Nation’s No. 4 OG Andrew Raym places UGA among his top five schools

Andrew Raym is one of those recruits who just makes it easy to follow. It will have nothing to do with the fact he’s an All-American for either marquee game he wishes to play in.

That is not because of the nasty way he plays the game in the trenches or his status as the nation’s No. 4 OG for this cycle on the 247Sports Composite ratings.

It is not due to the fact he plays baseball for his Broken Arrow (Broken Arrow, OK) team and has managed to both smash a few homers and even steal a base as a member of the 285-295 pound club.

It is just for the simple fact he says what he means and means what he says. Others have “fun” recruitments. They visit a different school every weekend and the leaderboard changes like the back nine at Augusta National on Sunday.

Raym told DawgNation at the Under Armour “Future 50” event in January that he basically had four of his five official visits picked out.

The plan then – as it is now – was to make a public commitment at an All-American game in January.

Yeah, that’s pretty much how it is after he released his top five schools earlier this week.

TOP 5 TOP 5 ‼️‼️@DemetricDWarren pic.twitter.com/fcptdy3Qd4

— Andrew Raym7️⃣2️⃣ (@andrew_raymBAHS) April 29, 2019

Raym was fairly certain back in January that Georgia was going to get one. When his timeline called for the routine update earlier this month, he said that the Bulldogs and the same pack of schools were still in the running for his official visits, too. 

He told DawgNation this week that Georgia coach Sam Pittman has already been by his school this spring to pay a visit.

RELATED: Get to know Oklahoma OL target Andrew Raym

“SEE YUHHH” ~ @Mattkaiser6 #2sportathlete #WeWill pic.twitter.com/JLw0BnQWxm

— Andrew Raym7️⃣2️⃣ (@andrew_raymBAHS) April 12, 2019

Why Georgia cracked the top five for Andrew Raym

Raym told DawgNation earlier this year that he found it hard to talk to schools at times. He only picks up his phone and goes through his message scroll in bunches.

He’ll return a burst of messages all at one time. But when he talks to Pittman, he said he could do so for hours and it not seem taxing.

His mid-April update made things even more specific.

“Coach [Sam] Pittman is the main guy I talk to nowadays,” Raym told DawgNation.

That statement called for further review. Did the nation’s No. 4 OG and No. 73 overall prospect (per the 247Sports Composite ratings) mean at Georgia?

Or in general out of all schools?

“In general,” he said.

Is Pittman the recruiter he speaks the most to right now?

“Yes, sir,” Raym said, in a matter of fact style that just drips how any offensive lineman would answer that topic.

Raym, it must also be noted, does rank as the No. 1 prospect in Oklahoma for the class of 2020. That would be another feat if Georgia’s still relatively new engineering program could also help Pittman and the program sign another top-rated prospect from another state.

Especially Raym. He was once committed to Oklahoma before feeling like he had to open things back up.  He will not do any spring officials. His baseball team is the priority, but he will be an early enrollee in January of 2020.

Look for him to do his officials on gamedays in the fall.

It must again be noted his clarity on his recruiting picture from way back in January. He told DawgNation on New Year’s Day that it looked like Georgia, Oklahoma, Michigan and Notre Dame would get four of his five officials.

The final five he released on Monday did include three of those five schools. Notre Dame did not survive the spring and he then added LSU and Texas A&M to the mix.

It is not ironic that the three recruiters who have built the best long-term relationships with Raym are the ones that have consistently placed among his top schools.

How would Andrew Raym fit into the 2020 class for UGA? 

This last subhead is a neat little entry into how Raym might fit into the 2020 class. Here’s a good look at the OL targets for the Bulldogs as DawgNation understands it.

COMMITS

• 5-star OT Broderick Jones (Lithonia, Ga.)
• 4-star OG Akinola Ogunbiyi (Sugar Land, Tex.)

MAJOR TARGETS

• 5-star OT Paris Johnson Jr (Cincinnati, OH) — Ohio State commit
• 4-star OT Tate Ratledge (Rome, Ga.)
• 4-star OL/C Sedrick Van Pran (New Orleans, Lou.)
• 4-star OL/OG Andrew Raym (Broken Arrow, OK)
• 4-star OT/OG Chad Lindberg (League City, Tex.)
• 4-star OT Jalen Rivers (Orange Park, Fla.)
• 5-star OL/DL Justin Rodgers (Oak Park, Mich.)
• 3-star C Cooper Mays (Knoxville, Tenn.)

Johnson is a wild card. If he wants to play for UGA, the class could possibly swell to three tackles. It will be very hard for Georgia to not take both Johnson and Ratledge in this class and pair with Jones. That’s if all three want in.

That makes sense with the growing possibility that the Bulldogs lose both of their starting tackles in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Yet Johnson could just as likely land at LSU or stay with Ohio State. If that’s the case, then Ratledge could close out the class at tackle. He still has some thinking left to do in regard to whether it will likely be UGA or the Tennessee program his family has closely following pretty much as long as he has been alive.

Pittman and the Bulldogs could then “make do” with the nation’s No. 2 OT and No. 4 OT in Jones and Ratledge, respectively.

That creates the potential for the Bulldogs to take up to three “hybrid” OLs that could plug-and-play all across the line. That’s where a player like Raym would fit in nicely.

Raym has said that Pittman doesn’t see him as a guard but more of a Cade Mays SUV or sorts for the Bulldog OL.

Isaiah Wynn has been brought up as the player parallel here.

“He sees me as a tackle and he talks quite often about the tackle he sent first round [of the NFL Draft] who was 6-foot-2,” Raym said. “He tells me he doesn’t think height is all that. He tells me he thinks my athleticism is what he wants for a tackle.”

Check out the film for the two-time All-American and Oklahoma state champion below. Those first two clips and the three or four defenders that No. 72 redirects to their hindquarters will stand out.

Raym’s high school team finished 13-0 last fall and won a state championship in Oklahoma.