Would you like to receive DawgNation news alerts? Excellent! News alerts will be displayed in your browser.
Jeff Sentell/DawgNation
Georgia landed a commitment from 4-star offensive tackle Tate Ratledge on Monday.

Georgia commits already naming who they next want to join the 2020 recruiting class

Connor Riley
Connor Riley

Welcome to Good Day, UGA, your one-stop shop for Georgia football news and takes. Check us out every weekday morning for everything you need to know about Georgia football, recruiting, basketball and more.

 Georgia football commits naming who they next want to join the 2020 recruiting class

Within minutes of Tate Ratledge announcing his commitment on Monday morning, several other members of Georgia’s 2020 recruiting class were already plotting who would be next to join the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs addition of Ratledge pushed the 2020 class into the No. 5 spot in the class rankings. The offensive tackle from Rome is the No. 39 player in the country, giving Georgia three players ranked in the top 40 of the 2020 Composite rankings.

Related: Why longtime Tennessee Vols fan Tate Ratledge is now a Georgia Bulldog

But based off of who some of the other Georgia commits were naming, that number is expected to be much higher when National Signing Day much higher.

Mekhail Sherman — who committed to Georgia last Thursday — wanted to make sure that two 5-star running backs saw that Georgia added another major offensive lineman to the 2020 class. Sherman the nation’s No. 11 overall prospect and No. 2 outside linebacker tweeted at both Kendall Milton and Marshawn Lloyd following Ratledge’s commitment.

Milton and Lloyd have both visited Georgia in recent months. Milton was in town for G Day and came away very impressed with the program. He did acknowledge the Ratledge commitment as well as Sherman’s tweet.

Fellow offensive line commit Akinola Ogunbiyi had his sights set on a different 5-star target for the Bulldogs. After congratulating Ratledge, Ogunbiyi turned his attention to 5-star offensive tackle Paris Johnson.

Johnson visited Georgia multiple times this spring. And there’s been some question about his commitment status to Ohio State given the comments by his coach. Johnson acknowledged Ogunbiyi’s efforts on Monday afternoon.

If the Bulldogs were able to land Johnson it would give Georgia the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 offensive tackles in the 2020 recruiting class. Georgia also already has a commitment from Broderick Jones, the No 2 offensive tackle in 2020. He rates as the No. 20 overall prospect in the country and is one of two 5-star prospects already committed to Georgia.

Georgia quarterback commit Carson Beck didn’t name anyone in particular on Monday but did wonder aloud who might be the next member of Georgia’s 2020 recruiting class.

DawgNation’s Jeff Sentell caught up with the country’s No. 3 pro-style quarterback this weekend down in Jacksonville, Fla. He did list off five prospects he’d like to see join the Georgia class. One of those prospects was Ratledge. As for some of the other prospects, he mentioned 5-star tight end Arik Gilbert and 5-star cornerback Kelee Ringo.

As for Ratledge wants, he mentioned 4-star offensive tackle Josh Braun out of Live Oak, Fla. Braun is the younger brother of former Georgia Tech and current Texas offensive linemen Parker Braun.

There’s still a long way to go until National Signing Day. But if Monday was any indication of what’s to come, it should be a very fun ride for Georgia football recruiting fans.

More bad news for Florida football

When it rains it pours, and that is exactly what is happening to Florida football right now. After Florida’s top-rated signee — Chris Steele — put his name in the transfer portal last week, the Gators learned another highly rated signee will not be suiting up for them this fall.

Linebacker Diwun Black — a 4-star prospect and the No. 151 overall player in the 2019 recruiting cycle — announced that he will not be attending Florida but rather a community college. He becomes the third member of the 2019 signing class to not make it fall practice, joining Steele and 4-star quarterback Jalon Jones.

For a side that needs more talent, this comes as another big loss for the Gators. Florida’s 2019 recruiting class on National Signing Day was ranked No. 9 in the country. But following the departures, it has now dropped to the No. 13 spot. Florida also lost a majority of its 2021 recruits over the weekend stemming from the Steele news.

As ESPN’s Paul Finebaum noted on Monday, the recent string of bad news seems to be some form of karma given the many shots Mullen has seemed to take at Georgia over the course of 2019.

“Devastating, Primarily because of Dan Mullen’s mouth,” Finebaum said of how much of the Steele news hurts Florida’s perception. “He’s been running it for months, frankly, he’s been running it since he was born. I was in his office three and a half weeks ago, I heard him running his mouth about Georgia and it caught up to him and now all those people who have been sitting around going, ‘I wonder why he’s doing that?’ are turning on him.

“Is it a cataclysmic event? No. Losing recruits happens all the time, players get into trouble all the time but I think it’s a little bit of karma flying back at him. I thought Kirby Smart won the day and maybe won the war by just shooing Dan Mullen away the other day like a fly on your sandwich at a Fourth of July picnic. We talk with our helmets is what he said and I thought that was the appropriate answer.”

Smart spoke with Finebaum last week and brushed off the notion of publicly responding to Mullen’s jab. It is interesting to note that for the second time in less than a week, Florida lost a member of its 2019 recruiting class while the Bulldogs added another, higher-rated member to its 2020 recruiting class.

Best Georgia football stories from around DawgNation

Dawgs on Twitter

Good Dawg of the Day

NEXT Georgia football podcast: A behind-the-scenes look at 4-star OL Tate Ratledge’s commitment

Recent

view all

Popular

view all