This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with Valdosta 2027 athlete Marquis Fennell. He has no star or prospect rankings, but that will change. Fennell was the AJC Class 6A Offensive Player of the Year for the 2025 season.
No stars. No rankings. Lots and lots of playmaking ability and production.
That’s the way the Georgia football program feels about Valdosta’s Marquis Fennell. Check out the stat parade from his junior season:
- 181 carries for 1,840 yards and 23 TDs
- 8.2 yards per carry
- 53 catches for 764 yards and 10 TDs
- 261 more return yards for 2,505 all-purpose yards
- 8 games with at least three touchdowns
The junior tape all but requires stopping to eat a sandwich to get through it all. Fennell said the first three plays on his tape are his favorites.
He’s already told the coaches at Valdosta High to upsell those highlights when all the college coaches come in this month.
“I told them when them coaches come in, you tell them you’ve got some Tavon Austin tape,” he said. “Because it is going to be electric. The tape is going to be great.”
The Valdosta High coaching staff already got the memo.
“He’s a video game, we call him a toy,” Valdosta coach Shelton Fennell said. “He’s a video game toy because he’s hard-working. He’s self-motivated.”
“We call him ‘Me versus me’ because he doesn’t need me to push him. He doesn’t need the guy beside him to tell him to run the ball faster. He doesn’t need that pushing because he’s going to push himself to be the best he can be.”
Fennell played quarterback, running back, slot and outside receiver, kick returner and punt returner.
“Anywhere we could get a matchup and get the ball to him,” Felton said. “That’s where he went. He’s so smart, he knows what every position does in our offense.”
His natural spot is at running back, but Felton believes he’s a slot receiver that can also be a back in the SEC. There was a play he made last fall against Lowndes where he ran a choice route on a third-and-long snap.
Fennell ran outside and then dipped back inside.
“We threw it to him and he made a one-handed catch between defenders and then flipped into the end zone,” Felton said.
And yet all those strengths, Felton says, what stands out the most with the 5-foot-10, 185-pounder is what’s between his ears.
“He’ll come back to the sideline and say ‘Coach, he’s playing inside leverage on me’ or ‘he’s playing on top of me’ and he sees it well,” Felton said.
Fennell also holds a 4.0 grade-point average. Georgia has already highlighted Zachariah Branch and his role in the Georgia offense as an example of what he can do for the Dawgs.
Fennell loved the player comp.
“Oh yeah, it was a bunch of Zachariah Branch,” he said. “A bunch.”
That was effective, right?
“Definitely, man,” Fennell said. “It was great. Man, Zachariah is great.”
Those two share the player trait of making multiple defenders miss.
“I tell anybody that if he catches the ball and he can square you up, you’re in trouble,” Felton said. “The first person isn’t going to tackle him.”
It stems from a fatherly influence.
“If one man tackles me, I am thinking about my Dad,” Fennell said. “What my Dad is going to say after this game. It doesn’t matter how many touchdowns it is, ‘You’re going to let that one man tackle you’ after the game. He is going to be on my but.”
Marquis Fennell on Georgia
Fennell was born in Nebraska. He moved to Georgia when he was eight years old. Felton said he doesn’t smile much, but the offer he got last Friday from UGA merited an exception.
“The smile on his face when he got that offer it told you right then, like he felt like his work was being validated and what he’s done,” Felton said. “We preach about proving his self.”
Felton laughs at how the star culture has yet to rank Fennell. He has supreme confidence in his rising senior.
“There’s no dual threat better than my guy,” Felton said. “Like a dual athlete-type guy. In one game, he had 31 carries. In one game, he had 18 receptions. There’s nothing he can’t do. He also played ‘Wildcat’ quarterback in that game and he threw a little comeback route. We put the ball in his hands.”
Felton was there when Georgia offered. Why does the receiver’s coach, James Coley, want him?
“Because he reminds him of [Zachariah] Branch,” Felton said. “He’s a guy who can do a lot. He thought he was a little bigger than Branch was. ... He thought he was that type. I told him that Marquis ‘he is that type of guy’ and he can do everything that Branch is doing. I’m not knocking Branch by no means, but I think my guy can be that type of player for the University of Georgia or any university.”
How did Georgia help itself with his recent visit?
“Just letting me come up there and see the atmosphere,” Fennell said. “I kind of like already get a vibe of how it is up there and how much love they show to all their players and students and how I’d be treated up there.”
Does he feel like he’d fit in with the Dawgs?
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Definitely.”
Fennell has built his career on disrespect.
“I love the game, but it is just to prove everybody wrong,” Fennell said. “I’ve been doubted multiple le times. Just size-wise. I just play to show all of them I’m really that.”
“It is just something in me. I couldn’t tell you like a real permanent reason why I play this game. But it is just even when we are in the weight room, I feel like I have to push through it. It is all I’ve got for real. I feel like football is all I’ve got and then the competition. I love competition.”
Fennell labeled the Dawgs a major “contender” for him moving forward and shared the biggest reason why.
“Comparing me to Zachariah Branch,” he said. “To a man who just broke the receptions record for them for a single season. That speaks a lot. They get the ball in his hands and let him do what he does. I feel like with me, you can do the same thing and get the same outcome, if not better.”
Fennell said that Georgia, FSU, Appalachian State, and Houston are currently the teams highest on his board. He aims to get back up to Athens again soon.
Have you seen this week’s “Before the Hedges” weekly recruiting special yet? Check it out.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(Check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
