Georgia’s frantic search for offensive linemen for this year’s recruiting class led the Bulldogs to Dunwoody High on Friday morning.
Mark Richt and UGA’s new offensive line coach, Rob Sale, showed up at the school bright and early to give a sales pitch to offensive lineman Nick Buchanan, who committed to California.
And it worked. Buchanan agreed to visit UGA next weekend.
The 6-foot-4, 280-pounder was the third offensive lineman from the state of Georgia that UGA has offered this past week — less than three weeks before signing day. The Bulldogs are trying to add at least one or two more by signing day Feb. 4.
Buchanan is willing to hear more about what UGA had to say.
“It’s pretty cool to get a Georgia offer,” he said. “If you grow up in Georgia, that’s the team everybody is cheering for. When you go to school during football season, it seems like everybody in the hallway has a Georgia shirt on. So it was cool to get an offer from them.”
Buchanan got his scholarship offer from Cal only last month, during his official visit. UGA began recruiting him last week.
His former coach at Dunwoody isn’t surprised by the sudden attention.
“He’s got great feet,” Jim Showfety said. “He comes off the ball extremely well. He’s very powerful. He’s very good in open space. I give a lot of credit to his special-teams coach. What he did was he put Nick on our kickoff return ‘wedge’ and as a ‘personal protector’ on our punt team. And I think a lot of schools were able to see how well Nick could move in the open field.
“Nick is just a solid kid. He plays through pain, and he’s a great leader. And my defensive coordinator thinks he can be just as good as a defensive lineman in college as an offensive lineman.”
UGA has commitments from two offensive linemen as part of this year’s class. Marist’s Sage Hardin was offered a scholarship by Ole Miss on Tuesday, but said he remains “100 percent” with the Bulldogs. The other is DeVondre Seymour, a junior-college lineman. He has caused some concerns because he’s still working on academics and was unable to enroll this month as expected.
Earlier this week, UGA made offers to Creekside offensive linemen Venzell Boulware and Marquel Harrell.
Boulware, who is committed to Tennessee, went back and forth about what to do after UGA’s fast and furious courtship.
“They said they were new, and they hoped I didn’t have any hard feelings about how I was recruited in the past by Georgia,” Boulware said. “So I was setting it up to go there this weekend, but not any more. After I discussed it with my mom, I decided not to go. It’s just late in the process, so I don’t want to waste their time.
“I told them I appreciated the offer, that I hoped I didn’t waste any of their time, and good luck in the future.”
However, Boulware will still visit Ohio State next weekend because “they never stopped recruiting me” after his commitment to Tennessee last summer.
Meanwhile, Harrell, who committed to Auburn, is thinking about visiting UGA and Florida during the final two weekends of January.
“People ask me if it bothers me that Georgia waited this late to offer, but it doesn’t,” Harrell said. “They (UGA) explained it to me. They said ‘If we had been here earlier, we would’ve have offered you.’ It’s good. It was their second day in the office, and they offered me. So that made me feel good.
“I’m pretty solid to Auburn … (but) I told Georgia that I would give them a look.”
California QB to visit UGA: Some heads turned when a Rivals.com reporter posted this tweet: "Will UGA take a QB in this class? A Cali QB schedules visit …"
Naturally, it sparked a lot of curiosity among UGA fans because the Bulldogs have a commitment from the nation’s No. 1 pro-style quarterback prospect for 2016, Jacob Eason of Lake Stevens, Wash.
What was going on? Did UGA change its mind and decide to take a quarterback in this class? Maybe the new offensive coordinator wanted to bring in a guy that had a better skill set to fit his scheme? (That actually is pretty is pretty common when there’s a coaching change) Or was something going on behind the scenes with Eason?
As it turns out, a decorated quarterback from California was indeed scheduled to visit to UGA this weekend. But it’s to discuss a spot as a preferred walk-on.
Nick Robinson is a three-star quarterback from San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and he had a breakout senior season, throwing for 1,743 yards and 16 touchdowns with only two interceptions. He won co-MVP honors of his district with Josh Rosen, the five-star quarterback who is headed to UCLA.
Robinson (6-2, 197) said he has scholarship offers or opportunities at smaller schools, including Florida International, San Diego and Lafayette. But his dream is to play in a Power Five conference. He learned of the walk-on spot at UGA via a family member.
“At first, I was speaking with coach Bobo when he was there,” Robinson said. “But now (he’s) at Colorado State, and I am going to visit Colorado State after Georgia. But coach Richt had been speaking to me through them as a potential preferred walk-on.”
And the family member? “It’s funny,” he said. “My cousin’s husband is Jack Bauerle, the UGA swimming coach. So he told me about UGA … and he only has great things to say, so I’m (visiting).”
Robinson, who also plans trips to Colorado State and Notre Dame, said UGA has been candid about the situation.
“I know they’re only taking one kid in this class,” he said. “They have a kid committed for 2016 (Eason). So they’re not taking a scholarship guy this year. They told me that they’re only taking one quarterback in 2015, and they’d like me to be the guy as a walk-on.”
Even though UGA likely will not sign a quarterback, anything is possible. The Bulldogs changed their mind at the last minute in 2010 and signed Hutson Mason. It was about the same situation with with Faton Bauta in 2012.
UGA has three scholarship quarterbacks on roster: Bauta (junior), Brice Ramsey (sophomore) and Jacob Park (freshman).
Etc.: Arrington Farrar, a safety from Woodward Academy, has re-opened his recruitment after being pledged to Stanford for the past two years. Despite a 3.5 GPA and 26 ACT score, Farrar had yet to clear Stanford's admissions. He is visiting North Carolina this weekend, and could go to Wisconsin next. He also has interest from Georgia Tech and Michigan. … Jaylon Brown, the nation's No. 2 overall basketball prospect, had to postpone this weekend's unofficial visit to UGA because he had to travel with his team to a tournament. The 6-foot-7 forward from Wheeler will announce his college decision in April.
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