Christian Tutt, the top-rated cornerback in the nation for 2018, was at the UGA-Alabama game this weekend. He remained upbeat about UGA despite that humbling defeat.
“I know my Dawgs are going to bounce back,” Tutt said. “They will probably meet up again with Alabama in the SEC championship game this year. … Just watch. They will come back against Tennessee and play well.”
The Thomson High School standout got to speak with UGA defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt before the game. The sophomore now has 23 scholarship offers, but said Pruitt wanted to make sure he hadn’t forgotten which coach gave him the first of those.
“He was like ‘I believed in you before anyone else did and he didn’t wait on anybody else to offer me a scholarship’ when I was 14,” Tutt said. “That’s the main thing I remember him telling me.”
Pruitt offered him the summer before his freshman season.
“He’s never going to have to worry about me forgetting that,” Tutt said. “He doesn’t have to keep saying that. I’ll never forget he got things rolling for me with my recruitment when he did that.”
Is UGA his leader? He didn’t want to name his top school or all the schools in his top group.
“There are a lot of schools for me that are recruiting me hard,” Tutt said. “There are a couple of schools up there with UGA among my few favorites, but I don’t want to leave anyone out.”
Is any school ahead of UGA right now?
“You couldn’t put anyone ahead of Georgia in my mind though,” Tutt said. “I can’t say that anyone is ahead of Georgia right now.”
He said his relationship with a couple of coaches on the UCLA staff are the only ones on par with the one he has with Pruitt. Tutt did say Pruitt and UGA were recruiting him harder than any other school. He believes that Pruitt is “more passionate about the game” than any coach he has met.
Did they blowout loss cause him to look at UGA in a different light?
“I’m looking at more things than just wins and losses,” Tutt said. “Wins and losses won’t draw me to a school even more. Georgia had a bad game, but that’s not going to make me drop back from them. Even if they won that game, that was not necessarily going to draw me even closer to Georgia. My recruitment won’t be like that.”
He was impressed how UGA didn’t give up against Alabama and kept playing hard. He said if he doesn’t commit shortly after his junior season next fall then he will likely just wait until National Signing Day in February of 2018.
The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder is good friends with Liberty County junior Richard LeCounte III and Trinity Christian Academy (Jacksonville, Fla.) defensive back Tyreke Johnson. Those three hung out together at the Alabama game this weekend.
Tutt hopes offers from Ohio State and Miami will come his way soon.
He said Alabama has an interesting pitch. They want him to play cornerback, return kicks and get spot snaps on offense.
“I like that they don’t want to limit me to one side of the ball,” said Tutt, who added UGA has said he can return kicks and play defense. “I would get on the field and play three ways if I went to Alabama. I would like to hear that from Georgia, too.”
Check out Tutt’s big play from Friday night. Thomson lost to Burke County, but he delivered a huge play in the return game:
Jeff Sentell covers UGA recruiting for AJC.com and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on who’s on their way to play Between the Hedges.
