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Sunday, January 7, 2007
Sunday report: Bailey shops around; Blaes picks Iowa State; Burnett denies report
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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We’re now less than a month away before recruits will sign on the dotted line. Here’s what’s making headlines today on the blog (see “latest news” to right for details on each of these items):
— McIntosh County defensive end Allen Bailey, the top-ranked uncommitted player in Georgia, tells the AJC’s Carter Strickland he’ll wait awhile before choosing between Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Miami. Bailey impressed teammates at this weekend’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio.
— One-time Georgia recruit Joe Blaes has had a change of heart. The Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College offensive lineman signed with Iowa State.
— North Clayton star safety Morgan Burnett tells the AJC’s Matt Winkeljohn that a Rivals.com report saying he has committed to Georgia Tech is premature. Burnett says he’s still “wide-open.”
— Former Brookwood quarterback David Pittman tells the AJC’s Jeff Hood he plans to transfer out of Pasadena (Calif.) City College after just one season.
— With Saturday’s commitment from Orlando linebacker Lorenzo Edwards, Florida supplanted Texas atop Scout.com’s list of the top recruiting classes. Georgia fell to No. 12, one spot ahead of Georgia Tech.
Here’s what else you can find in the “latest news” section:
— A look back at the weekend’s biggest winners, including Phillip Fulmer and Les Miles.
— Q&As with South Carolina-bound cornerback Addison Williams (Atlanta Westlake) and Georgia offensive line recruit Antwane Greenlee (Columbus Hardaway).
— A look at the top five uncommitted juniors — Marvin Austin, Ronald Johnson, Carlos Dunlap, Joe McKnight and Noel Devine — and their list of remaining official visits.
Come back Monday for updates no less frequently than every half-hour beginning at 9 a.m. I’ll be here past midnight Monday working the national championship game, so we’ll keep the news coming your way all throughout the night.
We plan to catch up Monday with LaGrange’s D.J. Stafford and Bleckley County’s Zeke Rozier. I’ve also asked Jeff Hood to see if he can find out what’s new with Mark Richt’s son, Athens junior quarterback Jon Richt, who already holds a scholarship offer from Clemson.
As always, we welcome your comments on the blog below and will chase any news you’d like us to. Just send an e-mail my way — jdalessio@ajc.com — and we’ll work the phones. Our goal here: “You ask, we answer.”
Toliver to wait until signing day to choose between LSU, Gators
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Terrance Toliver will play his college football in the SEC.
But the Hempstead (Texas) wide receiver won’t say where for another month.
Toliver told Rivals.com that he doesn’t plan to choose between his two finalists — Florida and LSU — until national signing day.
“It’s still LSU and Florida in no order,” he told Rivals after catching four passes in Saturday’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl. “… I was going to announce today, but I decided to wait. During the week they wanted me to announce on TV, but I told them I wasn’t ready.”
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Bailey torn between Bulldogs, Gators, Tide, Hurricanes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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San Antonio — Allen Bailey was out of place.
There was the McIntosh Academy defensive end in Saturday’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl, standing in the middle of the defense in the middle of Texas.
“Nobody around here believes where I came from,” Bailey said.
Instead, they’re all more focused on where Bailey is going. The Darien native, who starred at middle linebacker this past weekend, is the top uncommitted prospect in Georgia.
The home state Bulldogs want him. So does Florida. And Alabama. The list goes on and on.
“You can see why,” said Notre Dame-bound cornerback Gary Gray. “I was his roommate this week and he took off his shirt that first time and it was, ‘Whoa, that guy is a man.’ He’s huge.”
Bigger than life with a back story seemingly penned by Pat Conroy. Bailey grew up on the tiny island of Sapelo. It’s a 30-minute ferry ride to the mainland and to McIntosh County Academy. His talent bridged the water.
“That guy can just about do anything on the field,” said defensive tackle Joseph Barksdale, a LSU recruit. “You see him out here now; he’s playing middle linebacker and he is the size of a defensive end.”
But middle linebacker is where coaches decided to put this 6-foot-3, 260-pound senior in Saturday’s all-star game.
“He can run, that’s how he does it,” said AJC player of the year Eric Berry, a Creekside cornerback bound for Tennessee. “You just watch him and he is able to go sideline to sideline.”
Bailey can run, but he can’t hide. Soon, a decision will have to be made. National signing day is less than a month away, and Bailey may take it right down to the end.
“I’m not going to do anything until I take the rest of my visits,” Bailey said.
He has already been to Florida. Georgia, Alabama and Miami are next on the list. Those are also the four schools that have taken the ferry ride to see him.
They all have come and talked to my parents,” Bailey said.
He said he didn’t know the details of the conversations. His parents have kept that from him, wanting him to form his own opinions and make up his own mind.
“My mind isn’t really made up yet,” said Bailey, who added that coaching changes at Alabama and Miami “haven’t changed anything” about which way he might be leaning.
Rivals.com ranks Bailey as the 36th-best prospect in the nation. All but seven of the players listed ahead of him have gotten their college decisions out of the way, taking some of the pressure off.
But they can all relate to what Bailey is going through.
“It’s the biggest decision of you life,” said uncommitted defensive end Marvin Austin, Scout.com’s top-ranked senior. “This is where you are going to be for four or five years. This is something that is going to shape your life. There is a lot of pressure with that.”
Nobody, Austin said, understands what that is like. Nobody but the other 72 players who were invited to San Antonio last week.
“Here, you can talk about it to other people,” said linebacker Austin Box, an Oklahoma recruit. “Everybody is going through the same thing you have gone through or are going through. And if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. You can just kind of hang out and have fun with other people who have had similar experiences.”
The difference with Bailey is he doesn’t talk about it — or anything.
“He’s real quiet,” said wide receiver Arrelious Benn, an Illinois recruit from Washington, D.C. “He didn’t hardly say anything all week.
“I finally got him to starting joking around a little bit in the room,” Gray said.
To Bailey, this wasn’t a time to joke around.
Bailey finished with three tackles Saturday. More importantly, his balky back — which kept him sidelined for most of his senior season — held up fine.
“This was pretty good for me,” Bailey said of the Army All-American experience. “But I just try to stay humble. What is out there [in recruiting], it can be staggering, yeah. But I am pretty humble person.
And right now, I haven’t been going anywhere. Because of my injury, I have just been staying at home, resting.”
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Morgan Burnett: Not committed to Tech — yet, anyway
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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North Clayton High safety Morgan Burnett played well Thursday in the Offense-Defensive All-American Game, sponsored by Rivals.com. That much is certain.
The accuracy reports saying that he has committed to Georgia Tech are not quite as clear.
Burnett has made only one official visit, last month to Georgia Tech, and is leaning toward the Jackets at minimum. But while his father, Cap Burnett Sr., told a reporter that his son has pledged to Tech, the player Sunday afternoon said slow down.
“No, I’m still wide open he said,” Burnett told the AJC’s Matt Winkeljohn on Sunday, three days after registering several tackles and an interception in the all-star game. “There’s not a deadline to make a decision.”
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Former Brookwood QB Pittman has transfer plans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Pasadena (Calif.) City College freshman quarterback David Pittman, a Brookwood product, apparently will be playing college football elsewhere in 2007.
“I’m trying to transfer this semester,” Pittman told the AJC’s Jeff Hood on Sunday. “I’ve got some things going, but I’ve got to keep it under wraps for now.”
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One-time UGA recruit Blaes signs with Iowa State
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College offensive lineman Joe Blaes, a one-time Georgia recruit, has signed with Iowa State.
“I just felt more comfortable there and with that decision,” Blaes told Rivals.com.
He’d originally committed to Georgia, but couldn’t sign in December, as expected, because the Bulldogs didn’t have enough scholarships available. Rather than wait until June to enroll — and miss spring practice — Blaes opted to sign with the Cyclones instead.
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South Carolina’s Rice to turn pro
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Another scholarship just opened at South Carolina. This just in Sunday afternoon from The Associated Press:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sophomore Sidney Rice, South Carolina’s all-time leader in touchdown receptions, is giving up his final two seasons to enter the NFL draft.
Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier confirmed through a spokesman Sunday that Rice would go pro. Spurrier was “disappointed and wished (Rice) would’ve stayed around another year,” spokesman Steve Fink said.
But Spurrier supports Rice and wishes him the best, Fink said.
In two seasons, Rice caught 23 TDs to set the school’s career mark. With 1,090 yards receiving this year, Rice became the first South Carolina wideout to break the 1,000-yard mark twice in his career.
The only other 1,000-yard season in Gamecock history was by former Green Bay Packers star Sterling Sharpe.
Rice had 11 100-yard games, also a school career record.
He caught 72 passes this year and leaves sixth all-time with 142 receptions.
Underclassmen had until Jan. 15 to declare for the draft. Rice has until Jan. 20 to withdraw his name from consideration and return to school.
In November, Spurrier giddily announced that the 20-year-old Rice would return for 2007 and be part of the Gamecocks improving program.
“So put that on the news,” Spurrier said on Nov. 14, “Sidney Rice is coming back to play for the Gamecocks next year.”
But when Rice’s senior teammate, Syvelle Newton, was asked about Rice’s intentions, he said, “He tells me everyday he’s coming back and I tell him if he comes back, me and him are going to have to fight,” said Newton, who hopes to play pro football next season.
No fisticuffs are necessary after Rice’s latest decision.
Rice becomes the second wide receiver to leave South Carolina early and give up the chance to play in Spurrier’s pass-happy offense since the ball coach took the job. Although when Minnesota’s Troy Williamson left after the 2004 season, Spurrier had just taken over the job from Lou Holtz.
Rice had said before South Carolina’s 44-36 win over Houston at the Liberty Bowl that he would likely turn pro only if he was a top-10 selection.
Rice is not the speediest or flashiest receiver. But he has the knack for catching anything thrown his way.
He capped his career with an 8-catch, 139-yard, one touchdown performance in the Liberty Bowl win. The Gamecocks (8-5) closed with three straight wins for the first time since 1973. Rice figured to play a large role in Spurrier’s stated goal of challenging for the Southeastern Conference title next fall.
Instead, Spurrier says Rice’s departure opens the door for young receivers like Kenny McKinley, Jared Cook and Moe Brown.
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Tulane leads pack for Upson-Lee standout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Tulane is the frontrunner in the recruitment of 6-foot-3, 245-pound Josh Smith of Upson-Lee.
Smith, a standout at tight end and on the defensive line for the Knights, is also receiving interest from Central Florida, Furman and Vanderbilt.
Smith has been clocked at 4.7 seconds in the 40-yard dash.
“The colleges are interested in his size and strength,” Upson-Lee coach Eddie Payne said. “He has exceptional speed for his size. And he’s a very intelligent young man. He qualified on his first try on his [college entrance] test.”
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From the archives: Tiny Sapelo Island a big part of Allen Bailey
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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(Note from the moderator: Thought you might enjoy this profile of Allen Bailey our Steve Hummer did in August while we wait for Georgia’s top uncommitted player to pick a college — Jeff D’Alessio).
Sapelo Island, Ga. — On Friday night, Allen Bailey was the pivot point of the Class AA McIntosh County Academy defense during a preseason scrimmage. A two-way player, he even ran for a 41-yard touchdown on the first of his infrequent touches.
For a little while longer, Saturdays still are reserved for coming home.
For one more fall before being swallowed up by college ball, Bailey will be the most conspicuous customer at the Meridian dock — try 6 feet 4, 255 pounds. He’ll be there waiting for the weekend’s first ferry back to Hog Hammock.
It’s an odd mix on the ferry Anne Marie. Day trippers seeking to commune with an all-natural beach. Scholarly sorts headed out to the University of Georgia’s Marine Institute. And the Bailey family, back from the mainland loaded down with necessities like a canister of natural gas, laundry detergent, cookware and, yes, the sixth of their seven children.
“We’re so proud of you,” says an older woman as Allen finds a bench seat inside the ferry. “You keep pressing on.” Bailey will find in talking with her that they share a kinship, like most with links to Sapelo. He has discovered yet another cousin.
Ahead is a half-hour ferry ride, then a rattling trip down a sandy road cut straight through pine and palmetto. At the end is Bailey’s little share of a largely undisturbed island off Georgia’s coast. Sapelo sits to the south, a little secret that places on either side, like Hilton Head and St. Simons, couldn’t keep.
No timeshares. No miniature golf. No Marriotts. No causeway. Not yet, anyway. Just a nearly lost way of life that one of the state’s prized college recruits brings to light along with an ever-ballooning tackle total.
Improvise to survive
It’s not easy being an oversized linebacker from Sapelo Island. The game does not conform to a ferry schedule. Because the link between the island and the mainland (and the school) stops running at 5:30 p.m., his family must stay with friends each time they come over for a game. Because it would be impossible to practice and make the last boat home, Bailey, also a basketball player, has spent most of the past four school years bunking with families in nearby Darien.
But if you learn anything growing up on Sapelo in the tiny Geechee community of Hog Hammock (population 53), it is how to make do. The Gullah/Geechee culture clings to the islands off the Carolinas and Georgia, remnants of freed slave communities that persisted in relative isolation. It is a culture that has to improvise to survive.
At one time, Bailey shared a bedroom with four brothers. If you don’t have it on Sapelo, you either have to catch it, grow it or pay your dollar to get on the ferry, hop in the car you keep on the other side, then buy it and wait for the next boat home. That is just the way it is.
“It’s not an inconvenience; we’re used to it. It’s what we do,” said Bailey’s mother, Mary Bailey.
This is but routine: On certain weekends and holidays, Bailey slides onto the ferry and fills his nose with the saltwater funk, maybe sees dolphins snorkel around Doboy Sound, and touches again the past that can elude a young man with big plans.
Simplicity, thy name is Sapelo. “What I like about it most is the peacefulness,” Bailey says. “I get a lot of sleep over there.”
Those are echoes of his father’s words. Alfred and Mary Bailey raised seven children on the island, and unlike most, never gave much thought about a life anywhere else. Tracing their family line back to the slaves who worked Thomas Spalding’s cotton and sugar cane fields here in the early 1800s, they weren’t the ones who were going to break the connection to the island.
“I never did like the hustle and bustle of city life,” Alfred said.
Big changes lie ahead
This time next year, Allen Bailey should be off looking for his place in the wider world that his parents have little use for.
Because he has the body-by-Michelangelo, because he plants ball carriers like a surveyor does stakes, opportunity fans out before this high school senior. The big roar of a college football Saturday in the South beckons.
Wherever he lands, he figures to be someplace far removed from his barrier island and the proud, struggling culture that formed him.
He will trade the melody of the island’s dialect for the blare of the bands and the howls of the crowd. He’ll leave behind the hammock, its collection of small clapboard homes and the closed community of those like him who descend from one man’s slaves.
Bailey is a football player from a place quite unlike any other. Yet he must move on to a life where the lights are so much brighter than the moon on the marsh. Out there where a young man can lose his uniqueness as easily as his wallet.
It’s almost as if Bailey is the player from another planet, not an island that is but five miles from shore. And not just in the way he towers over his teammates or bench-presses the west wing of McIntosh County Academy (370 pounds, and squats 550). It’s just that who takes a ferry home, and then can feed the chickens watermelon or be the only soul on a beach when he gets there? (OK, Bailey mostly camps on the couch and watches dish TV. His chore Saturday was to drive to the island post office and pick up the mail. Today there’s a big gathering at the African Baptist Church on Raccoon Bluff — he may have to help with the cooking for that one.)
When his coach at McIntosh first got here a couple of years ago, he would pick up Bailey at the Meridian dock and take him to offseason conditioning. And wonder what mysteries lay at the other end of the ferry route.
“I was bothering him every day, I think, asking him, ‘What do you do over there?’ ” said Robby Robinson. “Finally, late that summer, we took some of the team over for all day on Sapelo. It’s amazing over there.”
“[Mainland kids] still do tease me sometimes, mostly about the wildlife over here. They want to know if I have to run from the alligators,” Bailey said. There are gators on Sapelo, along with rattlesnakes, wild pigs, feral cattle, deer. Bailey grew up learning how to fling a cast net into the creeks for bait and mullet, and how to drag crab from the marsh.
People leave Sapelo all the time. A person grows up on an 11 1/2-mile-long island that is three parts nature preserve and one part cultural last stand, sooner or later he has to find somewhere that pays. Some have sold their plots on the 434 acres of Hog Hammock to “outsiders,” but Mary Bailey says she’ll put it in her will that none of her children can sell off the heritage.
Bailey’s parents scrape out a living on the island, Mary as a cook at the R.J. Reynolds mansion house and Alfred as a mate on the ferry. Other Baileys, Allen’s great-aunt Cornelia and great-uncle Julius, run a small lodge for visitors who like their beach vacations raw. As they all sit on land that has developers all jelly-legged, these people have few options to make money consistently and still control property they consider a birthright.
“We worry about kids leaving because the only jobs are in Brunswick or Savannah and other places,” Cornelia said. “It’s hard to see your offspring leave the island for what people call a better life. It’s not a better life. It’s a life they need to be into because that’s the only way they can get a job and start a family.”
Four colleges on his list
Bailey will leave as the brightest kind of football prospect, one who plays upright for McIntosh but is projected as the second-best defensive end in the country by Rivals.com. He has delayed his decision on which of his final four universities to grace with his signature until the last moment. The candidates, narrowed from a list of 20, are Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Miami.
He has been on watch lists ever since he was a sophomore, when he already wore the physique of a man. “They had never seen a 15-year-old who looked like that,” Robinson said.
Like a lot of the men of Sapelo Island, Bailey is not given to much talking. That quality carries over to the field. “He’s a quiet player. He doesn’t run his mouth. But when he gets the blood pumping, he can take over football games,” his coach said.
But of all the high school seniors who will leave behind their homes to chase Imax-sized football dreams, who will face a bigger culture shock than Allen Bailey?
He at least can face that with the collective strength of Sapelo. “Just last evening I was laying in bed hoping I can say something to Allen that will help motivate him to do good in school, good in athletics,” said Charles Hall, the head of the Sapelo Cultural and Revitalization Society, and a neighbor of the Baileys. “Once someone is separated from his roots you want him doing the right thing, not going way out on a tangent. I don’t think that will happen with Allen.”
“He can always come here and rest. He’s always got a place to come back to,” said his mother. The most solid ground awaits Allen Bailey on the island side of the Sapelo ferry route.
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Yellow Jackets’ wish list down to Burnett, Lewis, Peters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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With Orlando linebacker Lorenzo Edwards crossing Georgia Tech off his list and picking Florida this weekend, the Yellow Jackets’ wish list is down to these three players:
— Morgan Burnett, safety, College Park. His only official visit so far has been to Tech. Crossed Georgia off his list recently. Told the AJC’s Matt Winkeljohn last week he’s not sure if he’ll visit any more schools, but reportedly has trips this month scheduled to Auburn and Florida. Tennessee is also still in the mix.
— Malachi Lewis, Oxnard, Calif. Still has a long list of schools he’s considering — from Cal to Ole Miss, the two campuses he has visited so far.
— Jason Peters, defensive end, Baton Rouge. Took an official visit to Tech last month. May wait to make a decision until he comes back from his three scheduled visits — to Nebraska (Jan. 12), Florida (Jan. 19) and LSU (Jan. 26).
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Official visit schedule for the nation’s top five uncommitted prospects
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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With 11 of the nation’s top prospects committing Saturday, here’s a look at Rivals.com’s five best undecided seniors — and what visits they have lined up:
1. MARVIN AUSTIN, DEFENSIVE TACKLE, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Jan. 26: Florida State
Has already been to: Illinois, Southern Cal, Tennessee
2. RONALD JOHNSON, WIDE RECEIVER, MUSKEGON, MICH.
Jan. 12: Ohio State
Jan. 19: Florida
Jan. 26: Michigan State
Has already been to: Michigan, Southern Cal
3. CARLOS DUNLAP, DEFENSIVE END, NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.
Jan. 19: Florida
Has already been to: South Carolina
4. JOE MCKNIGHT, RUNNING BACK, RIVER RIDGE, LA.
Jan. 12: Ole Miss
Jan. 19: Southern Cal
Jan. 26: LSU
5. NOEL DEVINE, RUNNING BACK, NORTH FORT MYERS, FLA.
Devine plans to attend prep school next year and as of this time, has no publicly known official visits scheduled.
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The weekend’s biggest recruiting winners
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Saturday was a big day for three SEC programs, which landed five of the 11 players to reveal their college choices at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. And the winners are …
Tennessee: One day, two big commitments — from Super Southern 100 linebacker Chris Donald (Huntingdon, Tenn.) and Cincinnati defensive end Ben Martin.
LSU: Landed two highly regarded defensive linemen: Detroit tackle Joseph Barksdale and AJC Super Southern 100 end Luther Davis of West Monroe, La.
Florida: Beat out a host of teams, including Georgia Tech, for Super Southern 100 linebacker Lorenzo Edwards.
Wisconsin: Kept the top player in the Badger State, Racine running back John Clay, at home.
Florida State: The only Peach State star to announce Saturday — Twiggs County offensive lineman Chris Little — picked FSU over Georgia, among others, as he told the AJC’s Jeff Hood two weeks ago he would do.
Rutgers: Picked up what is being touted by analysts as the most important commitment of the Greg Schiano era — from Piscataway, N.J., star Anthony Davis, Rivals.com’s third-ranked offensive guard.
Notre Dame: Missed more than it hit, but added an eighth Army All-American to its class — Tulsa, Okla., offensive guard Matt Romine.
Michigan: Got word that Rivals’ 16th-ranked safety, Michael Williams of Ventura, Calif., is Ann Arbor-bound.
Oregon: 319-pound defensive tackle Simi Fili shunned Utah and Washington State for the Ducks.
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Getting to know: Georgia recruit Antwane Greenlee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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The AJC went one-on-one with Columbus Hardaway offensive lineman Antwane Greenlee, who says he will sign with Georgia next month:
Nickname: “Tree”
Where he ranks: No. 16 at his position nationally, according to Scout.com
Where he’s headed: Georgia
That said … I grew up a [Florida State] fan — and I’m going to die one. (Greenlee still plans to take a visit this month to Tallahassee.)
Something people don’t know about me: I have a soft side. Don’t get me wrong; I get it done on the field.
Hobby: Playing Madden. I think I’m one of the best.
My style on the field reminds some of: Jonathan Ogden
In 10 years, I hope to be … The best offensive tackle to ever play in the NFL.
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