Kirby Smart signed the top player in the Class of 2019 in 5-star Nolan Smith. Georgia also has signed the No. 1 player from 10 states in Smart’s time as head coach.
The Bulldogs could push that number up to 15 with the right combination for their 2020 signing class. Georgia can even add the No. 1 player from another country in this cycle, too.
That would be the case if the Bulldogs sign 4-star Theo Johnson out of Canada. Johnson ranks as the nation’s No. 3 TE and No. 106 overall player for 2020 in the 247Sports Composite ranking.
The Ontario native told DawgNation that he’s down to four schools: Georgia, Iowa, Michigan and Penn State. The Michigan campus is only a 50-minute drive away, but he is focused on the best possible decision.
“Close to home or far from home is really not a deal-maker or a deal-breaker for me,” Theo Johnson said. “It is really all about where I feel the most comfortable at.”
Of that, he has no idea, he said. Look for a series of rapid-fire visits this fall to Georgia, Michigan and Penn State to help sort that out. He has locked in an official visit to Athens for the Notre Dame game Sept. 21.
Johnson’s relationship with UGA centers around first-year tight ends coach Todd Hartley. Hartley has been recruiting him since last spring, when he was the tight ends coach at Miami.
“We’ve been consistently talking since then,” said Johnson, who is closing in on the 6-foot-6 mark in height and will easily play at around 245 pounds when he’s in college.
“Even when he was out of a job, we were still talking on a regular basis and he said, ‘Wherever I end up I’m going to recruit you because I like the type of guy you are and you are a hell of a player and I want to coach you wherever I wind up’ and for a while I wasn’t sure where he would end up.”
Hartley has proved to be quite the asset for the Bulldogs as a recruiter. He was clutch in the recruitment of Florida quarterback Carson Beck, among many others.
An intriguing note about Johnson
Johnson plays high school ball in Canada. It means his team plays by the following Canadian football rules:
-110-yard fields, including 20-yard end zones
-Goalposts at the front of those end zones.
-3 downs. Not 4.
-(Multiple) players in motion toward the line of scrimmage at the snap
“The end zones are bigger,” Johnson said. “So if we throw a pass from the 10-yard line going into the back of the end zone, then that is still a 30-yard pass.”
Milton near day of decision
Kendall Milton, now the nation’s No. 4 RB in the 247Sports Composite, will make his college decision Monday. He will do so from a ceremony that takes place at 8 p.m. EDT from his home in California.
Georgia has been one of the main contenders for Milton, a 5-star running back, since running backs coach Dell McGee prioritized him for 2020 well over a year ago. The popular 247Sports “Crystal Ball” feature now points to 75 percent of the predictions in Georgia’s favor.
Milton's finalists are Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Ohio State. What is the biggest pull for the Bulldogs here?
“I would say the relationships throughout the school,” Milton said. “Everybody is connected from the professors to the coaches to the training staff. Everybody is connected. So I would say the relationships.”
The 6-foot-2, 229-pound rising senior wants to find a situation where he can come in and be a No. 1 or No. 2 option at RB. That’s provided he does what he needs to do to earn those carries.
Bevy of elite prospects this weekend
The Bulldogs are expecting to host at least 11 prospects with a 5-star rating this weekend.
That’s because the NCAA recruiting calendar permits a “quiet period” to take place from Friday-Wednesday. It allows for a slight window of on-campus recruiting so that schools can host their top targets for the first time in a month.
There was a month-long dead period leading to this quiet period. That means no contact. When Aug. 1 rolls around, it means another month-long dead period will set in. That’s why schools such as Georgia have prioritized this last summer “fling” for a late recruiting push.
Six of the 5-stars from the 2020 class, and the wildest part of this storyline would have to be that none of those families were set to come in on official visits. They will all be unofficial visits.
It is very impressive given the fact that those players were coming in from Arizona, Florida, Texas, Nevada, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. UGA continues to recruit well off a national footprint, and this weekend is just the latest reflection of that.
Of those 11, only three are from the state of Georgia.
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