This Sentell’s Intel rep has the latest with 4-star transfer portal DL target Xzavier McLeod. He was rated as the nation’s No. 19 DL and No. 177 overall prospect for 2023 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking had him as the No. 22 DL and the No. 196 overall recruit.
The University of Georgia football program has prioritized searching the transfer portal this month for elite and impactful All-American defensive linemen.
The ‘Dawgs showed that they needed more alpha players along their front in the SEC championship against Alabama and there’s not a lot of it. That’s what everyone is looking for.
While that need is specific to the 2024 roster and the current portal cycle, they’ve been recruiting South Carolina DL Xzavier McLeod for a lot longer than that. He was a priority target for the “Dawgs in the last recruiting cycle.
The former 4-star in 2023 told DawgNation that he spent Friday and Saturday in Athens on his official visit. McLeod said he didn’t take photos this go around. It was much more serious than his previous recruiting trips to Athens.
The ‘Dawgs were right in the thick of it before he ultimately chose to stay home and play for the Gamecocks. Georgia was a very serious contender for McLeod during his high school recruitment.
That is also the way he feels currently after his latest visit. The weekend OV was important because it offered the chance for McLeod to revisit his previous decision.
He was asked what he now likes the best about another chance to play for Kirby Smart in Athens and whether or not it changed at all from his high school recruitment.
“It would be an honor, especially from making the wrong decision the first time,” he told DawgNation. “So I think this opportunity would be huge. Nothing has changed about the way I look at the ‘Dawgs. [I] will always look at them the same way: The most dominant team in the SEC and the place to be.”
He’s not sure yet what comes next with his transfer portal recruiting process. There was no decision timeline he had in mind after he entered his name into the portal on Dec. 4.
“There is room for more schools to see but I haven’t decided whether or not I will,” he said. “I don’t have a set date on when I will wrap up but hopefully it is soon.”
McLeod said he was told by Georgia defensive line coach Travion Scott that he could help out all across the defensive front next season.
“With my size, speed and technique Scott said all [across the line] I’m pretty much unlimited,” McLeod said.
McLeod had 54 tackles, 17 tackles for losses and 6.5 sacks as a high school senior in 2022. Check out that senior film below.
Xzavier McLeod: Rewinding the South Carolina 2023 redshirt season
McLeod has an intriguing backstory. The 2022 “Mr. Football” for the Palmetto State signed with South Carolina in the 2023 class. He enrolled early last January and played in the first four games of the current season.
He recorded one tackle and had an interception against Furman.
His participation stopped there. McLeod sought a redshirt because he wasn’t getting the development he was hoping for in his first season in the SEC. He was only playing a handful of snaps in those games.
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer met with McLeod back in October and decided it was in the best interest of his program to dismiss McLeod. Beamer’s thinking there was reported back in late October by several outlets, including this quote by The Charleston Post and Courier.
“I met with Xzavier (Wednesday) and visited with him and made the decision to dismiss him from the football team, but that was what was best for our program. Hate it for him, he’s a good young man from a good family,” Beamer said on his radio call-in show. “It’s not a fun phone call when you call someone’s mom and dad and have to tell them that like I did yesterday, but like I said, I’ve got a responsibility to 118 other football players on the team and coaches and staff and always got to do what’s best for our program, and that was kind of what this situation is.
“And wish him well, he’s a really good player, and I want to help him in any way that I can going forward. It just won’t be here at Carolina.”
While this chance at UGA presents itself as a possible redo from his initial choice, McLeod had a thoughtful response that detailed why he didn’t see it precisely in those terms.
“I wouldn’t want to compare Georgia and South Carolina in the same conversation,” he said. “That would be just disrespectful. Georgia wouldn’t be a redo from them. I made a decision based off of a coach that I thought was there for the long run but if I were to pick Georgia I would still consider myself a freshman again and just committed for the first time and would be bought into the culture I’m in because Georgia fans don’t disappoint.”
McLeod’s thought process there referred to former South Carolina defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey. Lindsey left South Carolina for LSU in April of 2023. That was just a few months after he enrolled in Columbia.
“My first season I was never planning on entering the portal,” he said. “I wanted my redshirt at Carolina but when I was getting nothing but around three snaps a game. Then I had to evaluate my situation. I picked South Carolina for Jimmy Lindsey. Because I had a relationship with him that made me want to play for him and had faith in the school because I thought we were going to turn things around but I was wrong. So I chose that school but never knew he was leaving. Never got a relationship with the next coach.”
“But my next step is where the coach is going to push me through tough times etcetera and will bring the best out of me. My last school I can’t agree did that but I pretty much know where I’m welcome and where I belonged from the start and I’m just ready to get to work, dominate on the field and put these numbers up.”
Does Georgia’s Coach Scott fit what he is looking for with his next defensive line coach?
“Coach Scott fit what I’m looking for before I committed to play for Carolina and now I’ve spoken to coach [Tray] Scott and I know exactly where I stand. He will always keep it real both coach [Kirby] Smart and coach Scott told me what they need from me.”
Check out a few photos from McLeod’s high school visits to Athens below.
SENTELL'S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
