Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings at least four days a week. We take a good look at that “Dreamchaser” guy in this edition. That’s 4-star CB Tyrique Stevenson out of South Florida.
Tyrique Stevenson is trying to get ahead.
That’s probably not the apt way to describe what he is trying to do on the football field. He’s a cornerback-slash-safety-slash-kick returner-slash-receiver and just about anything else his Miami Southridge team asks him to do.
That will continue on for his next team.
“I’m coming in and telling all college coaches I’m an athlete and I’m a ‘Dog so whatever you put me at I’m going to strive to do,” he said. “Whatever I have to do to help the team get better. If I was a bigger guy and the D-line needed help, I would do that, too. I’m just that type of person. Put me where ever the team needs me. I’m going to give you 110 percent every time on every rep.”
He currently rates at the top of the DawgNation board as to the remaining undecided targets in the 2019 class. The 247Sports composite standard pegs him as the nation’s No. 5 CB and No. 41 overall prospect for this cycle.
The 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior is also working ahead so he can enroll in January. That plan will have a cause-or-effect relationship about when he plans to make his college decision.
“I’m trying to work my tail off to graduate early,” Stevenson said.
That could add some Nitro to his timeline.
“If I don’t graduate early, then [his college decision] will have to be at the all-star game,” Stevenson said. “If I do graduate early, then [that decision] will have to be right after the season. If I am on the verge of graduating early, then it will be right after the season.”
To be clear, he is speaking of playing in the Adidas [formerly the U.S. Army] All-American game with those references to an all-star game as his decision platform.
“Just like anybody else I am just stringing along myself,” he said. “That’s why I can’t really give nobody a clear answer on anything.”
He did make it clear that the latest he will go with his decision will be the first week of January for the All-American game.
“No, sir,” Stevenson said when asked if there was any way his decision timeline would go past that event. “I’ll have my mind made up by then.”
Tyrique Stevenson was impressed by the UGA “reveal” event
He really isn’t focusing on his recruiting at this point.
“I’m concentrating on my high school team,” he said. “I’m like planning on it. When I go home I’ve got everybody’s schedule and I have got to match up my mind with what I can and cannot do. I’m still focusing on my senior season and really trying to win a state title before I graduate.”
When DawgNation spoke to Stevenson last week, he said his last visit was to Georgia for the West End Zone “reveal” event.
He said it was a great visit but still wouldn’t call it his best visit to Athens.
“That was pretty exciting,” he said. “You know it was amazing you know. Being there with the players. It was there first time seeing and my first time seeing it. So my reaction was as good as theirs. It was really a good feeling to get that same feeling as them.
“The coaches were just as excited as the players and we got to dress up and just show out. It was our moment to take pictures and I really had a fun time. Took pictures with coach [Kirby] Smart and coach [Mel] Tucker and coach [James] Coley and my best friend actually went with me. We actually took pictures up there, too.”
He was one of those elite recruits who got to hold a pair of scissors and cut the ribbon on the grand opening of that facility.
“It just felt amazing,” Stevenson said. “It felt like I was opening something new. For them to give us that privilege was just amazing.”
An impressive off-the-field meeting to share
Stevenson was on a loaded team of defensive backs for the national 7-on-7 tournament at the Nike Opening this past summer out in Texas. That was a big reason why his squad won that event.
Derek Stingley, the nation’s top CB prospect, was on “Team Overdrive” with him. So was Notre Dame commitment Kyle Hamilton, among others. It was very hard to throw the ball into tight windows for that squad.
He flashed his ability as a plug-in-play DB in different spots of the coverage, but that wasn’t the only thing we learned about Stevenson that week. He developed a very special relationship with an Opening guest at that event.
It starts with this tweet.
Check out the notes page on that tweet. Stevenson writes about how the event brought in young kids with health issues and specifically notes a young boy named “Bambam” who had cancer.
They made laps around the practice field that the Dallas Cowboys train on. That young man still wanted more.
“I was so happy to be around him and the little time I spent is more fun than going to any party with your friends and it touched my heart to see how much of an impact I can have on kid’s lives by what I do,” he wrote.
He was thrilled to learn that “Bambam” loves ranch and ketchup on his chicken tenders. That was his P.S. to the note on that tweet.
That was back in July, but he still thinks about him today.
“I’m just blessed,” he said. “Giving back to people and putting a smile on his face just warmed my heart. With him seeing him smile and all he wanted to do was run with me. Some players take for granted what just running can mean to other people because that’s what we do. It just put a lot of happiness in my heart. I want to continue doing that. That’s why I connected with him so easily.”
That moment planted a seed into what he might do if more blessings come his way.
“I want to give back to the needy and help homeless people and help people with disabilities,” he said. “That was just a start for me with that at The Opening. It was really a happy moment for me. I didn’t really want it to end. Got to meet his family. Got to learn about him. I got to meet his Mom and I could see the hurt in her eyes and she was being strong.”
How is Georgia recruiting Tyrique Stevenson?
Smart has a consistent message for Stevenson during this process.
“We are trying to dominate and put Georgia back on the map as the top of the SEC schools and we need ‘Dawgs like you to do it,” he said when describing that message.
He put his finger on one very specific thing he likes best about the potential fit in Athens.
“The way the team is on the rise,” he said. “How the team connects and the brotherhood and the coaches. The campus is really chill. The campus is not really too much going on. That would be a new adjust to me and just Georgia is really peaceful. The facility is great and all the recruiters and everybody that is just in the facility is always in a good mood. I like that. That is one thing I like about Georgia.”
He’s grown on a lot of coaches at UGA now. He said that his primary contact is no longer the ace Georgia recruiter for South Florida. That would be James Coley there, but the staff is making sure there are a lot of ties to Stevenson and Athens.
He made sure to mention staff analyst Baccari Rambo along with Coley, Tucker and Smart. But the growing number of Bulldogs who have made the move from South Florida are also a good source of Intel on the program.
That would be freshmen Tyson Campbell, James Cook and Divaad Wilson. Senior All-American candidate Deandre Baker also hails from the 305 area code.
“Justin Fields and I talk,” he said. “Divaad Wilson and I talk. I’ve just started talking to James Cook a lot. They really tell me it is a great thing to be a Bulldog. It is not like down South [in Miami] well Justin can’t say that but the three I named tell me it is not like down south [in Florida] it is really slower. You feel me? Just up there [in Georgia] you can really get a stabilized mind and get your focus on your books and football.”
What happens next for Tyrique Stevenson?
Georgia will get an official visit from Stevenson. That seems very clear.
“It is just like saying the grass is green,” Stevenson said. “Georgia will definitely get an official out of me.”
He said that he could not make a college decision if he had to right now. It sounds like there are two programs that are consistently on his mind in Georgia and nearby Miami. He understands what both those programs have to offer him very well.
But he needs to see more before he would feel confident in any commitment decision.
“I need more data and everything,” he said. “People just say go by the depth chart and go by the coaches but it is really more into that. I have got to really look at what I want to study and how the school comprehends with that.”
He does not believe in silent commitments.
“It is not my thing but I will let a college or a head coach know I am really interested in him but I am still going to weigh my options,” Stevenson said. “…I’m also the same person that is ‘Go big or go home’ as well so.”
What about the other schools in the mix?
“The University of Miami is definitely another school with Georgia,” he said. “There are a few other schools but I haven’t really looked into them like I have [Georgia and Miami] because I have alumni at my school from the University of Miami. That’s how I got to look into the University of Miami. I have gotten the time to look into Georgia. There are a few other schools I really want to look into.”
He did not name any other schools during our conversation.
Stevenson said that he did feel tempted to make a big decision at that reveal weekend. He was there on a visit that resulted in three immediate commitments that weekend. The Bulldogs also picked up a fourth pledge a few days after that big event.
The thought of doing the same did cross his mind that weekend.
“It did,” he said. “But I talked to my mom about it and my mom was like ‘We are on your time. Don’t make a decision off how much excitement you have at one event. Just keep visiting and seeing what is up.’ My mom was really into it so we really talked about it.”
It was a fleeting thought, he said.
“I wouldn’t say yes and I wouldn’t say no,” Stevenson said. “It crossed [his mind] and I mentioned it and then it went away. We talked about it on my time and how I am going to do it this way and that way. It was like a simple yes and then a simple no.”
The thought entered his mind. They chopped it up and decided not to make an impulsive decision. They moved on to continue on the current timeline they are looking at now. That’s the current All-American game finish line.
Georgia made it clear where he stands.
“They told me that I am the No. 1 DB they are recruiting right now,” Stevenson said. “A bunch of schools have.”
“Before the Hedges” last week featured Tyrique Stevenson
Did you get your weekly hour-long IV of “Before the Hedges” this past Wednesday on the DawgNation Facebook page?
It also streams on the DawgNation YouTube channel every Wednesday right around the three o’ clock hour.
If you did, you would have gotten to see early previews of the DawgNation interviews with both Stevenson and 5-star OL Clay Webb this week.
Who knew that Ukranian faith music was a thing to Webb? Well, now you know.
The full show usually also shows up in a future Intel blog. Sometime after the live stream. Kind of like this embed below.
4-star JUCO pledge Jermaine Johnson gets to the QB
Jermaine Johnson chose the Bulldogs back on Aug. 2. While the 4-star prospect was once rated as the nation’s No. 1 junior college prospect on the 247Sports composite, he’s now dipped to No. 2 overall.
What has not dipped is his ability to dip his shoulder and get past the edge to the quarterback. While his Independence Community College team has now lost back-to-back games, his play remains consistent.
Johnson had had consecutive six-tackle games for the Pirates. He has toppled the quarterback in every game so far and now has 3.5 sacks for the season.
The 6-foot-6, 250-pound prospect will enroll in late December and will have three years to play two seasons at UGA.
A few things which caught my eye over the last week
- Did everyone see the commitment made by 5-star junior WR Demond Demas to Texas A&M last weekend? Demas chose the Aggies while on an unofficial visit for the Clemson game. It was an interesting way to share it via a simple tweet and the video capture of him breaking his own news to Fisher.
- That was interesting on another level for readers of this blog, though. Demas rates as a 5-star receiver in the class of 2020. He sits at No. 3 for his position on the latest 247Sports composite. He also scored five touchdowns on five touches in his Thursday night game for North Forest High School in Houston. Demas, at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, will also check in as the No. 20 player overall for his cycle on the composite.
- Why spend all this time on Demas? Well, that’s because he has visited Georgia in the past. He was at Georgia to camp this past summer. So the Bulldogs have already checked that box. But what was interesting is he told me that the Bulldogs finished No. 2 in the race for his decision behind A&M.
- He said he liked the way the Bulldogs have been communicating with him so far and established a top 4 that starts with A&M and Georgia and will also include Alabama and Ohio State. He said if things stay the same, he will stick with the Aggies. If not, look for him to wind up at one of those other fine programs.
- I also tweeted out something over the last few days that I wanted to clarify in this space. It was regarding yet another highlight clip from 5-star RB commit John Emery Jr. While Emery does plan to sign early, he will not be able to enroll early.
Miss any Intel? The DawgNation recruiting archive will get you up to speed as fast as former Georgia All-American LB Roquan Smith found the ball after the snap.