1. Three visits to Georgia Tech were enough for Savannah offensive lineman Zach Quinney to bring his recruitment to a close.
Quinney, a three-star prospect from Savannah Christian, made a visit to Tech’s campus with his parents two Sundays ago, led by A-backs coach Lamar Owens and recruiting assistant Saeed Khalif. As is often with visitors to the campus, Quinney was struck by the green spaces within the school grounds, bordered on two sides by the Connector and downtown Atlanta.
“I was actually kind of surprised at how well I liked the campus,” he said.
Two days later, Quinney called Owens and coach Paul Johnson to accept Tech’s scholarship offer.
“I just told them how much I really enjoyed the visit and how I feel like Georgia Tech is a perfect for me and I wanted to be a part of the program and I wanted to commit,” he said. “They were really excited about it. They were telling me how I made their day and how I was one of their top offensive lineman prospects.
Quinney was also considering Mississippi State, Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina and Memphis.
“It’s obviously a great school academically,” he said. “It’s one of the best degrees you can get. I can also go and play top-notch football in the ACC. I felt like it was the all-around best decision for me.”
2. Quinney has started his first three seasons at Savannah Christian, a Class A school, and was a second-team all-state pick for the classification last year. He is 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds and can run the 40-yard dash in 5.0 seconds, a quality time for a lineman. He weighed 155 pounds when he started playing as a freshman, he said. He said that coaches want him to play tackle.
One small benefit for him – Savannah Christian plays in an offense similar to Tech’s.
“Exact same plays and everything,” he said.
3. He owes a bit of gratitude to a former teammate and good friend – Cal freshman Demetris Robertson. Quinney said that he gained the attention of Owens, who recruits Savannah, when he came to the school to watch Robertson practice in the spring when Quinney was at the end of his freshman year.
4. Now in the fold, Quinney said coaches have asked him to help encourage others to join the class, notably Carrollton High center Case Cook and guard Demetris Harris from Robert E. Lee High in Jacksonville, Fla. Harris is expected to make his commitment announcement Monday afternoon, choosing between Tech, Wake Forest and South Florida.
5. Quinney said he called coaches at other schools to inform them of his decision.
“Most of them were really nice about it and just said, ‘O.K., I wish you the best of luck,’” he said. “There were a couple that kept trying to talk me into (changing my mind).”
He declined to identify them, but said he expects them to persist.
“They never really told me that (they would keep recruiting), but I could tell by the way they were talking they were going to,” he said.
6. Quinney is the eighth player to commit to Tech for the 2017 signing class, and the second offensive lineman.
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