing recruiting battles between Georgia and Tennessee this week.
Hayward has been committed to the Vols since late July. That hasn’t stopped the Georgia Bulldogs from vying for the flip.
“You know when you get in a relationship and then the other females still try to talk to you even though you are still in a relationship?” he said. “That’s what it looks like.”
The two major recruiting services list him as the No. 13 player in Georgia this fall. That might be too low for a real “Dawg” on the field.
Georgia football recruiting: Could Lagonza Hayward flip?
When DawgNation caught up with Hayward recently, he made one thing pretty clear.
“I’m definitely 100 percent committed to Tennessee,” he said. “They’ve been there the whole time. I’m not going to look on the other side thinking the grass is going to be greener when I know its not. They’ve been showing me this type of love the whole time when its just like an ‘Oh now we want you’ type of situation.”
While Georgia is the only team with any chance of flipping him, it doesn’t sound like a major shot. What keeps him committed to the Vols?
“Really because the loyalty,” he said. “It hasn’t ever been like a dry stage with them where they have not kept in contact with me and not checked up on me and stuff like that.”
Hayward described the recruiting attention as “lukewarm” and “then really really hot” from the Bulldogs. He’s now hearing from safeties coach Travaris Robinson, Kirby Smart, graduate assistant Prather Hudson and then defensive backs assistant David Metcalf.
He said there’s really no other school in the picture aside from UGA.
“I’m committed to Tennessee,” Hayward said last week. “Still talking to them and Georgia is still trying to get me to flip.”
Hayward told DawgNation on Tuesday night that he was not planning to be in Athens this weekend.
There was a time when he wanted that badge of honor that goes with being a player in the state of Georgia getting that UGA offer. He went up for a “Junior Day” event in early 2024, but it never came.
That could be chalked up to the transition from safeties coach Will Muschamp to the well-respected Travaris Robinson at the same time as the turnover from corners coach Fran Brown to first-year assistant Donte Williams.
While the UGA staff was putting their 2025 secondary board back together, the Vols stayed strong.
There was a report this month that had Hayward going to check out the Bulldogs taking on Florida in Jacksonville, but that didn’t materialize.
Part of it was that Toombs County had just lost the night before to 5-star UGA commit Elijah Griffin and his Savannah Christian team. That game was for the region championship.
When Hayward woke up the next morning, he was salty. He hates to lose.
He also woke up to several messages from the UT staff. The 4-star had placed his phone on “Do Not Distrub” before going to bed. He said someone had to call him at least two times before those calls came through.
The Vols woke him up that morning.
“They were like ‘Are you in Jacksonvile’ and I was like ‘Nah, I’m at the house asleep. We just lost. Why would I feel like going to a game?’”
The Vols were on alert. They had seen the messages on social media.
“I had to get on Twitter and nip that in the bud,” Hayward said.
He’d been straight with the Vols from the start when it came to his visits. When he visited UGA this year for the Auburn game, he let the Vols know he planned to be in Athens.
Why is Georgia even in the mix here at all?
“I would kind of say development,” Hayward said. “Javon Bullard. Malaki Starks. KJ Bolden now. Malaki is going to leave so that is going to like create a spot. It is really development at the safety position.”
Coach Martin believes Hayward is “locked in” to Tennessee. He feels there’s really no major pending threat from the Bulldogs.
That said, he shared a story that says a lot about Hayward and also what these young men go through trying to choose from two big-boy SEC programs.
“He came in about a month ago,” Martin started off. “He was asking ‘Coach will you just pray for me for wisdom? I just want to be in the right situation and make the right decision’ and I told him then that ‘Hey you are going to be in the right situation whether it is choice A or choice B because of where your mind is with all of this.’ He has not gotten caught up in the NIL stuff and who’s been here and who hasn’t. He’s just looking for the best opportunity for him and he’s got a very wise outlook on all of it.”
“At the end of the day, when you are being fought over by some SEC schools, it is not a bad place to be. I think he’s in a great spot with it. He’s been open to everybody. Didn’t want to shut a door to anybody. He’s wanted to hear everybody out. From my perspective - just from seeing people come in and listen and watch - I just think that Tennessee has done the best job recruiting him.”
It goes back to that loyalty card with Hayward and the Vols. When he chose UT in the summer, the runner-up school was actually South Carolina. The UGA staff had not really turned up the heat yet.
“Georgia has come hard at him about a month ago and I think with him he’s looking at everything,” Martin said. “They obviously play very good defense at Georgia and they’ve had a lot of defensive players go to the NFL. That’s a goal for me, but at the same time he knows they are going to play really good defense at Tennessee.”
Hayward described his thoughts there.
“I’m kind of like the black sheep of my family,” he said. “So this [UGA offer] was kind of like a come up for everybody in my family. Not just me. So I wanted to make the best decision for me and my family and I didn’t want to be one of them kids who flip 35 times before signing day. So that’s why I was kind of like praying or wisdom. If anybody can handle it, God can.”
What type of player is Lagonza Hayward?
Martin rattled off all the things he sees on a daily basis that will make Hayward a major player in the SEC sooner rather than later:
“Physicality.”
“Great big strong kid.”
“Great ball skills.”
“Explosive.”
“The intangibles are off the charts. Phenomal leader. Worker. Competes in everything he does.”
“Definitely a guy that leads our team.”
“Lagonza eats ball.”
“The guy who watched the most film each week. He won it every week.”
“The guy blowing me up all summer for more reps in the weight room. To get on the field.”
“Wears me slap out wanting to get better every day in the offseason.”
“I think we probably give him too many reps but he’s our guy. The guy we are going to win or lose with.”
There’s a great story about the towel hangs in the Toombs weight room.
“I’m looking at the clock and I’m like ‘Hey man your 20 seconds are up’ and he’s like ‘Coach I’m not letting go until he lets go’ and I look over and that’s TJ [Stanley.] Our quarterback. Now they are in a towel hang competition and won’t let go. I’m like ‘Hey you’ve got to let go. We’ve got to get through this workout’ and they’re not letting go. They are going to compete against each other. I think that’s what makes our whole team special is we’ve got that.”
“I’d say TJ is the quarterback of our offense and Lagonza is the quarterback of our defense. They feed off of him and he’s got that mentality where the game is never over. It is never too late. There’s always a chance to go make a play. He plays with that kind of attitude. Major competitor. He eats it up. He eats ball. He loves it.”
Those towel hangs come in the middle of a hard workout. 20 seconds is tough. But Martin thinks Hayward could hang a full minute if he had to. Even right after a heavy bench press set.
“I think he’s going to hang as long as it takes to hang longer than the other guy,” Martin said. “To beat who ever else was up there.”
Hayward said he patterns his game after former UGA great Javon Bullard. His most likely Saturday home is at safety. His football IQ is so advanced that he was helping the linebackers on his team make the defensive calls as a sophomore.
He averaged 28 yards per catch last fall for 727 yards and eight TDs. That paired up with his 48 tackles, 3 TFLs and 3 INTs. The 4-star already has 35 catches and five scores this season.
Both of the major recruiting services list him as the No. 13 player in Georgia this fall. That might be too low for a real “BAD” on the football field.
Check out the Hayward junior film below.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
