Jared Wilson signed with the Georgia football program back during the early period in December. His inclusion in the 2021 Bulldog class is unique on several tiers.

  1. Wilson is the only Georgia 2021 O-line signee that does not reside in the Peach State.
  2. He is also didn’t enroll early in January.
  3. Why? He wanted his senior year of North Carolina football. The Tar Heel State moved its 2020 season to this spring. It affords a season for a lifetime with his younger brother who will be a freshman on the West Forsyth (Clemmons, NC) team this spring. 

The 3-star recruit is a rare recommitment to a Georgia class. He initially committed late in his junior year to play for Sam Pittman but opened his recruitment after Matt Luke took over that position for UGA.

He committed to North Carolina but realized Georgia was his best fit and recommitted in August of 2020.

Jared Wilson committed to UGA, then decommitted and pledged to UNC only to decommit and flip back to UGA. There’s a good story there. (Jared Wilson/Twitter)/Dawgnation)

Background Intel on the Jared Wilson recommitment

Wilson de-committed from Georgia as a reflection of his integrity. He wasn’t raised to be committed to a school and go back and forth with other schools. Other prospects feel differently about that. They have every right to feel that way. It is an individual interpretation.

But that just didn’t sit right with him personally to his internal values. If he was talking to other schools he needed to de-commit from Georgia. That’s what he did.

When the global pandemic hit, it “scared” Wilson.

“When COVID hit, it was like it gave me a little scare,” he said last fall. “It was like ‘Oh, I really want to stay close to my family now. I need to stay close to my brothers and my family and make sure that they are okay.'”

It was a feeling he needed to kept talking about it with his mother. It was the “hardest thing he had ever done in his 17 years of living” and it was a 40-year decision.

What is the single biggest reason he’s a Bulldog today? It would be his mother Allie Wilson.

“She saw what I didn’t see,” Jared Wilson said.

Simple as that.

“As time went on my mother and I talked and some things happened and she sat down and said ‘you need to do what is best for you. I have the boys. I have it all. I’ve got it’ and I said okay. We sat down and talked about a lot of things.”

His mother had also prodded him to take up football. That was when he was a 6-foot-2, 270-pound freshman who still played a lot of basketball and soccer despite that frame.

What she wanted was for her oldest son to flap his wings. She knew Jared had lived in North Carolina his whole life. She told him North Carolina was a great state. She said the University of North Carolina is a great school.

Jared Wilson signed with UGA back during the early signing period in December as a part of the 2021 class in Athens. (Jared Wilson/Instagram)/Dawgnation)

‘But she said there are so many other opportunities out in the world,” Jared Wilson said back in September. “She said, and she still tells me this actually, that ‘you are bigger than North Carolina. The state. Not the university. You are bigger than the state of North Carolina, Jared. You have great potential’ and I believe that I do and there are other opportunities elsewhere in the world.”

His West Forsyth head coach, Adrian Snow, has a delightful wit at ready in every conversation.

He’s the one who first told DawgNation about Wilson.

Snow detailed feet so smooth it looked like the biggest deer in the woods running on pillows. He said Wilson “fell back in love with his first kiss in Georgia again’ on the recruiting trail.

Luke soon went to work on Wilson after he closed down a stout 2020 O-line class. So did Kirby Smart. Wilson said there was a time when he was speaking to both Luke and the Georgia head coach every day.

They attacked his recruiting like his last name was Mims, too. The whole offensive staff and the defensive staff would get on those Facetimes, too.

“My mom would tell me, Jared, they are in love with you and I know that you are in love with them,” Jared Wilson said. “I was like ‘Yes. Yes I am.'”

Wilson likened Atlanta and its Metro area to be like “Hollywood but on the East Coast” with all movie business and all those opportunities in media.

“Those were all the opportunities I can have even if I don’t make it to the NFL and that was another factor that caused me to flip,” the future communications major said.

What Jon Stinchcomb likes about OL signee Jared Wilson

Jon Stinchcomb broke down what he saw on Wilson’s film for DawgNation.

“Here’s what I like most about him is he’s a football player,” Stinchcomb said. “You can tell he gets it. He’s not lost in space. We talk about these offensive linemen wanting to finish each block. Jared Wilson is one of these guys you turn on the film and more times than not, that defender ends up on the ground.”

“He doesn’t mind tossing somebody to the ground but he’s in good shape every time he’s engaged in a block. He plays physical and he plays smart. What more do you look for in an offensive lineman?”

Stinchcomb, a former UGA All-American, was a second-round pick in the 2003 NFL Draft and a Super Bowl champion with the New Orleans Saints. Check out the video embedded above and below for a few of his takes on the following:

  • Why does he think Wilson is one of the better O-line signees in the 2021 class? 
  • How does he “puts himself in a position to win” on almost every play on his junior tape?
  • What sort of intelligence does he show on the field? 
  • Why Georgia can never have too many guys like Jared Wilson? 

Check out the DawgNation film room so far

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will be able to see special 1-on-1 interviews with Jake Fromm and Brock Vandagriff coming up over the next month. You will only be able to find it on the DawgNation YouTube channel. 

SENTELL’S INTEL

(the recent reads on DawgNation.com)