This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest on 5-star Kam McGee from Brother Rice in Chicago. He’s the nation’s No. 3 EDGE and the No. 15 overall prospect for 2028 on the 247Sports Composite. The Rivals Industry Ranking has him as the No. 1 EDGE and No. 5 overall.
Kameron McGee is one of those rare three-play, three-minute recruiting evaluations.
The 5-star from Chicago will be one of Georgia’s most important guests at this weekend’s Auburn game. 247Sports just ranked him No. 1 overall for the Class of 2028 in their rerank of the nation’s top juniors this week.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound rising senior has an impressive 84-inch wingspan. He also had six sacks through his first seven games this season. That’s a strong combination, especially with a 37-inch vertical.
He’ll be an impact defender in college football, but the double-duty wide receiver caught this 33-yard touchdown pass earlier this season. It was a screen. Not the obvious fade.
He also caught this 18-yarder over the middle as a sophomore.
Those two plays demand an obligatory reminder that McGee is a future defensive stopper with a 600-plus-pound deadlift. He won’t be one of the big offensive skill players Todd Hartley usually recruits to UGA.
McGee is a winner, too. He helped his Brother Rice team win its first state title in 44 years last season with his 54 stops, 21 TFLs, and 10.5 sacks.
It’s hard to imagine a player who can catch touchdowns like those two, flash his laser 4.6 speed, but still be regarded as one of the top five defensive recruits in the 2028 class.
Take those two offensive plays and then the first play on his midseason junior highlight reel. That will satisfy the three-play requirement and stamp him the real deal.
The best part of the evaluation comes from listening to McGee. That’s the three-minute part.
In less than three minutes of conversation, you realize he’s the same type of player Georgia has built its championship culture and “Mudita” locker rooms around.
Kirby Smart is personally involved in this recruitment, along with first-year EDGE coach Larry Knight.
McGee’s “why” is one of the strongest we’ve heard in recent years, especially from a 5-star.
“I do it for my little sister and my Mom,” McGee said. “I feel like those are just the two most incredible people in my life. My little sister is special needs. She has a rare, a super-rare disease, and I don’t know what it is called. It’s so rare I don’t know what it is called.”
“I mainly do it for her and my Mom. That’s what gets me going.”
His 11-year-old sister’s name is Shonece Randle. His mother, Dessazzer Banks, has been a rock for their family during tough times. Randle will turn 12 this Friday. That’s the day before her big brother’s UGA visit.
“She can’t speak,” McGee said. “She is not non-verbal. She makes noises, but she can’t say words. She has a tablet where she can say what she wants to say on it. Then she walks. She does everything almost like a normal kid does, but she just can’t speak.”
Randle used to come to his youth games, but it is harder for her to attend his high school games because the crowds are so loud. She doesn’t like all that noise.
He has a different spin on the typical NFL dream.
“My dream is to make it to the NFL,” he said. “Just to have generational wealth, man. I just want to donate to special needs. To give them so much. I just want to work hard for my mom and my sister. To make their lives a lot easier. That’s why I want to make it to the NFL.”
He wants to use that NFL player’s platform to raise awareness for children with special needs. McGee said he will donate some of that wealth towards the research that will help cure the disease that affects his sister and other children like her.
That’s his version of “making it” in football.
“Yes sir,” McGee said. “That would be amazing.”
That goal shows up in what he puts on tape every week.
“My film just says relentless effort,” McGee said. “Just relentless. Just keep going. Keep going. Play hard. Play to the whistle. Play nasty. I just think that my film just shows me as a person kinda. I am going to play fast. I am going to give you all I’ve got. I’m going to make plays.”
Brother Rice often lines up in an even front. Yet when his team comes out in an odd front, he lines up at outside linebacker in a 3-3 look. He’s only rushing out of a two-point stance.
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Kameron McGee: How does the 5-star EDGE feel about Georgia football?
McGee was at the Texas-Ohio State game earlier this year. He’d planned that one, plus a Miami visit and this week’s UGA visit before the season.
He’s since added an Oregon visit, too.
This weekend will be his fourth trip to check out Georgia, but his first gameday visit.
“Man, Georgia just has a shot like with the history of Georgia,” McGee said. “You know, just Coach Knight. Coach Smart. Those are the guys I talk to the most. Just like the history of it, man. They produce NFL guys every single year. Especially on the defensive side of the ball.”
“Then Coach Smart is not going anywhere. He’s got a [young] son. He’s growing up in Athens. He’s not going anywhere, so the stability is there. Then Coach Knight’s coaching background. He coached at Temple. He worked his way up. He played Division One football. So he’s got a good feel for the game, so I trust him to coach me, and I just feel like Georgia is just a great place to be.”
Smart is in contact with him often. That’s rare for him. Even as a 5-star.
“It’s not a lot of times where head coaches are texting you personally,” McGee said. “Just him texting me a lot is saying volumes about how much they want me and how much they want to develop me and just make me a better person.”
He wanted to visit UGA earlier this year. It’s just hard with Brother Rice playing some games on Saturdays, too.
“It’s hard to get down there,” he said. “But when I can get down there, I’m going.”
Knight actually went up to Brother Rice earlier this fall on a Friday night before a UGA game. That shows just how much of a priority he is for the program.
What has been the main message from Georgia?
“At first, Coach Smart, he just liked the measurables,” McGee said. “He just liked how nasty I played. He liked the confidence I play with. The speed. He likes the versatility. Then when Coach Knight got hired, he said the same thing. He liked the versatility. He liked the speed off the edge. Then when I camped at Georgia, Coach Knight and Coach Smart told me my stock as a player was rising on their recruitment board.”
“They like just how I’m a natural leader and how I’m a good person and just a good person to be around.”
The Bulldogs appear to be deeper in this race than the national narratives make them out to be.
“You can be some great coaches, but they have a bad track record,” McGee said. “You know you can’t really trust the track record. But I think with Georgia it’s a mixture of just great coaches, a great track record, a great program history and just then great people in general in Athens.”
When he camped at UGA, he blew the staff away.
“I’m pretty sure I was the best at the camp,” he said. “They didn’t do like MVPs or anything, but I definitely was the best in my opinion. I feel like Coach Knight would probably say the same thing.”
McGee already knows what he wants to find in the right school.
“The boxes that will have to be checked would obviously start with a good education,” he said. “Without education, it is nothing. Got to have my family at some of the games. I can’t be too far. Distance isn’t a big deal for me, but I want my family to come to my games, so it can’t be too far.”
“Obviously, the development and then the relationships.”
Athens fits into that proximity bubble.
“Georgia is so close, man,” McGee said. “You get on a plane to fly into Atlanta and you are in Georgia like that. I think it is 90 minutes, maybe. Georgia is close. Georgia is crazy close.”
