This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star Corey Barber in Alabama. He ranks as the nation’s No. 46 WR and the No. 270 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 51 WR and at No. 297 overall.
Corey Barber speaks with conviction about the things that matter to him.
Football? That’s a dissertation about every aspect of the game. He’ll have a lot to talk about there.
“You’ve got to put that work in,” he said. “Then, when it is time, you can show it. You’ve got to treat it like you’ve got to do football all year round if you want to be great at it.”
Barber put a lot of work into his game last off-season and then reaped the rewards.
The not-quite-6-foot-1, 185-pound rising senior piled up 74 catches for 1,429 yards and 18 touchdowns as a junior in 2024. He had a Clemson commit throwing to him and took full advantage of that type of arm talent for a breakout year.
That led to his teammates giving him the nickname “Waffle House” last fall.
“They called me that because they say ‘I’m open 24/7,” Barber said. “I’m always open, so that’s the nickname they gave me. ‘Waffle House.’ That’s what the guys call me.”
Barber is a true man of the people. He does frequent that Southern staple.
“That’s one of my top five places,” he said. “I love the All-Star meal. For sure.”
Those stats in the toughest classification of high school football in Alabama said something. Especially the nine catches for 209 yards and two scores he plundered rival Hoover with in the second game of his junior season.
Spain Park head coach Tim Vakakes is a serious football coach. That runs in his coaching family. He appreciates the way Barber is wired.
“He’s all about the right stuff,” Vakakes said. “There’s a lot of kids who have talent. There’s a lot of kids who have the size, the measurables and all that. We talk to him all the time about keeping the main thing important. That means perfecting your craft and working. Being a leader. Being tough. Wanting the ball. Being dependale.”
“There’s so many things that he does. That’s why he’s elite.”
The junior film here proves it.
“Last year, offensively, we ran the ball,” Vakakes said. “We had two really good running backs, so we ran the ball a lot. A lot of times, it would isolate Corey by himself. Anytime we got one-on-one balls last year with our quarterback, those were the 50/50 balls, but with our quarterback Brock [Bradley] he knows where he’s going with it. When we have a 50/50 chance with Corey, it is more like an 80/20. It isn’t a 50/50 with him.”
Barber had that type of production and film. But the really big boy offers from Georgia and Alabama came after what he did at the Under Armour Atlanta regional camp on Feb. 9.
That’s when Barber ran a 4.34 in the short shuttle at that time but opened a lot more eyes with his 4.46 laser time in the 40-yard dash.
The Georgia offer meant a lot here.
“I just love the way Georgia produces athletes,” he said. “I mean they produce Dawgs year in and year out. When you think of Georgia, you think of that physical powerhouse team that is going to punch you in the mouth every week.”
“I love that. I love the physical aspect of the game. I love the way they come out. They hard. I love the way coach Kirby Smart is so big on doing things the right way. He’s a great coach. I love the way he coaches. I love the way James Coley produces receivers. Georgia is just a place that everybody would love to be at. It is one of those powerhouses in the SEC and you could tell why with the work they put it. It is just a great program overall.”
If one is paying attention here, we can’t help but notice that’s a 4.4 receiver with good size that just used the term “love” seven times in his opening statement about the Dawgs.
Corey Barber breaks down his recruiting options
Barber is set to visit UGA on March 15. That will be his first ever visit to Athens.
That was the first spring visit he set up after the dead period.
“It is just the way they treat players,” Barber said. “I love the way they reach out and actually talk to me, you know, on FaceTime. They really try really hard to recruit me. They tell me the ways they can use me in their offense. I love the way they tell me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear. That’s one of the biggest factors there for sure.”
“I love the way Coach Coley talks about how he develops receivers and how he can teach you the whole game. Not just receiver. He can teach you coverages and how to do this on that play and all those different things like that.”
“One of the things they’ve told me is that I need to work on is the top of my routes. So I’m gonna put that work in over the break and over the offseason so when I come back in the season, I’m going to be the best top-of-the-route guy. I’m going to showcase that on film for sure. That’s one of the things I want to get better at.”
He said it was a “shock” when he got the UGA offer.
“I didn’t really have that much contact before it, so when it came, I mean it was really a shocker. I got on the phone with Coach, and he told me I had the offer. So you know it was one of those big ones.”
He’s also expected to check out Alabama, Auburn, FSU, Ole Miss, and Tennessee this spring. Official visits have already been set with Miami for June 6 and Mississippi State for June 13.
The thought process here is to look for Barber to link up with the UGA staff on his visit this month, kick the tires on how that relationship feels, and decide on an OV by that point.
Where will he line up in college? That’s a hot topic with college coaches.
“They all kind of say the same things that they see on film with us,” Vakakes said. “We move him around. We put him at slot. We put him outside. We motion. We shift. We just try to move him around. so you can’t just isolate him and double him.”
When coaches lay eyes on him, they realize he’s bigger than he looks on film. He’s poured a lot of hard work into that.
“He just wants to work like he’s always going to training,” Vakakes said. “He goes to a dad-gum stretch guy to stretch. He goes to a speed guy to work on speed. He goes to a receiver guy to work on that. He’s always throwing with Brock. They’re always getting together. He’s made with the right stuff and he focuses on the right stuff. He’s hungry to be the best.”
When he started his junior season, he had offers from UAB and one other program. Vakakes told him that his life would change once his junior film got out and college coaches visited Span Park High in January.
It has.
Oregon, Washington and West Virginia have also offered recently. Texas A&M was another school he brought up.
“When I told him that, he just started smiling,” Vakakes said. “He was like ‘Coach, I’m in and let’s go’ and the thing I love about Corey is he has that same energy today as he did back then before all the offers. I think that’s what makes him special. He doesn’t feel like he’s arrived. He just wants to keep working.”
That’s more impressive to his coaches than that 4.46 laser in the 40.
“No doubt,” Vakakes said.
Barber will take summer classes in order to be able to graduate in December to enroll early with his next team.
“You have got to use up a lot of your summer time,” Barber said. “A lot of people get their summer, but I’ve got to spend my summer doing work. But it is going to pay out when I graduate in December and get there early and get a heads-up on most of the guys.”
Most coaches see him all over the scheme.
“A lot of coaches say I am versatile,” he said. “I can play both the slot and the outside receiver because of my 4.4 speed. For sure. They also say I can be dynamic in the slot in all the ways I can make plays. They say I can make plays from both an inside and an outside standpoint. They just say that I am a guy that can create mismatches.”
His best spot on the field seems to be in the slot. There’s just a lot more that he can do there with jet sweeps or working double moves from that spot on the field to get open easily.
Why Corey Barber plays football
Barber is always about the work. That’s part of his football DNA, but the game has always been a place of comfort.
“It is just one of those places for me where I feel like I can be myself,” he said. “When I’m playing football, that’s a place I can take my emotions out and just be that guy. I feel like I can just be Corey Barber. Football is my happy place. ... From the first day I stepped on the field, I knew that was the place I wanted to be. I just love the game. I love the physical aspect of it. I love to be a Dawg. I just love the game of football, man.”
He said to look for him to commit before his senior season.
What is he looking for in the right fit?
“Just that place that feels like home,” he said. “When I go on my visit, I just want to feel at home. Not just to me. But also to my family. But the biggest thing is to me. I’ve got to be there for the next three to four years. ... I really want a team that’s going to develop me to be the best receiver I can be, but I also want a team that’s going to develop me to be the best person off the field also.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
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