BREAKING: Nation’s No. 1 TE Arik Gilbert sets quick turnaround for his decision right after his UGA official visit

Arik Gilbert has made his mind up.

The nation’s No. 1 TE prospect on the 247Sports Composite ratings tweeted out he will make his college commitment on Wednesday evening at his All-American Bowl jersey presentation ceremony from the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta.

That escalated quickly.

Gilbert was just in Athens over the weekend for his official visit to Georgia. It leads to two conclusions:

Whatever the scenario, the Bulldogs were able to secure his last visit prior to his public decision.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound senior rates as the top prospect in the state of Georgia for 2020 and the nation’s No. 10 overall prospect among the 247Sports Composite ratings, too.

The All-American jersey ceremony is set to take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The ceremony won’t be just for Gilbert. There are 10 other Atlanta-area All-Americans to honor with their jerseys that night.

Arik Gilbert: What the timing means here for Arik Gilbert

Gilbert said during the summer that he didn’t need to see a lot of the 2019 season to figure out his college decision.

He had hoped to make his decision at his All-American Bowl jersey ceremony in September.

The 5-star wanted to try to make the Georgia-Notre Dame but instead chose to visit Texas A&M that weekend.

The All-American has also already taken an official visit to LSU this fall. He has an official visit slot left to check out Clemson, but he did see that program over the summer. Alabama got an official visit from Gilbert back during the spring.

When he was thinking about his Georgia visit this summer, he had the following hopes in mind.

“It is going to be balls to the tight ends but I am also looking at the routes they run,” Gilbert said back in July. “If they run a bunch of stick routes and I mean I’m not really going to look at that. I’m looking for the corners [routes] and some good routes.”

Gilbert has been recruited by Georgia’s Dell McGee for the longest time. He feels that McGee is the one recruiter who has done the best job of recruiting his family.

“I’ve been knowing him since the eighth grade,” Gilbert said at the Opening finals out in Texas. “We’ve got a really strong relationship.”

For the longest time during this recruitment, he has felt that Georgia was the school that has done the best all-around job of recruiting him. That was over the totality of the recruiting process.

Yet sometimes the school which does the best job recruiting a prospect doesn’t wind up being the choice. The rest of the country gets to find out on Wednesday.

Gilbert didn’t spend a lot of time watching the Georgia game in miserable conditions on Saturday. He was there for maybe the bulk of the first quarter, but his visit group went inside to check out the rest of the game from the cozy confines of the West End Zone recruiting lounge.

The Marietta senior is a prolific receiver in every sense of the term. He’s built to be a prototype NFL tight end or defensive end, but his heart has always been set on making plays with the ball in his hands.

He has played 31 games for the Blue Devils. Check out the numbers below:

Want a quick snapshot of what Gilbert brings to bear on the field? Here are a few of his highlights from his junior season. A lot of times the nation’s top senior prospects don’t bother with updating their senior season highlights.

That’s because they already have all the offers they seek.