Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel will bring at least five days a week. The play sheet this time calls for insight into why Trey Sanders is considering the Bulldogs.
BRADENTON, Fla. — There is a reason why Trey Sanders will consider Georgia for the long haul during his recruitment.
Sanders can provide the proper view on that history lesson.
“They were my second offer and I got that one my freshman year,” said the nation’s No. 1 RB prospect for 2019. “Of course, they have been coming hard now. Just like every school. It is pretty much like every day. I’m on the phone with those coaches a lot. [UGA assistant] coach [Dell] McGee and I have built a great relationship since my freshman year.”
How can UGA make itself an even more attractive destination?
“Just keep doing what they are doing right now,” Sanders said. “Of course, they’ve got great running backs now and have also got great running backs coming in. It would be a great opportunity to go there and watch James Cook and Zamir White and D’Andre Swift and watch them do it. They can teach me stuff before they all go on to the NFL.”
Florida State was his first offer. Sanders, a onetime Alabama commitment, said he’s never wavered in his interest in Georgia.
“It was always constant,” Sanders said. “But I guess that has been for every school, too. But Georgia has always known about my talent. There have never been any ‘ifs’ or ‘maybes’ with me and Georgia. They’ve been on me hard [list] since that offer my freshman year.”
Sanders used an interesting parallel with DawgNation last month after G-Day. He compared his timeline to a football game and felt his process was in the third quarter.
It is still there now.
“I am just taking my time and slowing it down to take my time,” Sanders said. “This is one of the biggest decisions of my life. I just want to find the right school for me for the next four years.”
It was pretty hard to not latch onto that “for me” portion of that last statement.
Will Trey Sanders follow his older brother to Florida?
Umstead Sanders, his older brother, rated as a 3-star OLB prospect in the Class of 2018. He has decided to accept a preferred walk-on opportunity with Florida.
There are many that speculate that was a shrewd move on coach Dan Mullen’s part. If Umstead comes out and shows his talent in Gainesville, he might earn a scholarship.
That, at the very least, might make Florida an even more attractive destination to the IMG standout back. Trey Sanders does rank as a 5-star recruit and as the nation’s No. 7 overall prospect on the 247Sports composite rankings for 2019.
How does Trey look at that situation?
“First of all, for me, I know my brother is going to ball out at Florida,” he said. “He is just that type of player. He feeds off negativity and things like that. I wasn’t the reason why they picked him up. They watched his film and they loved him right away.
“He talks to me every day about going to Florida, too. But I feel like at the end of the day we just have to do what is best for us. If Florida is the best thing for me, then it is the best thing. But until then, I still have to make that decision and figure that out. I’m going to just enjoy my recruitment.”
Sanders said that his mother wants him to go to Florida.
“But at the end of the day, I am going to have to do what is the best thing for me,” Sanders said. “That’s my mom. She is always going to love me no matter what. I feel like she just wants what is the best for both of her sons. Whatever that may be. … My dad wants the same thing for us. My parents just really tell us that they both want us to be successful in life.”
Sanders will visit FSU next weekend. That is expected to be a family trip.
He also dropped some insight about an IMG player he expects to play with in college. That would be 2020 safety Lejond Cavazos. Cavazos continues to maintain that UGA is his leader.
“That is my little brother,” Sanders said. “I am going to put you in on a little insight. Wherever I go, he is going to come with me. I am going to make sure of that. I am going to recruit him the hardest next year. You can make sure of that.”
A couple more nuggets about Trey Sanders
What’s he like off the field?
“I am probably the goofiest person that you have ever met,” Sanders said. “Especially out of all of us players. I am the goofiest kid that IMG has got here. Honestly.”
Cavazos overheard that quip. He nodded his head to that claim.
What does he still need to see about Georgia? Sanders wasn’t able to supply much on that one.
“I’m ready to get up there for another game,” he said.
He’s not sure about his official visits yet, but he does plan to take all of those before he commits. Sanders will sign on the first day of the early period on Dec. 20.
“I am going to likely decide between midseason and [early] Signing Day,” he said.
But in the back and forth of an interview, it sounded like he just kept it all pretty real.
“I don’t know where I want to go,” Sanders said. “At this point, I should be used to it by now, but this is probably the craziest part of my recruitment that I have had. But I am just blessed to have all these opportunities that I do. I’m not going to wish I didn’t have this blessing and I am surely not going to take any of these opportunities for granted.”
Who’s got the best line he could play behind?
“I’m pretty sure everybody knows this one for me,” Sanders said. “That would be either Georgia or Alabama. No question about that one. Alabama has got a young line that is going to be great. Georgia has a young line that is coming in that is going to be crazy.”
While everyone has wild RB dreams in their head
Noah Cain, the other elite RB at IMG Academy, continues to seriously consider Georgia. Now, I’m not saying that it sounds like any of that “this is the place” as of yet with Cain.
But it does sound like the Bulldogs continue to carry their weight in the chance to land an official visit from Cain.
Cain even said that there were just a few schools that could land both him and Sanders. Sanders acknowledged that it was something that they do talk about.
“It is possible,” Sanders said on that front. “He and I talk about it all the time. You have to be ready to go to the NFL. You can’t already have been beat up [as a showcase back taking the brunt of the carries] when you are ready to go there. I feel like Noah and I correlate pretty well, man. Wherever I am weak at, he’s strong at. Where he’s weak, I’m strong there in my own right. I feel like we feed off each every time we come on and off the field.”
That’s the aspect of both of them going to the same school. They don’t dismiss the thought of continuing to carry the load they currently do for the IMG backfield.
Cain said there were only three schools that have a legit shot to land the duo. That’s because of the mutual interest that the two share in the same programs. Those schools were:
- Georgia
- Miami
- Texas
Sanders agreed. He also added FSU as another dark horse.
“All of those schools know how to run a two-back system,” he said.
A few other tidbits about the other elite RB on UGA’s radar
Sam Spiegelman of SEC Country caught up with 4-star RB John Emery Jr. recently. Emery was at UGA over the weekend for the scavenger hunt and other activities.
Emery shows up as the nation’s No. 5 RB and the No. 68 overall prospect on the 247Sports composite rankings. He had McGee, Georgia running backs coach, and UGA area recruiter Cortez Hankton at his spring game last Thursday.
LSU could very well be the spot for him. Eventually. But the Bulldogs appear to be making a race of it.
He will sign early. His mother also made the trip with him to UGA this weekend.
When asked about how close the schools at the top are at this moment, Emery offered up this response to Spiegelman: “It’s still close. It does [make things hard]. LSU is home and the connections I could have there … it’s going to be a hard decision for me.”
There’s the feeling around those close to Emery that he could be ready to make his decision in maybe another month or so. It could be that soon.
“It’s still close,” Emery told SEC Country. “I’m still waiting, trying to take some more visits and still scheduling things out, but I plan on committing in June. It’s nothing specific, just sometime in that month.”
The information that I’ve been hearing is that Emery was leaning away from UGA at one point. He expressed some concerns about wanting to be in the two-deep immediately. But something has happened here to draw the charge led by Hankton and McGee back into it.
Miss any Intel? The DawgNation recruiting archive will get you up to speed just as fast as former Georgia All-American LB Roquan Smith found the ball after the snap.