Since the last time you heard from me, not much has happened on the recruiting front. The Dawgs got a commitment from Chris Hayes, a nose guard prospect from Spalding County High School. The main two stories since late July have been the fate of UGA QB commit Christian LeMay, and the commitment of James Wilder, Jr. to FSU, and the resulting fates of UGA RB targets.
First, I’ll profile Chris Mayes. Mayes is a 6’5, 290 pound prospect who’s only been playing high school football for the past year. From all accounts, he’s a project who has great athleticism and speed. He hasn’t had much time to be taught proper technique, but his upside seems to be big. Scout posted a short video of him at spring practice, in the video he looks to be pretty effective in pursuit and has a strong enough powerbase to bull-rush opponents. Once he hits the UGA strength and conditioning program, and works under Rodney Garner he’ll be ready to contribute. The fact that he’s a tweener makes me more optimistic about him playing in the 3-4.
The next plus that comes from this commitment is the fact that Mayes is good friends with Corey Moore and Xzavier Dickson. Many recruiting analysts believe that Dickson isn’t as much of an Alabama lean as he was months ago, even ESPN stated that he wanted to be a Bulldog, but his dad preferred he play for Nick Saban at Alabama, who offered him before UGA.
Next up: The Christian Lemay situation. After his 30-day suspension was handed down, Christian and his family decided to skip his senior season at Butler High School and finish his requirements in a ‘private setting.’ Christian, along with Devin Bowman, Chris Conley, and Corey Moore intends to enroll at UGA in January. According to the AJC, while getting these requirements taken care of, Christian will go through CrossFit training with Andy Hendel of Charlotte, and QB-specific training with Steve Calhoun of Armed and Dangerous, who has worked with two QBs who participated in the 2010 Elite 11 camp, and current Auburn QB Cameron Newton. I’m confident that LeMay will make significant progress in his training before Coach Bobo gets him on campus.
As for James Wilder, many people think that if UGA got Wilder that it’d hurt their chances with Isaiah Crowell. False. There were a few reports of Crowell, Orson Charles, Aaron Murray, and Jarvis Jones all teaming up to recruit Wilder at Dawg Night. While losing Wilder (even though I don’t think his recruitment is over) takes away a great recruiting pitch that would give the Dawgs 2011 class a huge amount of momentum, it gives the staff more time to put the full-court press on Crowell. If Crowell goes to Bama, look for the Dawgs to get Quan Bray. By no means am I selling short the ability of Bray, whom the Dawgs are already recruiting as a slot receiver who will get touches at running back as well.
