Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel will bring at least five days a week. Since we managed to find just about the only picture in existence of Lejond Cavazos not smiling, we thought it was time for an update.
Lejond Cavazos is always smiling.
“Everyday is a great day,” Cavazos said. “You’ll never see me not smiling.”
It seems that Cavazos will still give DawgNation a lot to smile about. Cavazos said on April 22 UGA kind of blindsided him on G-Day to become his new favorite school.
It has been more than a month since that trip. Plenty of time for that famed “visit love high” to wear off.
It has not. Georgia stands out for a 2020 safety who is just now getting rated. That’s despite major offers from schools such as Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Ohio State.
“I’ve been talking to the coaches way more now,” Cavazos said. “They know that they are my No. 1 school. I’ve been talking to Coach [Mel] Tucker and Coach [Dan] Lanning the most. Those are defensive guys. Coach Tucker is the guy that will be coaching me and I also speak to Coach Lanning here and there.”
Cavazos rates as a 4-star safety on Rivals. He was recently pegged a 3-star by 247Sports. It placed him as the nation’s No. 14 safety and No. 295 overall junior.
What’s the nutshell scouting report?
“Really really fast,” said Nolan Smith, a teammate of Cavazos at Bradenton, Fla., IMG Academy.
The Opening testing numbers back that up. He clocked a 4.56 in the 40 on the laser and paired that up with a powerball toss of 37 feet. His vertical leap is impressive: 43 inches.
Cavazos is a highly connected recruit. Five-star senior RB Trey Sanders recently told DawgNation that where ever he goes, he will heavily recruit Cavazos to follow.
He’s tight with Smith, plus 5-star UGA commit Jadon Haselwood. That might be why he had such a good time at G-Day.
The 6-foot junior weighed in at 186 pounds at The Opening Dallas regional.
When Trey Sanders asked Lejond Cavazos about recruiting
Trey Sanders had heard more than his share of reporter questions during his time as an elite prospect.
So he stepped up to the plate and had one for Lejond Cavazos. Then another. And another.
Trey Sanders: I’ve got a hard question for him. What is going to pull you closer to a school? What will help you make your decision about choosing a school?
The question was so strong Cavazos had to ask him to repeat it.
Lejond Cavazos: I would say just the relationship with the coaches and the players.
Trey Sanders: No family things then?
Lejond Cavazos: No, not really.
Trey Sanders: So, it is just all about you?
Lejond Cavazos: No, sir. It is about the coaches and the players. I have to make sure I will fit in with the players and the coaches now. You know what I mean?
Trey Sanders: Yeah. I know what you mean by that.
Sanders did a fine job, but his ears perked up when he heard Cavazos field a question about the schools he felt would already accept his commitment at this time.
Trey Sanders: Where? Where? I have to hear the answer to this one. I like this one.
Lejond Cavazos: I could name some places I could commit to right now. I’m just going to say I’ve got two schools. I’m not going to say the names, but I am pretty sure everyone out there knows those names of those schools.
Trey Sanders: Give it to us. We promise we won’t post it.
(That’s the point when Cavazos shared the names of two very big schools.)
Trey Sanders: I like that. I like both of those schools. I feel like that both of those fit you very, very well. You’re an elite player and you want to go to an elite program.
Lejond Cavazos: (laughing) Alright, man. Shut up. Stop playing with that.
Trey Sanders: Yes, sir.
How UGA switched up the Lejond Cavazos recruitment
Lejond Cavazos said the coaches at UGA now really know how he feels about the program.
When he went to Georgia for G-Day, he did not expect a thing.
“I didn’t expect to like the school as much as I did immediately when I was on that visit,” he said. “When I went there going in, I really didn’t know that much about Georgia. All I know was that I had the offer. I had never really been up there. I didn’t really know what to expect.”
“It was like an unexpected great visit.”
He brought up that moment when he was on the field early at G-Day. He soon found himself in a semi-circle maybe a yard away from Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, if that.
“It made me feel great,” Cavazos said. “It was like a special feeling being prioritized. Like that, I belonged on the field with those guys in Georgia’s eyes. I felt like I was a part of something then.”
Why is Georgia the school for him right now?
“That’s probably my best relationship,” Cavazos said. “Right now with that coaching staff. Because I know all these coaches are not allowed to contact me first. So I call a couple of schools every other week. But Georgia has just been kind of sticking out there to me.”
When will he decide?
“Well, I still know that this is going to be a hard process for me,” Cavazos said. “Whenever the time is right for me really. It could be tomorrow. It could be in December for me really. You never know. I don’t know. It is just whenever I feel like it is that time for me. When I know which one is the place for me to be at. It will just happen then.”
“It is just going to be an out-of-nowhere thing for me. That’s what I feel like.”
This is another recruiting story where Lanning has made a big impact. The first-year outside linebackers coach is beginning to stack those up and become one of the more effective and memorable recruiters on the staff.
“He’s a really cool coach,” Cavazos said. “Real fun. Really cool but then he also has the side when it is time to be serious and about business then he is. I know that aside from football that I could already trust him with stuff and ask for advice on things I need to know that will really help me later on in life.”
Cavazos prides himself on being a top sprinter and a top safety in his class. He knows that rankings do not matter. All that matters is what he does on the field.
He also knows where he has to get better.
“Just my eye discipline,” said Cavazos after the IMG spring game. “I know I can get lost peeking into the backfield when the receiver is running. I know that’s something should not be done. There was one play tonight when I thought it was a run and completely blitzed down and it was a touchdown pass.”
The Opening invites an impressive array of elite 2020s
The Nike Opening Finals are no longer at the company’s world headquarters in Oregon. They moved to the Cowboys complex in Dallas.
The event released the names of its junior invitations to the event on Thursday. It was, as usual, a star-studded group.
A few names of interest which made the cut:
- 5-star DE Bryan Bresee. He is the nation’s No. 1 player for 2020.
- 5-star RB Zachary Evans. The Texas speedster is a back who is very special. If the Bulldogs could land him, then I think he would stand out even among the program’s recent signees at RB.
- 5-star DE/OLB Mekhail Sherman. He has family in the Atlanta area and took a very good visit to UGA earlier this year.
- 4-star WR Jermaine Burton. If there’s a better pure receiver than Burton in the class of 2020, then I have yet to see him. Burton is now at Marietta after starting at IMG Academy as a sophomore. He recently de-committed from Miami. He was named both the fastest man and the WR MVP at The Opening Atlanta regional.
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