Jarrett Cole (Rob Saye/Special)
Jarett Cole, Georgia Tech's newest football commit, likes to joke around.
“Let me tell you something about Jarett,” Cole’s dad Rod Cole told the AJC. “He is a joker. Really, he could be a standup comedian because he is a jokester.”
But don’t expect the three-star defensive back, who made his commitment last week, to leave the Yellow Jackets for a comedy club any time soon.
“I’m not really into like standup or anything like that,” Cole said.
Instead, Cole would rather joke around with his teammates. So while he may not have a career in comedy, that aspect of his personality was very important in his decision to commit to Tech. He felt that there was “no doubt” that the Georgia Tech locker room was a place he could be himself.
Of course, there was a lot more that Cole and his family liked about what Tech had to offer after having made several trips from Norcross.
“We’re definitely interested in just the facilities, the academic portion is the most important thing to me and what they have to offer academically, man, you just can’t beat it across the country,” Cole’s dad said. “There’s a few schools that can really beat it but that was the most impressive part to me.”
Academics were atop the priority list for Cole as well, which is really a reflection of the relationship between Cole and his father.
Cole’s father advised him to see beyond just the football field to take advantage of his college opportunity.
“I want Jarett to one, think about, after football, think about his academics more so than anything else in the world,” Rod Cole said. “I want him to be able to live in that city for the next four or the next 40 years once he makes a decision and that’s important to him and it’s important to me.”
Even the timing of Cole’s decision reflects his relationship with his father, who told the AJC last weekearlier in the week that he and Jarett agreed that the decision would be made prior to the Corky Kell Classic on Aug. 23 so Cole could focus on playing and trying to win a state championship.
“I felt it was the right time and I wanted to do it before the season started,” Cole said.
But is that all good news for Tech? While Cole has made his decision, his dad wants to make sure that he gets the most out of this process. For the official visits, that means his dad will advise him to seriously consider things as they come.
“I will warn him to get the opportunity to see as much as possible,” his father said. “If he makes a commitment and another opportunity opens up, I personally, this is me speaking, not Jarett, I will want him to take all five of his official because this is a lifetime decision versus a situational decision.”
But at least for now, Cole doesn’t see things that way.
“I’m going to Tech,” he said. “I’m not taking any visits.”
— By Cody Pace, Special for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
