The father of the nation’s No. 1 junior Bryan Bresee rewinds their UGA visit
Want to attack every day with the latest UGA football recruiting info? That’s what the Intel brings at least four days a week. This play sheet offers up a report on the just-completed unofficial visit made by major UGA target Bryan Bresee.
It seems like a perfectly nice guy thing to do. DawgNation conducted an interview with Richie Bresee about his family’s weekend unofficial visit to UGA for the Auburn game.
Bryan, his son, ranks as the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect for 2020 on the 247Sports composite.
He’s now 6 feet and 5.5 inches. His weight hovers around 288 to 293 pounds or so playing for Damascus High in Maryland. That program is in the midst of a 53-game win streak. That’s a state record for Maryland and the longest active streak in the nation right now.
His mother, Meghan, was a junior college All-American in basketball. His father played football at James Madison University in Virginia. He has two older sisters, including one who currently plays college basketball at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Maryland.
Simply put, that’s the type of player the Bulldogs seek to fortify their defensive front for those annual clashes with Alabama. Those will very likely loom every December for the next several years.
But it was something that Richie Bresee did after the interview which stands out.
He sent a text to salute the work of several UGA recruiting interns who made sure their trip such a positive experience.
Those shout-outs were for Kacey Caudill and Luke Gamble. He then followed up with another 5-star rating for Emily Easter.
Those students are part of a legion of support staffers who make the mighty UGA recruiting machine go. It takes a village (of Athenians) to power those top-rated recruiting classes. Their valued work is all part of that.
“I left this out when we talked,” Richie Bresee said. “Luke and Kacey are the best hosts in the business.”
The UGA unofficial? It went well. Even though it was only slightly warmer here than it is in Maryland.
We covered the chats with line coach Tray Scott and head coach Kirby Smart. Bresee brought up how well 5-star UGA commits Nolan Smith and Travon Walker continue to mesh with his son.
The moment that his father took out of his time says something about their family.
In my experience, a situation like that one only happens about 1-2 times per recruiting cycle. It usually involves the families with sons who go on to key leadership roles for their future teams.
This family seems very comfortable when they are at UGA. That’s a good foundation for a looming battle with titans like Ohio State and Penn State, among many others.
“Every time we have been there from the minute we drive in there for that first little unofficial visit campus tour to this past weekend we always feel very comfortable,” Richie Bresee said.
What will matter for UGA with 5-star Bryan Bresee
That little story there is part of a long game for the Bulldogs. Bresee and his family seem to be stacking up several positive interactions in Athens.
“This was our third trip,” Richie Bresee said. “We were down there for a one-day (in March) and then down for the G-Day game (in April) and then for the game this weekend. We’ve had a great time every time we’ve been there. Georgia has been high on our list from the start and our whole family has been able to get down there.”
“Bryan has already developed a very good relationship with [defensive line] coach [Tray] Scott. We like obviously meeting with coach [Kirby] Smart and Georgia. I think we like everything about Athens and Georgia.”
We wrote about those early trips in July as the “warm and fuzzy feelings” for the program.
Bryan’s older sister, Bailey, still wears a UGA bracelet on her wrist.
“She’s still a big fan and she is hoping that Bryan somehow ends up in Athens,” he said.
That’s her longstanding vote for him to choose Georgia. She just likes the fit, the climate, the weather and the Deep South way of life.
“Every time we have been there it has been a good visit,” Richie Bresee said. “Georgia is definitely high on our list.”
He wasn’t sure if this was the family’s best visit to UGA but felt it was as good as every visit the family has taken so far.
The stories like that are beginning to mount. Not necessarily in Georgia’s favor yet. This has a long way to go. Alabama is in the mix. So is Clemson. That’s not to mention Big 10 powers like Ohio State and Penn State.
This is a true national battle with a way out-of-state prospect. When the nation’s No. 1 player lies outside of the SEC’s massive footprint, it takes ancillary factors to keep a prospect’s attention. Rose Bowls and SEC titles help.
But so does a growing approval rating of the overall University of Georgia brand.
The Bresee family already knows a UGA student that lives one subdivision over from their home in Damascus. The daughter of that family grew up in the same friend group with one of his daughters.
That family had a tailgate for Auburn they invited the Bresee family to, but they couldn’t make it due to running out of time.
“They absolutely love it there,” Richie Bresee said of UGA. “They have another daughter at another school down South and they wish she had gotten into Georgia they like it so much.”
There were other interested parties there, too.
“Bryan had a lot of fun,” Bresee said of this trip. “We were down with some neighbors who both have kids that are interested and have applied or are in the process of applying to Georgia.”
Bryan was in the locker room with recruits after the game. That’s when Smart went “Yeet” and told the staff to hit the music and “Mo Bamba” blared.
“He’s really developed a good relationship with Nolan and Travon and those guys got to hang out in the locker room after the game with some of the players afterward,” Bresee said. “I don’t know if this visit was better but it was just as good as all the other visits.”
What sort of timeline is shaping up for Bryan Bresee?
When we spoke at The Opening in July, it was not likely to see a commitment from Bresee prior to the start of his senior season. That timeline could speed up.
“I don’t think it will happen anytime soon,” Rich Bresee said. “I can see it either happening right before his senior year or early during his senior year. That would be my guess.”
The family is in the process of starting to figure out whether he will take any spring officials after a lot of research this fall. Credit them for doing the legwork for all that homework.
They have visited Alabama, Ohio State and Penn State this year. The next trip will be to Clemson for the South Carolina game this month.
Bresee had a playoff game the night before his UGA-Auburn trip. He didn’t get to bed until 1 A.M. on the day of his visit. The family had him up a few hours later to catch their flight out of Baltimore.
He wasn’t a bear to get up.
“I can tell with Bryan right when we got to their facility and right when he ran into a bunch of guys he has seen a couple of times,” his father said. “We saw coach Smart and coach Scott right away and you could tell his demeanor changed. He was then in a good mood. Happy. Bouncing around. Then running into Nolan and Travon and some of those guys he has hung out with before down there.”
“I know he is always excited to make that trip to go down to Athens and hang out with those guys.”
Then he found out his own Intel about UGA. It was necessary during his first gameday visit.
“Bryan was saying how the guys on the team all speak so highly about the coaches and how they all speak so highly in his case about coach Scott,” his father said. “That’s the best part of the trip [to me] and that’s how the players interact with the recruits and then how the players there really felt about the coaches and the staff. It was nice for us to get down to a game to see that part of it.”
The biggest positive about UGA to Richie Bresee
Coaches come and go. Recruits should commit to bricks, degrees and their future teammates. Not coaches. That’s what some in-the-know folks seem to preach all the time about recruiting.
The reality is most players bond with the coaches, though. Those guys do the recruiting. (Well, with help from savvy recruiting interns like the ones at UGA.)
Those highly-paid professionals are the gatekeepers of playing time. They are employed in a transient profession. Georgia somehow defuses that worry here.
“It is hard to base your decision on a coach,” Richie Bresee said. “But for us, it seems like coach Smart loves it in Athens. He’s not going anywhere. It seems like coach Scott is one of the young defensive line coaches. One of those up-and-comers who is doing a fantastic job. So I don’t think he’s going anywhere and I think Georgia is as close to the top [of schools for Scott coach the DL] as you can possibly get.”
“I think, for us, there is Athens, the city and the football program,” he said. “Then playing in the SEC and then again the way the kids and recruits and the players talk about the staff and the program are all the biggest positives for us. Then there’s the fact we don’t think those coaches are going anywhere. That means a lot to us and that’s why Georgia is obviously high on our list and on Bryan’s list.”
A few Auburn honeymoon tweets to bear in mind
There’s a lot of information to catalog from the weekend. Is there already a honeymoon period for those visits? Well, check out a few key tweets that have rippled through from the weekend.
Kenny McIntosh is the nation’s No. 10 RB prospect for 2019. It seems like this race is down to Georgia and Oklahoma.
Y’all mess with it ?? #bulldogs 🐶🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/Sm4IXN9usZ
— Blueprint#1 (@1_blueprint) November 13, 2018
Justin Rogers is a 5-star OG in the class of 2020 who might wind up on the defensive line at UGA. He rates as the nation’s No. 1 guard for that cycle.
Been a dog since a youngster #GoDogs🐶 pic.twitter.com/VzNpYVGkNj
— Justin Rogers (@AllAmerican52JR) November 12, 2018
If I’m Lyin I’m Flyin ❌🧢🗣 pic.twitter.com/NOWJvSzAvw
— Justin Rogers (@AllAmerican52JR) November 11, 2018
Tyrique Stevenson, the nation’s No. 5 CB prospect for 2019 on the 247Sports Composite, appears to have released his announcement date via Twitter. He will be at the All-American Bowl out in Texas.
Jan 5th 🤫……. stay tune on abc @ErikRichardsUSA
— The Freak 7️⃣⚡️™️ (@dreamchaserTy10) November 12, 2018
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