What the Isaac Nauta news means for UGA
Isaac Nauta is only 6 feet, 4 inches tall. Yet the 5-star recruit has stood about 20 feet tall on the UGA recruiting board ever since he de-committed from Florida State.
Nauta told ESPN’s Derek Tyson on Wednesday morning at IMG Media Day that UGA will get one of his five official visits. The other schools in the running are Michigan, Southern California, and TCU.
The 240-pounder told the AJC after a summer visit UGA was clearly his No. 2 school behind FSU. His father Jay Nauta also said this summer his wife tended to think Isaac would eventually flip, but that he really didn’t know. (Quick tip: Moms matter in everything with sons. Especially recruiting)
It doesn’t take an epsiode of CSI Athens to see where all of this is trending. Nothing’s official in recruiting until the name is on the LOI, but that’s a lot of stuff for UGA fans to feel good about.
Nauta had been a standout at Buford before he transferred to IMG for his senior year. That was made in tandem with an expected move from his family to Florida that never materialized. The Nautas still reside within an hour’s drive of UGA in Dacula. Nauta has said that playing at home near friends and family means something to him.
Who’s the biggest target left out there for UGA? There’s Derrick Brown, Kyle Davis, Mecole Hardman, Jr. and Rashan Gary. Those are about the only names which can rank up there with Nauta.
Pairing Nauta up with Garrett Walston and Charlie Woerner has all the potential to become one of the greatest tight end classes ever assembled. Nauta plans to make his decision at the Army All-American game on January 9 and enroll early at the school of his choice.
The 5-star tight end de-committed from Florida State on July 28. How did UGA feel about that? If only DawgNation.com had a live feed into the offensive meeting room at UGA’s Butts-Mehre Building.
That will of course never happen. It’s an NCAA violation for coaches to discuss unsigned recruits, but social media can frame up the imagination for us just a bit.
Just check out this very “cryptic” tweet from UGA tight ends coach John Lilly. It went out on the very same day Nauta de-committed from FSU.
It's been said that you can take a man out of Georgia but you can never take Georgia out of a man #homeGrown pic.twitter.com/aguVgqk2D4
— John Lilly (@Coach_JLilly) July 29, 2015
Jeff Sentell covers UGA recruiting for AJC.com and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on who’s on their way to play Between the Hedges.
