The Daily DeAngelo: A prediction regarding Mr. Gibbs and his choice today

DeAngelo Gibbs, the nation’s No. 3 safety prospect this year, is set to make his college decision today.

Gibbs will do so from the ESPN broadcast of the Under Amour All-America Game from Orlando. That event kicks off at 1 p.m. ET today.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder is one of five prospects set to announce their college commitments from the game. The nation’s No. 40 overall prospect will be on Team Highlight and will be wearing his familiar No. 8 jersey.

It will be one in a series of decisions made today with some local flavor.

Roswell 4-star safety Xavier McKinney is set to announce at the first break of the second quarter. Former Georgia commitment Breon Dixon will choose between Ole Miss and Louisville during halftime.

Gibbs will make his decision during the first break of the third quarter. What will he do? I’ve got a few thoughts to share on that.

First and foremost, he has been smooth. I’m talking Carlos Santana’s famous guitar riffs here. He’s probably left more reporters scratching their heads about what he is going to do than he’s befuddled receivers during his prep career.

I’ve had the chance to interview him at least 30 times over the last two years. (That number might only be dwarfed by the number of official visits he’s taken to Georgia over the last two years.)

He was always very gracious and kind and accommodating. I want to make sure to publicly thank him for that. That’s one of the main reasons for this post. It is not about to show what I know but more of a way to acknowledge the amount of time he has given all reporters who were interested in learning something about him and his decision.

Will he put on the Alabama or the Georgia hat?

I’ve got an opinion and it has been shaped largely by not what he says but how he says it. Gibbs typically delivers his responses to every reporter’s question with a sly smile.

The guy could be a great lawyer or a spy or a politician one day. He’s just about impossible to read. The 4-star recruit also could be a great press liaison for a political figure or a CEO when his playing days are done.

Gibbs likely begins every interview thinking he’s going to give nothing away or he’s going to leave some breadcrumbs trailing toward the wrong college program during that time.

He is simply that good. If a reporter could give a black belt for parrying questions to the left and right the same way a cornerback jams a big-play wideout off the line, then he’d have gotten one from me about 10 months ago.

There was only one time during our many encounters that he left a glimmer that showed me where he was going to go. It was over the last month and he was eating pizza.

We were at Grayson High School and we were talking about whether or not he was going to take an official visit to Georgia.

I got in my car that day thinking he was going to go play football at Alabama. That pizza had to be his interview Kryptonite.

But that is Gibbs in a nutshell. That’s what he wanted me to think.

Truth be told, this prediction has been shaped by not what he said but by actions.

Gibbs may be the ultimate operator when it comes to a reporter’s question list, but to me there was no way he could summon up the true emotion he showed during the ups-and-down of Georgia’s clash with Tennessee this year.

There was no faking the way he smiled. The look on his face as he celebrated the big plays with the other Georgia commitments he was sitting around told me a great deal.

The All-American safety took another unofficial visit to UGA for the Auburn game.

Athens is a special place. #GoDawgs

— Deangelo Gibbs (@TheHercules8) November 12, 2016

If he was conjuring all of that up, then I’ve got one another career he’d be primed for. That’s taking over for Denzel Washington as one of the marquee actors of our time.

Gibbs bled for Georgia during that game. That poker face was missing.

He will report to Athens next week and immediately crack the two-deep at several spots in the secondary for the Bulldogs.

Look for Gibbs to put on the Georgia hat today. He’ll likely wear it for the rest of his life.