This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star IOL Mason Short. He ranks as the nation’s No. 8 IOL and the No. 178 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 13 IOL and No. 223 overall.
EVANS, Ga. -- Mason Short announced his college decision this morning inside a packed auditorium of invited guests at Evans High School.
He said the key phrase that indicated his choice and a special song began to play over the speakers in that room.
It was a personal touch for his ceremony that saw the Bulldogs earn the commitment over Clemson, Kentucky and Ohio State.
The 4-star IOL had also been committed to play for Nick Saban and Eric Wolford at Alabama. Wolford is the O-line coach at Kentucky now. That shows a measure of Short’s loyalty. The Wildcats made his final group because of the relationship he built with Short while he was committed to the Tide.
Georgia offensive line coach Stacy Searels got them ‘Dawgs in Short’s final group of one because of relationships. Short has a unique grasp of finding the right school fit.
“I go by an 80/20 rule,” he said. “80 percent the offensive line coach. 20 percent the head coach. That’s who you are going to be spending the most time with is the O-line coach.”
It also came down to backyards.
Searels earned 80 percent of the commitment for Kirby Smart for a Top 200 overall prospect from his backyard. The Augusta Metro area is about ninety minutes away from Athens.
Smart and Searels went out the backdoor and ripped a 6-foot-6, 305-pound OL out of a backyard pond.
That’s pretty much the way that Short looked at this. He went to the dominant college program right in his backyard, too.
“This narrative has been pushed down my throat since I was 15 years old - that Georgia is in my backyard of course,” Short said. “You know it is only an hour and a half away. And just it is Georgia. They have the history. They have the coaches. The players. They are always going to have that. Knowing that, you just can’t go wrong.”
Short now becomes the sixth commitment in a Georgia 2025 class that has been going uncommonly light on the scale for this time of year. He is now the third-highest-rated pledge in the 2025 Georgia class.
His decision makes him the first OL prospect on the board for the ‘Dawgs in 2025. That choice also moves UGA from the nation’s No. 18 class to No. 15 in the 247Sports team composite rankings.
“It is a great school,” Short said while breaking down the many reasons he chose to be a ‘Dawg today. “Great fans. Great atmosphere. That’s just a place that any player would want to be at.”
What kind of player is Georgia getting here?
“He plays with his pads,” Evans coach Barrett Davis said.
There’s a true mean streak in his game. Short intends to be the meanest player on the field between the lines and the nicest player off of it. While watching his junior tape, there are many clips of what this reporter likes to call “OOF” blocks to pay attention to.
There’s a duality to that. The first is because of what that feeling must be like to be toppled by a Short block and then see him splash all over you to finish the play. If that was pro wrestling, it would be a modest wrestling finishing move.
The other is an acronym for Out Of Frame. Short constantly pushes his defender out of the viewfinder’s wide shot of each play. He’s trying to take his man to the fence.
What does he want to make his assignment feel out on the field?
“This kid is going to hate me toward the end of the game,” he said while describing the mindset. “I love it. You know? Seeing a kid defeated. One of the best moments in my life. I won’t expose him too bad but he asked to get out of the game. Because I was making his night a lot worse than what it already was.”
Those big splashes he drops on opponents in the film below are called “Get off my field” blocks.
“That’s just the ultimate little punishment,” Short said. “That little push right after the play is over with. That’s what is going to happen with whatever college I go to. Fans can expect that. I might get a couple of penalties. Not holding. Maybe a little jawing after the play. That’s just how I was raised to be competitive and nasty. I’m going to keep that going.”
There’s a little more insight into when he lines up.
“There’s this guy in front of me that thinks he can win the rep against me,” Short said. “It’s just not going to happen. So I’m going to make him feel it first rep.”
He goes to bed at 8:30 every night. He wakes up at 5 o’clock the next morning to work out and he will definitely be in church every Sunday.
His strong Christian faith also played a large role in today’s decision.
Mason Short: The “how” story of how he chose to play for Georgia football
Short will graduate in December from Evans High. He will enroll in January. The recruiting services initially had him as a 5-star tackle when he stacked up all his offers in his freshman and sophomore seasons.
He has settled in as a 4-star given he’s now projected to be an interior offensive lineman on Saturdays. When he gets to Athens, that will not matter to him.
“Whatever I can bring to the team as tackle, guard, wide receiver I don’t care,” he said. “Whatever I can bring to the table to help, that’s what I’m going to do.”
His heart and mind decided it was time to be a ‘Dawg on March 24. That also goes back to that “God’s touch” backyard pond. That’s the one his older brother pulled three different eight-pound fish out of in less than an hour.
“It actually came to me fishing,” Short said. “I don’t even take my phone out there. ... You get all these calls recruiting. It gets to be a lot. It is all talk talk talk. Fishing is like silence. You get out there and think to yourself and talk and pray. That’s how it came to me.”
He even caught a small fish that day he took his small John boat out to the water.
“I do a lot of praying,” Short said. “God is my escape. Church is on Sundays. That’s where the silence really is. Not just on the water, but there. But I would go by myself a lot to the water.”
He can click off five hours and it will feel like 30 minutes. He can tell by watching the sunset in a new spot.
The choice came to him in about two hours. He felt it. Then he walked back up to his house.
“The steepest hill in America,” Short said.
Short went to his inner circle of parents and family to verify that.
His mother, Andrea, asked him about it.
“We did all the pros and cons and then I said ‘Momma give me 20 minutes I am going to pray about it’ and she came back in the room and I told her.”
But then came something that made it even better. The sign he wanted to get while he prayed about it came to him.
The story behind the old-school hat on his commitment day
Short’s mother is an elementary school teacher in their community. When their family goes out to eat, it is quite common for them to see one of her students all grown up. Those mini-reunions can sometimes turn into 20-minute conversations.
“She’s taught about every kid in this county,” Short said of his mother.
Andrea Short was a big part of Short’s eventual decision. The same goes for his father. This decision, given his strong family ties, was helped by Georgia being practically in his backyard.
The strong family ties among the Shorts were also reflected in the appearance of an old-school Georgia hat that found its way to the ceremony on Friday. It wasn’t the one on the table but came out a little later.
We’ve never quite seen an inherited item at a decision ceremony before, but it was there.
Family. It mattered here.
“That’s who and what I put first in my life,” Short said. “That’s family. That’s how it should be. Not money. Not anything else. Those are the people who have been with you since day one. Since you had no value to you just other than being a human. They’ve been with you since you were a baby and supported you and fed you. So why not have them in everything that you do? That’s my plan is just to retire my Momma.”
“That’s the first thing my paycheck is going to go to. Retire my Dad. He’s worked his butt off for me putting food in my mouth and a roof over my head. That’s ultimately what I’m about and what it is going to be about forever.”
But another aspect of his family came into play here. When his uncle passed away, he left his mother Andrea an heirloom.
It wasn’t a stock portfolio. Or bonds. Or even real estate or hunting land in Burke County.
It was an OG Georgia hat. The sort that his uncle wore about 20 years ago. When his uncle Mike Short passed away due to cancer about eight years ago, he left that to her.
She had kept it in a drawer. His mother even tried her very best never to tip her hand about that or about anything where she hoped he might go to school.
“Out of all things he could give my Mom in the will, he gave her a hat,” Mason Short said. “This was eight years ago. He probably bought this hat when he was in high school.”
His mother Andrea wore that hat on Friday. She told her students that she would wear that hat into the classroom when she came back from his ceremony.
It was his Uncle Mike’s hat. Uncle Mike was a ‘Dawg and now his nephew Mason Short is, too.
“She said I never would have told you this because it would pressure you into it,” Mason Short said. “But she pulled his hat out and it just happened to be the school I had chosen,” he said. “That was the sign I was looking for.”
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