This recruiting update might lead off with what surely seems like a few typos, but that simply reflects the type of player that Noah Sewell can be on Saturday.
He’s just different. Even among the rank and file of 5-stars.
Georgia made the latest cutdown on Sunday afternoon for Sewell. As far as 266-pound ILB prospects that move and fly around in space like an elite RB or a WR, he’s currently got that lane covered pretty much all by himself.
The Bulldogs are in the latest top schools group for one of the nation’s newest 5-star prospects who plays his high school ball in Utah of all states. Georgia is now catching the interest of 5-stars from Utah, too.
Sewell has seen his stock soar of late. He is now rated as the nation’s No. 23 overall prospect for the 247Sports Composite ranking. That came after a dominant performance out at The Opening finals in Texas.
Sewell announced his final eight schools on Sunday as a tribute to his father. Gabriel Sewell, Sr. celebrates a birthday and the nation’s No. 2 ILB chose that day to honor him for what he’s meant to him across his life. Not just his football career.
The Utah resident announced his top schools lists with a tweet.
That top 8 currently looks like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas A&M. His father told DawgNation out at the Opening earlier this month in Texas that Georgia was one of three schools (Oregon, Texas A&M and UGA) that had already earned officials visits for later this fall.
This young man is an altogether different prospect than what the recruiting world is accustomed to. He has the ability to cover receivers in space at 266 pounds. The 6-foot-2 rising senior was rated as one of the nation’s most explosive players out at the Opening this summer.
Do the Bulldogs have a shot with Noah Sewell?
There’s the thinking around the recruiting trail that it will be hard to sign Sewell. That is because players of Polynesian descent like Sewell tend to go play where there are other Polynesians.
Sewell does look at that. But he makes it sound like an opportunity. Not a reason why not to choose Georgia.
“A little bit,” Noah Sewell said. “Just trying to get more Polynesians out east. I mean you rarely hear it. There’s one at LSU. Breiden Fehoko and then there’s just their new one. Siaka “Apu” Ika. That just committed to LSU. I mean they’re really changing the game out there. They’re really setting a platform for us Polynesian boys to really succeed on.”
His father expanded on that topic. Quite considerably.
Noah doesn’t have to see other Polynesian players at Georgia to truly consider the school.
“That’s not an issue for him,” Gabriel Sewell said. “That’s not an issue for us. We’ve always tried to encourage our kids to get out of their comfort zone. Be uncomfortable. I believe that’s where true progress always happens when you are tested so to speak. Like I said earlier [in regard to public relations] he’d be okay wherever he went. We’d be okay with it.”
“There are a lot of people who have him pegged to go to Oregon. Even though they are high on his board at the end of the day we keep telling him ‘Your brothers will be your brothers no matter what logo is on the side of the helmet. So you do what’s best for you. You make that decision or choice. You make your choice based on what you believe is best for you. I think success is predicated on you being happy where you are at and you doing what you are doing where you are at.”
This recruiting chance with Sewell began in the spring. That’s when he was visited by defensive coordinator Dan Lanning and ILBs coach Glenn Schumann.
“That really surprised me,” Noah Sewell said. “That they got [that far] out of their way just to come to see me.”
Georgia then picked up an unofficial visit last month. Sewell got to see what that ILB room is like.
“I really like it,” Sewell said. “It is really a brotherhood in the linebacker room. They are all really comfortable with each other. Every activity they do they bring everybody. Even the walk-ons.”
That was a big unofficial visit. Look for the Bulldogs to get another big one in the fall.
