D.J. Shockley was not just a top recruit when he was in high school at North Clayton but he was Mark Richt’s first ever recruit at UGA.
The story goes like this: In December 2000, Richt left Florida State as Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator to become the Bulldogs as head coach. Shockley, one of the top-rated high school quarterbacks in the country, had been on the very top of Richt’s list at FSU.
In fact, Shockley said: “I had first met Coach Richt at a camp in ninth grade at FSU and competed against a lot of juniors and seniors and won the competition. Coach Richt started talking to me and telling me how great FSU was. I knew he had done a great job with quarterbacks, players like Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke.’’
Shockley, however, had not committed to FSU and the same day Richt was hired in Athens, Shockley said, “Coach Richt was in my living room that night. The funny story is he started telling me how great Georgia was and just a week or so earlier, he was saying the same thing about FSU.’’
So Shockley had to make a decision. His top three candidates were Florida State, Georgia and North Carolina.
“What it came down to is, I knew Coach Richt’s pedigree and I knew he could coach quarterbacks,’’ explained Shockley. “I also knew he would turn me into a better player.’’
Shockley signed with Richt and the Bulldogs. Some 11 years later, he is still the last quarterback to lead the program to a SEC championship.
- I.J. Rosenberg
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