This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star DL Preston Carey at IMG Academy in Florida. He ranks as the nation’s No. 34 DL and the No. 280 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 29 DL and No. 291 overall.
Preston Carey affects people. Not just football players in the trenches.
The first time you get to speak to him, he leaves a certain impression. It goes beyond his club bouncer build and a deep voice that belongs to a strongman named Atlas in the next Pixar classic.
The second time? That impression is reinforced.
The third time? Well, he leaves one feeling a certain type of way about the way he’s wired.
It is about more than his 400-pound bench press, the 575-plus pound squat, and the fact that he plays for the most talented high school team in America at IMG Academy.
Perhaps the best way to share that would be a visual aid. The impression he leaves is of someone who would post this on social media after his official visit to UGA.
DawgNation’s latest wide-ranging interview with Carey detailed his process. Stuff that would belong at the top of any story about the national top 300 recruit and his interest in the Dawgs.
He’s now 315 pounds after some serious spring weight training. But he wants to get back to playing this fall at 295. That’s why he watched his calories on his official.
He doesn’t want to take all of these OVs over the summer and watch the scale creep up to 340 pounds.
“I actually ate really healthy on the visit,” Carey said. “I didn’t even have dessert when I was at Georgia. I still enjoyed the hell out of the food. The steak. Brisket. Everything is good over there. But I keep it healthy. Because like you said, if you don’t, you will be [weighing] 350 by the end of all of them.”
But then Carey said something, as he often does, that sticks out even more than the good stuff he had just shared 90 seconds earlier.
It was how the Dawgs made him feel on his official visit.
“I didn’t mention that at all in this interview, but that was the one thing that really was amazing,” he said. “The whole time was they really made me feel like a priority throughout the whole visit. Like consistently.”
He had examples.
“Just making sure that your travel is smooth,” he said. “Checking in on you every second. Whether you’re in the hotel, the chauffeur is on the way to the hotel. Whatever it is, like throughout the whole visit, they’re checking on you. Just making sure that you’re not hungry. Then, make sure that you’ve seen everything you want to see. You know, taking care of you in every way. Making sure to put you with the right players and people on the visit to have, you know, the best possible experience at the university.”
Georgia nailed the latter part there. His official visit hosts were DLs Christen Miller and Jordan “Big Baby” Hall. Those two could be mayors of their hometowns in about 30 years. That’s how personable those two are.
The immersion into the team for the weekend was his favorite part. It was even better than talking ball with Glenn Schumann, Tray Scott, and Kirby Smart.
“Spending the weekend with them was amazing,” Carey said. “You know, because you got to talk ball, got to kinda see where the chemistry was at with, you know, all the other players in the program, and I just really enjoyed that. That was good. I feel like it gives you a real insight into what the program is like, what it is really like for a player at your own position.
He also said he struck up a good vibe with redshirt freshman cornerback Demello Jones and redshirt freshman DL Nasir Johnson.
“All the boxes were checked,” he said. “Now I gotta go, you know, take these other visits and weigh all the options and I’ll make a decision on June 30.”
Of course. The sharp-dressed DL would have his commitment date already dialed in advance of his first OV.
“It was my first official visit, and the bar was set very high all the way from how in-depth we went on everything to every facet and factor.”
Carey now has the following official visits coming up: Auburn (June 3-5), Florida (June 6-8), Rutgers (June 14-16), Alabama (June 17-19), and USC (June 20-22).
Preston Carey: What’s the plan that Georgia football has in mind for him?
Carey rattled off a lot of intriguing things about his official visit, including his takeaways on:
- Position fit: “They see me all the way from like a ‘5′ tech to all the way to ‘0′ pretty much,“ he said. ”4i and in. That’s athletic enough and strong enough to play every position. Obviously, that will all change when you get to college and see what you are best at and stuff. That’s what [Coach Tray Scott] said to me."
- His sitdown with Kirby Smart: “He just spoke about his plan for me and what I will have to do to be elite and be the next first-rounder,” he said. “We just talked ball and talked about Georgia and their culture.”
- What’s the best thing he likes about the Dawgs now? “It’s got to be that it is a place where only a certain type of person goes there,” he said. “I love that. I love that they are unique, and you know, not everyone can go in there and thrive. I like that people who go to Georgia are very unique. They have to buy in, and there are a lot of factors that went into why they all chose Georgia. I love that. I love that they are a unique program.”
- Has he heard from UGA commit Zech Fort yet? They play together at IMG Academy: “100 percent. He’s in my English class, actually, so literally when I got back, I was talking to him about everything about Georgia, and we had a really good conversation.”
- The biggest thing he learned on that official: “I think they are very misconceived,” he said. “Like a lot of people, see how successful they are and just see the end result. But people don’t really know how much work they put in and how much work really goes into the program from the outside looking in. A lot of people just don’t understand that about Georgia.”
He also had one big takeaway about the Dawgs. That’s what he got from Hall and Miller. That’s what was repeated from Scott, Schumann, and Smart.
“You know everything you hear is true,” Carey said. “Tray Scott develops. The most first-round picks in the past five years at the defensive line. They preach that as well. They talk about how elite a coach Coach Scott is and how he gets you right. The players preach that only a certain breed of people come to Georgia. You have got to want to work. You have got to want to grind, and then you’ll reap the benefits.”
That fits what Carey is looking for.
He doesn’t mind hearing how hard it will be to be a Georgia Bulldog. He loves challenges. That’s why he moved away from his home just outside of New York to play for the national team at IMG Academy. He wanted to go against elite competition every day in practice while he was still in high school.
“I like it,” he said. “I’ve always had to work hard my whole life to be where I am today and just like any other person that wants to be elite you’ve got to work your butt off and you know at Georgia, people reap the benefits when they work their butt off and so, you know, why wouldn’t I love that? That’s what I’ve done my whole life.”
“I love challenges. I love new environments. I love when coaches demand the best out of you because they see your best still inside of you, but they love you hard and coach you hard. I love that, and you know that’s definitely all the vibes I got at UGA on my official visit.”
Check out his junior film at IMG Academy below.
Have you seen this week’s “Before the Hedges” weekly recruiting special on YouTube yet? Check it out below.
SENTELL’S INTEL
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