Georgia Tech likely to add two players on signing day

Wide receiver Jullian Lewis of Western High in Davie, Fla., announced his commitment to Georgia Tech on Jan. 23, 2022. (Chris Anderson/247Sports)

Credit: Chris Anderson

Credit: Chris Anderson

Wide receiver Jullian Lewis of Western High in Davie, Fla., announced his commitment to Georgia Tech on Jan. 23, 2022. (Chris Anderson/247Sports)

Long connected to Georgia Tech, Bobby Mooney has long aspired to play for the Yellow Jackets. Wooed by college football’s biggest names, Jullian Lewis at first wasn’t quite as sure. They will be connected Wednesday, however, as both are expected to sign with Tech on signing day.

The pair of three-star prospects – Mooney is an offensive tackle from Woodrow Wilson High in Long Beach, Calif., and Lewis is a wide receiver from Western High in Davie, Fla. – are likely to be coach Geoff Collins’ lone signees following the 13 high-school prospects who signed with Tech during the early signing period in December, along with seven transfers who enrolled in January. More transfers could come after the spring semester.

Cedar Grove High wide receiver Janiran Bonner, a four-star prospect who committed to Tech in April but did not sign in December, has announced a noon signing Wednesday. He may be leaning elsewhere, though, in part because of Lewis’ commitment.

Mooney is the son of the late Mike Mooney, an All-ACC offensive tackle for the Jackets who was a starter for the 1990 national championship team. Listed at 6-foot-7 and 330 pounds, Mooney was an under-the-radar prospect who received a scholarship offer from Tech in November and committed about two weeks later.

“It’s obviously been my dream school since I was little,” Mooney told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mooney is considered a raw prospect who will need time to learn the game and develop.

“When you’re 6-7, 330, someone’s going to take a chance somewhere on you,” Jim Houston, the Woodrow Wilson offensive coordinator, told the AJC. “He’s got really good feet. He’s just an athlete. I mean, he can dunk a basketball.”

Lewis is an unusual prospect in that he previously committed to Tech, making his decision in September 2020 as a junior, before taking back his commitment in January 2021. It is rare for a prospect to de-commit and then commit again to the same school, but he did, giving Tech coaches his pledge in January on an official visit.

Western coach Adam Ratkevich told the AJC that after Lewis made his initial commitment to Tech, he began hearing from coaches from schools such as Clemson and Georgia.

“I guess the kid had a lot of those type of schools, for a lack of a better word, flirting with him, and I think that got in the kid’s head,” Ratkevich said, meaning they wanted him to make an unofficial visit or attend a camp, but came up short of making an actual scholarship offer. “I think some people that didn’t really know how the recruiting process worked gave him some bad advice early on.”

The interest is understandable. Lewis, listed at 6-2 and 204 pounds, has “amazing body control and spatial awareness along with a very long catch radius” and has a physical playing style, Ratkevich said.

But the offers Lewis sought never came to pass, and his attention to potential offers began to interfere with his recruitment from other schools who had made actual offers, according to Ratkevich.

Encouraged by Ratkevich, who felt that Lewis continued to have strong interest in Tech, Jackets coaches continued to recruit him, which finally resulted in an official visit in January and his commitment.

“I’m sure no one’s ever happy a kid de-commits, and like I said, it could have worked out badly,” Ratkevich said. “But at the end of the day, it worked out the way I think it should have.”

Lewis was named a first-team all-county selection in talent-rich Broward County by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Miami Herald. As a senior, he caught 77 passes for 1,260 yards and 14 touchdowns, much of it against some of the top competition in south Florida. He’ll join a Western teammate, defensive back Jaylin Marshall, who signed in December with Tech and enrolled in January.

“I am just so happy for this young man,” Ratkevich said of Lewis. “I’m so excited and I can’t wait to see him run around on TV with one of those gold helmets on.”