This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star QB Matt Zollers. He ranks as the nation’s No. 10 QB and the No. 147 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 8 QB and at No. 85 overall.
Matt Zollers is a name DawgNation has been waiting to hear from. When it comes to all the possible scenarios of the QB signee for the 2025 cycle, there are three names to ponder right now.
- 5-star Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis
- Zollers
- 4-star Ryan Montgomery
The feeling here is if the “Dawgs don’t sign one of those three names for this class, then something went wrong. Even if these wild days of NIL.
Enter the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Zollers.
He told DawgNation on Wednesday he’s got a detailed timeline for when he will make his decision. It should boil down to something like this:
- Compete in the Pennsylvania state basketball championships that start next Saturday
- See how far his Spring-Ford HS team can go. He will schedule his visits the day after his junior basketball season wraps up.
- Schedule unofficial visits with his four finalists (Georgia, Missouri, Penn State, Pitt) and take in everything they have to offer. “Once basketball is over, I will probably visit the four schools in probably the span of a week,” he said. “10 days maybe.”
- Commit to one lucky school after he visits during those spring practices
- Take his official visit to the school that he chose over the summer
That’s pretty much it. For those who only care about where a recruit is going to go and when he will decide, that’s a solid stack of information flow at the top.
But there’s more to consider with Zollers. He just started playing QB in his final year of middle school. If it wasn’t for his older brother Zach’s inspiration, he could still be playing soccer right now.
When it comes to NIL opportunities in this cycle, Zollers made his stance on that very clear.
“The money is going to come,” he said. “It is not like I’m going to pick a school for money. Wherever I go, there will be money for me. It is definitely not a deciding factor. I’m picking it off football and education.”
Zollers didn’t have an offer from anywhere a year ago.
“None,” he said. “I barely talked to any coaches.”
He didn’t get his first offer until after he went to a 7-on-7 camp last summer. He didn’t even know coaches were going to be there.
That one came from Old Dominion at the beginning of the summer.
“Nothing really happened after that,” he said. “Then the season started. I got [offers from] Pitt and Syracuse. Then South Florida and Penn State offered me. Then things kind of slowed down a little bit I would say. Until I’d say January. I forget the exact date but I got two or three in the beginning of the week and then it was a Thursday. I got seven or eight [offers] and it kind of all happened at once.
According to his Twitter feed, that week looked like this:
- January 11, 2024: Re-offered by Syracuse
- January 13, 2024: Offered by Michigan State
- January 15, 2024: Offered by Missouri (one of his four finalists) and Nebraska
- January 17, 2024: Offered by Kentucky
- January 18, 2024: Offered by Boston College, Liberty University and Georgia
- January 19, 2024: Offered by Florida and UConn
He got momentum by getting offers from other schools when he started posting each new scholarship opportunity on his social media.
Contrast that with the fact that On3.com recently ranked Zollers as the nation’s No. 3 QB and the No. 17 overall recruit. Zollers now even ranks higher than Lewis on the pure On3 recruiting rankings.
“It was cool,” he said of that time frame. “I definitely knew that I could play Division 1 football. I didn’t know it was going to be this crazy. That I was going to have this many options. It is definitely cool.”
What is he looking for in an ideal school?
“Stability definitely plays a part in that,” Zollers said. “Just knowing that. I mean obviously, the position coaches they come and go as they get better jobs. But stability with the head coach [matters.] Just knowing that the years I will be there I believe that he will be there, too.”
“Then connections with the rest of the coaching staff and then the support staff. The strength coach and stuff like that and then how I connect with players. If I could see myself being friends with them and then obviously the education.”
Zollers mentions that stability trait over and over. Georgia, Missouri, Penn State and Pitt all rate highly based on that criteria. Here’s a look at those four based on their tenure at each program.
- Penn State coach James Franklin - He was hired in January of 2014. His average season is a 9-4 mark, including four times when the Nittany Lions won 11 games.
- Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi - He was hired in December of 2014 but has had six seasons in which he lost at least five games, including a 3-9 record in 2023.
- Georgia coach Kirby Smart - He was hired in December of 2015. His teams have gone 62-6 since 2019, including back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. The ‘Dawgs have also won 42 of their last 44 games.
- Missouri coach Eli Drinkiwitz: “Drink” was hired in December of 2019. His Tigers are 28-21 in his four seasons, including an 11-2 record in 2023.
Pitt seems to be an outlier there in terms of the stability factor. Perhaps compared to his other finalists. Zollers said that the schools he knows the most about are the in-state schools. He still has the most left yet to learn about the SEC teams in his final group.
Zollers said he wasn’t a fan of either Penn State or Pitt growing up in Pennsylvania. He kind of just liked players.
“The in-state schools are there because I like what they are doing,” he said. “I like the type of teams that Coach Franklin and Coach Narduzzi are running.”
What drives Matt Zollers?
Zollers likes to golf. He’s right at a 9-plus handicap. That’s what he likes to do when he’s not playing football or seeing the floor well at small forward and charting double-doubles for the basketball team.
As mentioned earlier, Zollers thanks his older brother for the genesis of his career. Big brother was a player. He wound up as his leading receiver while he was the clear starter during his sophomore year at Spring-Ford High in Metro Philadelphia.
“The whole reason I started playing football is for my brother,” Zollers said. “It started when he was in third grade. I was in first grade. He’s two years older than me. I played soccer before but I used to go to all of his football practices and I told my parents ‘I don’t want to play soccer anymore. I want to play football’ and I started off as a running back for a couple of years. Then when I got to middle school I played receiver. I didn’t start playing quarterback until I was in the eighth grade.”
He said if he never watched his brother at football practice who knows what he might be doing right now.
“I could still be playing soccer for all I know,” he said.
Think about that for a second. Now take in the fact he’s been timed at a high 4.6 or a low 4.7 in the 40. He used to be a running back and a receiver, after all.
That’s the prelude to his junior highlight film. That’s the one that opened the majority of doors to big-time college football.
That second clip will catch one’s attention. So will the third. Then he uncorks a throw on the fourth play where he lets it go at his own 23.
The ball touches down at maybe the 16 on the other side of the field. That’s 61 yards in the air. At least.
Those junior highlights tell a story. So does this stat line after only his fourth full season as a quarterback.
- 2917 passing yards but paired with a 63 percent completion rate
- 37 TD passes and just two (!) interceptions
- 420 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns
He’s got a lot of “wow” plays but that first play on his tape might be his best play. That was the 70-yard run that he took to the house after making the defensive end miss on a pump fake. He was off after that.
What matters to him about the way he plays this great game?
“The type of player I am I’d say that I am a passer that can run the football,” he said. “I can stay in the pocket when needed but I also can escape. I can have designed runs for me. I can make something out of nothing. I can do a little bit of everything.”
Think about this gumbo of skills. Mesh the arm talent of CJ Stroud with the boldness and movement of Joe Burrow. Those are the names to include in the recipe of his Quarterback DNA. Because those are the ones he pays close attention to and appreciates the most in the game right now.
Ohio State was the school he most closely associated with growing up. His mother went to school in Columbus. But the Buckeyes never offered.
They had settled on their QB for 2025. Especially after just adding 5-star Alabama transfer Julian Sayin to their 2024 roster.
His favorite year of football so far was his sophomore year. That came after throwing just 70 passes as a freshman on the varsity in 2021. He mixed in with a senior who rotated reps every drive.
It is also another fist bump to his brother Zach.
“I got to play with my brother a little bit,” he said. “But my sophomore year I was the full-time starter and he was the No. 1 receiver. So it was pretty cool throwing to him and always knowing he’s out there having someone to rely on. I think that was pretty cool.”
Zach Zollers is now a walk-on at Pitt. But he caught 42 passes for 607 yards and eight touchdowns from his younger brother in the fall of 2022.
How does Matt Zollers feel about being a ‘Dawg?
Zollers visited UGA briefly back in January. That was his only trip. The ‘Dawgs didn’t offer until January 18 of this year.
“The number one thing that has stayed in my mind has, like I said because it is a big part of my decision, is the stability,” he said. “I said that position coaches come and go but Coach [Mike] Bobo is not going anywhere either. I think that’s a big piece that Coach Smart and Coach Bobo are going to be there for as long as they can coach.”
Why did the ‘Dawgs make his final four?
“What they were saying that they like is the versatility,” he said. “To play the position now, you have to do everything. You can’t just sit there and throw the football. They think that I’m one of the best at that in my class.”
Improvisation is a big chunk of it.
“They like that I can extend plays if something goes wrong,” he said. “If something goes wrong, most of the time I can make it go right. That’s a big part.”
He already knows one thing he can work on to be better this fall.
“I feel like what I can do better is I should take more of the things that are given to me instead of trying to make something out of something that is already there,” he said. “Like trying to make a big play out of something that can get me 15 yards and a first down and keep going and not trying to risk things. I feel like that can raise my completion percentage and ultimately make me a better player.”
Aside from that key stability factor, what else does he like about the ‘Dawgs?
“They run an NFL-style offense and the development piece,” he said. “They know how to develop quarterbacks and get you ready for the next level which is ultimately the goal.”
Matt Zollers: Why does he feel he can be quickly ready with his decision?
He won’t need a lot of time to be committed by the end of March or early April.
Zollers feels he knows the most about Penn State.
“Being that they are two hours away,” he said. “I can go up there whenever I want. Then I would say Pitt is probably the second that I know about. I think Georgia and Missouri are pretty equal in what I know about them.”
The fact his older brother is at Pitt will not be a major factor, he said. Even though that would be quite the story.
“He just wants me to go somewhere that I want to go,” Zollers said. “He’s not like ‘You need to come here’ or ‘You need to go there’ but he’s just supportive. He wants me to go where what is best for me.”
He also gave a succinct opinion of why the Tigers are in this chase.
“I really like what they are doing up there,” he said. “Once again, I keep going back to stability. Coach Drinkwitz is not going anywhere either and then I really like all of the coaches on their staff. I got to meet a decent amount of their players and I really like them. They’re nice people and they are good at football obviously. I like the type of scheme they run up there. I think it would fit me very nicely.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
