Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings at least four days a week. The play sheet today calls for a chance to visit with 4-star OL Mitchell Mayes.
North Carolina OL Mitchell Mayes rated as the nation’s No. 3 OT on the 247Sports Composite ratings last week.
Well, that was last week’s news.
The North Carolina product rates as the No. 3 OG this week after the latest re-rack of all the prospects for the 2020 cycle. That makes sense given his overall versatility across the line.
Mayes also took a trip to check out Georgia this past weekend. It went well. So much that he already knows he will be back for G-Day in April.
“I’ve already planned it,” Mayes said. “I will be back for G-Day.”
Why?
“It is almost, I hear, like a game,” he said. “Just how big Georgia football is [the spring game] is practically a game. So I will be able to see a good game and atmosphere and I just think it will be a great time.”
His story presents a chance to distribute information regarding his recent visit in a different manner.
What if: Sam Pittman had a checklist application for potential OL recruits to man his “Wall of Georgia” at UGA?
Dear Potential recruit,
Thanks for your interest in playing in the Southeastern Conference.
Please check all of the following which will apply to your highlight reel, personality profile and interest in playing football for the University of Georgia.
- If called, you would have the ability to play left tackle, left guard, center, right guard or right tackle for the “Wall of Georgia.”
- You have enough confidence in your game that you correct reporters about your height and weight. When you do, it makes you seem like less of a mountain. That doesn’t matter. You feel that honesty will never come back to hurt you.
- Your idea of a wild night in your hometown sounds very boring. A “Target run” with a parent might be the best thing you have going most nights.
- When you were first offered, you weren’t sure you had an offer or not. Any SEC offer is a big deal and you don’t want to put any false information out. As a result, your actual offer to serve on “The Wall of Georgia” came three weeks prior to when you tweeted it out.
- When reporters ask you about position fits, do you check down to team goals as opposed to individual goals?
- When folks see you amble onto a high school field, do they really ask to see some ID? Like all the time? Do the referees look at you and think you are actually somebody’s uncle?
- Do you like to laugh with your position coach? When you discuss a coach that impresses you with others, do you hope to find yourself calling him “a really great guy” in easy conversation?
- When on your recruiting visit to check out a chance to man the wall, will you be cool with taking photos holding a Heisman Trophy? You’re an offensive lineman. We get it. Would you be down with holding a Heisman? Because that happens here. You get to hold a Heisman.
- While on recruiting visits, do you hope to hear current players be brutally honest about what it is like to man the wall at the University of Georgia?
- When you speak to adults, do you naturally say “Yes sir” to everything? Even when it isn’t a question? To the point of actually making said adult feel like they are as old as you look? (That’s a nice way of asking if manners matter to you in everyday discourse.)
- Do you pay attention to the blah-blah-blah academic chatter on “Junior Day” visits? Did you listen well enough on your tour to comprehend that UGA has the No. 13 ranking on the U.S. News and World Report ranking of public universities?
- The wall needs large men with large brains. Do you have a 3.8 grade-point average?
- Football is a hard and physical game. But yet when you plan it, do you love it? Is it a source of stress relief?
- Is there a play like this on your highlight tape?
- Do your off-season training workouts look like this?
If this was Mitchell Mayes and an actual application, he’d have to check every single box by each one of those bullet points.
6 Questions: How Mitchell Mayes feels about UGA
The first thing to jump out about Mayes is his honesty. It came out when he was simply asked to field one of those softball recruiting reporter questions.
Q1: The online numbers vary. Where are you at right now with your height and weight?
A: “I’ll be truthful. Just be truthful. I’m 6-foot-4 and about 306.”
Q2: How do all of these recruiters view you? What is the position fit?
A: “Georgia views me as a versatile player. I can play all five positions. Other schools view me as a true tackle. Other schools view me as a combo guard-tackle.”
Q3: How do you view that? Do you want to be seen as that prototype future first-rounder at tackle?
A. “However, I can get the best chance to hit the field earlier and do what’s best for my team that’s what I want to do. Whatever is the best thing for the team, right? That’s what football is all about really. I want to do what’s best for the team.”
Q4: Describe the timing of this offer here. You are a highly-rated prospect. Top 100 even. Will the fact Georgia just offered you leave them behind these other offers? Was Georgia just waiting to offer on your visit? Can you explain that?
A. “See what actually happened was… (Laughs.) They actually offered me about three weeks ago. On a phone call. But I was like in a little tunnel like area. So I didn’t hear him really say it. So I didn’t want to assume or post a big offer on Twitter and it not be right. I don’t want to be that type of recruit. So I didn’t post it. So I was in his office. Coach Pittman and I were talking. I let him know I didn’t have an offer there. He was like ‘Son, I offered you three weeks ago” and all. (Laughs again.) It was pretty funny.”
Q5. Let’s talk about this tweet from Sept. 30. That is some George Lucas CGI-stuff, right. You cannot just be 16. How often are people asking to see your ID?
A: “I want to be as truthful as possible here. Literally 80 percent of the people I meet. That’s no lie. 80 percent of the people I meet don’t believe the age that I am. They don’t believe I am going to turn 17 in September.”
Q5b: Does anybody call you “Unc” or “Uncle Mitchell” because you look like somebody’s uncle?
A. (Laughs.) My mom calls me that. (Laughs harder.)
Q6: Was there anything that wasn’t perfect or missing from the visit?
A. “It would have been great to meet Coach [Kirby] Smart…. I didn’t get to meet the head coach so it would have been good to check that box.” (NOTE: Smart was reportedly away at a Nike event.)
Q: Does Georgia have a chance in the Mitchell Mayes race?
He answered that one pretty quickly.
“Oh, they definitely have got a chance,” he said. “I had a great visit to Georgia. My best parts [of the visit] were building a strong, no a better relationship, with coach Pittman. Then being able to connect with a current player in Jamaree Salyer.”
He does not have an established leader. Look for him to post a top schools list in April or May.
“Right now I have no leaders and no favorites,” Mayes said, who aims to be an athletic trainer or a physical therapist with a sports medicine or an exercise science major.
Mayes is not even ready to share publicly the school that has given him his best visit so far.
He said that the Bulldogs now also have a clear chance to earn an official visit.
“Georgia positioned themselves as a contender very well after this visit,” he said. “They treated me as a priority to their offensive line and I felt good about it.”
What did Salyer share with him about the work it takes to play for Georgia?
“He didn’t sugarcoat it,” Mayes said. “He didn’t sugarcoat me. That’s the type of dude he is. No sugarcoat or try to play me a different way. He just kept it real. Coach Pittman is going to work you. He cares about you extremely. His wife is always over there. He’s a stand-up guy. He will coach you hard. But he cares about you.”
The Raleigh-area has no idea for his timeline. It may be in December. He plans to enroll early.
It may be on that Sept. 30 birthdate that reads like he copped the teaching assistant’s I.D.
“My recruiting has picked up since yesterday,” Mayes said on Monday after he picked up a Penn State offer. “It really has. I’m not exactly sure when I want to establish a commitment date.”
Can he see himself playing for a guy like Sam Pittman?
“I can for sure play for a guy like coach Pittman,” he said.
If we would rank where he would fit across the offensive line, his position fits would go like this: 1) Tackle; 2) Guard; 3) The bronze medal would go to the center spot.
“Center is tough,” he said. “Center is very tough.”
The best spot starting out for him on Saturdays would likely be at tackle.
Miss any Intel? The DawgNation recruiting archive will get you up to speed just as fast as former Georgia All-American LB Roquan Smith found the ball after the snap.