Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep has the latest with 4-star TE Lawson Luckie. He ranks as the nation’s No. 12 TE and the No. 234 overall prospect for 2023 on the 247Sports Composite ratings.

=========================================================

Lawson Luckie is likely the most misunderstood blue-chip in Georgia’s 2023 recruiting class.

Bring his name up. Most consider him a jack-of-all-trades. He is seen as the bare-knuckler brawler that could play TE, H-back or fullback during his time in Athens.

Luckie will be special early on special teams. He’s physical and also selfless.

Those who short-sell him will get those two parts of the on-the-hop scouting report right. The rare 4-year starter at GHSA 7A Norcross High School is a lot more than that.

“Lawson has great leadership skills,” Norcross coach Keith Maloof said. “Kids gravitate to him. He works his tail off. I’ve never one time had to get on him about his effort or his hustle and what he does to strengthen himself and make himself a better player.”

He takes a lot of pride in the work he puts in behind the scenes to do everything that might one day be asked of him. But this is not a story about a lunch-pail worker.

This is more about that unassuming guy with the lunch pail who actually has a lot of Lamborghini to his game. Most Georgia fans probably don’t know what they are getting in Luckie.

“I know people have a misconception about me,” Lawson Luckie said.

Luckie can be a team leader, but also a leader on the stat sheet.

“I can play receiver,” he said. “I am the best receiving tight end in the country. I don’t want to sound cocky, but that’s what I pride myself on. That’s why I am so confident in myself because a lot of people think I’m just a blocker. I’m going to be real confident in myself when I go to and get to Georgia. To show I am the best receiving tight end in the country, too.”

The scouting report on Georgia TE commit Lawson Luckie

Check out his junior tape.

That’s just his junior highlight reel.

His best play came as a sophomore in 2020. That was on a fade he caught against Colquitt County in the state quarterfinals on the road at Colquitt County. Norcross beat the Packers 17-7 when that program was ranked among the top 25 teams in the country at the time.

The 6-foot-3.5, 235-pounder ranks as the nation’s No. 12 TE in the country for 2023. There are actually two in-state tight ends rated higher than Luckie.

We will just have to disagree with that status.

He’s a lot more than the mix-it-up hand-in-the-dirt brawler at tight end. When asked what he needs to get better at, he listed what most would consider one of his core strengths.

“I just got to get better at blocking at the point of attack,” Luckie said.

It is because of the things most scouts don’t know he can do. They’ve never seen it. The very effective system at Norcross doesn’t give him a chance to showcase everything he can do from the tight end spot.

What’s his best attribute right now? Luckie feels it is his route running.

“I can run and I can run routes now,” Luckie said. “Real good routes. That’s what I think is the biggest part of my game. That’s what I pride myself the most on.”

His last two seasons are basically carbon copies of one another:

  • 2021: 12 games, 33 catches, 358 yards, 10.8 yards per catch, 3 touchdowns
  • 2020: 13 games, 35 catches, 389 yards, 11.1 yards per catch, 3 touchdowns

Look for him to goose those numbers in 2022. He’s on a team now with perimeter weapons galore.

There is Power 5 talent out on the edges at Norcross with 3-star WR Nakai Poole. He’s committed to Mississippi State. Zion Taylor, a Parkview transfer, is another 3-star Georgia Tech commit.

Now add in Luckie.

It is going to be pretty hard to cover all of those guys. Especially when his Blue Devils also feature a mobile quarterback in junior dual-threat AJ Watkins. Watkins threw for 10 touchdowns and ran for 536 yards and another six scores as a sophomore last fall.

Did you know the weekly DawgNation.com "Before the Hedges" program is available as an Apple podcast? Click to check it out and download it.

4-star TE Lawson Luckie is a 4-year starter at Norcross High and is a Georgia Bulldog legacy. (Jeff Sentell / DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

News flash: Lawson Luckie is going to take a few visits

We’ve never been a fan of overcooked headlines on this page. That’s why Luckie shared a bit of news recently.

He is going to take visits. Look for him to take an official to check out Notre Dame. He also plans to go to Tuscaloosa to watch the mighty Crimson Tide.

These things have all been encouraged by Georgia during his time as a recruit.

“I just want to see all these other schools,” Luckie said. “This is my recruitment. I will only get to do this once.”

He also calmly and succinctly shared why he will remain a ‘Dawg.

“It is just UGA man,” he said. “That’s it. Pretty simple.”

When he says that, he gives off a look like a social media meme there. Like one of those “What’s understood; Don’t need to be explained” vibes.

“My future in Athens is going to be whatever I make out of it,” Luckie said. “I could either be like a guy that just goes through and play some good ball.”

Or Athens could treat him the way he treats the fans every Saturday in the SEC.

“Not everybody is going to get the same treatment as Brock Bowers does when he starts having a season like he did last year,” Luckie said. “Not when you are still sitting on the sidelines. You have to work hard and make something out of the time you get in Athens.”

He knows what he can do.

“I bring energy,” Luckie said. “I’m a winner. I’m real competitive. I just think I am going to go out there and find a way to get on the field early. Just because I’m going to be able to compete and not back down when I go up against anyone.”

His father, Mike, was at LB for Georgia during the 1990s. He was one of the three Luckie triplets to play for Georgia under former coach Jim Donnan.

His parents are separated, but he usually sees his father every other weekend. Mike Luckie really helped him with the recruiting process.

“He is just all ball,” Lawson Luckie said. “He helped me a lot in the recruiting process in just avoiding the junk. That all of these coaches are going to try to put in your head and just gas me up. He guided me to stay humble and just keep working.”

When Lawson was coming up in Gwinnett County, he wasn’t a Little League legend like a lot of the other SEC commits in his class. He was often playing on the line because of his size and weight.

He didn’t really “blow up” as a prospect until his sophomore year of high school. Luckie even missed a lot of his freshman year with an elbow injury.

“He kept my head just right when I was younger and told me to keep working and coming up,” Lawson Luckie said. “Just told me to wait my time. Be patient. He told me I would catch up to all those other dudes if I just stayed the course.”

“He was right about all of it.”

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will be able to see special 1-on-1 content with UGA names like Jake Fromm, Gunner Stockon and Brock Vandagriff here.

4-star TE Lawson Luckie committed to Georgia in January of 2022. (Jeff Sentell / DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

Georgia football recruiting: Another Luckie is already on the way

Luckie will turn 18 in October. His younger brother, Carter, will be a freshman DL at Blessed Trinity this fall. Go ahead and remember that name.

“He’s a big D-end,” Luckie said of his younger brother. “He’s huge. He is big as all heck. He is going to be big. He will be a huge recruit, too. But he doesn’t have any offers yet.”

He doesn’t have any offers, but he’s got a pretty stout measuring stick in his bigger brother.

“He’s huge,” Lawson Luckie said. “He’s already bigger than me right now in like height. He’s slimmed down a bit right now, but he’s still already 240 or so.”

As for his own future, the Norcross star will take a few visits this fall, but he is well aware of what is waiting for him in Athens.

“When I am down there, the team is all together and I get along with all the guys,” he said. “Then there is that offense. I don’t think there is another offense in the country that is made for the tight end like it is at Georgia. You can’t ignore that. That is a real big good thing about Georgia.”

“We might not have the best offense to showcase a tight end here, but when I go to Georgia I know I’m going to fit right in.”

He will add to quite a pipeline of talent at his position in Athens.

There is Luckie and Pearce Spurlin III in the 2023 class. Freshman TE Oscar Delp was wanted by everyone in the 2022 class. Then there is that Bowers fella.

Darnell Washington, another former 5-star, was the nation’s No. 2 ATH in 2020. Bowers was the nation’s No. 3 TE in his class.

Delp was the nation’s No. 2 TE. Spurlin is the nation’s No. 2 TE in this cycle. 5-star Landen Thomas, the nation’s No. 1 TE for 2024, has also already committed to UGA.

How does Todd Hartley stack his room up like cordwood?

“He’s just real persistent as hell,” Lawson Luckie said. “He’s also real passionate about Georgia. Passionate about tight ends and passionate about Georgia.”

Schools are still coming after Luckie, too. He just has to let Hartley know what is up.

“I just say ‘Coach I am a ‘Dawg’ and that’s all he really needs to know,” Luckie said. “I just tell him these coaches and schools are going to talk to me. But he said he wanted me to talk to all these other coaches and take my visits during my process so I would know that Georgia is the right place for me.”

“When I was going into my commitment, they said they wanted me to still take my visits. They wanted me to and that’s what I am still going to do.”

SENTELL’S INTEL

(check on the recent reads on DawgNation.com)