It’s a Bama-Georgia tug-of-war for Valdosta’s Malcolm Mitchell, Jay Rome
Valdosta's Malcolm Mitchell (L) and Jay Rome are close friends but will be making their college announcements separately on Thursday. (AJC photo by Chip Towers)
Malcolm Mitchell insists he and Valdosta teammate Jay Rome are good friends; always have been, always will be. But one is left to wonder what’s going on when they decide to announce on the same day but at different times 80 miles apart.
Mitchell is going to make his college decision public at 7 p.m. Thursday night at a local restaurant in Valdosta. Rome, meanwhile, has agreed to make his announcement live on ESPNU’s “Recruiting Insider” show an hour-and-a-half earlier. The problem is that is going to require Rome to drive to a TV station in Tallahassee, Fla., where the world wide leader can establish a satellite link.
None of which to say that ESPNU thinks more of Rome, a five-star tight end, than it does Mitchell, a four-star wide receiver/defensive back. The network, which got up close and personal with both players during the Under Armour All-America Game festivities in Florida earlier this year, extended an invitation to Mitchell to join Rome for the on-air announcement.
Mitchell declined.
“I’m just not that big on the TV thing,” said Mitchell, who is the No. 6 player on the AJC Fab 50 list. “I just wanted to do it [in Valdosta] so everybody that watched me in high school can be there.”
Both players, of course, have narrowed their choices to Georgia and Alabama. So the fact that they’d be making their announcements at different venues has folks thinking they’re headed in different directions with their decisions. In general, Rome is thought to be a heavy Georgia lean and Mitchell a Bama lean.
Not necessarily, Mitchell said. “Nah, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Said Rome: “I have no idea where he’s going to go.”
My communication with Rome has been brief and primarily via text lately. But I was able to have an extended conversation with Mitchell this week, the first time since we were in Orlando for the Under Armour practices the first week of January.
I asked him about his relationship with Rome. Are they as close as it would seem from a distance? “We hang out,” he said. “We’re good friends.”
Both players took official visits to Alabama this past weekend. But they traveled separately and went on different days. Mitchell was there Friday-Sunday while Rome was there Saturday-Monday.
“It was fun,” Mitchell said of the trip. “They know how to show you a good time.”
I asked Mitchell what was the most enjoyable part of the visit. “Probably riding four-wheelers at Coach Saban’s house. That was a lot of fun.”
Of the recruiting aspect of the visit, Mitchell said the Crimson Tide “gave me some more to think about.”
He said Bama, which initially was recruiting him purely as a cornerback, was coming more Georgia’s way and telling him he could play both sides of the ball.
“They’re saying whatever I want to do,” Mitchell said. “They’re giving me the option as well.”
In fact, in need of help at wide receiver, the Bulldogs are telling Mitchell he could have a full-time shot on offense. Mitchell blossomed as an offensive threat under first-year coach Rance Gillespie this past season. A more open offensive attack gave Mitchell the chance to catch 77 passes for 1,419 yards and 13 TDs.
“I think Coach Gillespie coming to Valdosta helped expose every aspect of my athletic abilities,” Mitchell said. “Him getting the ball in my hands showed everybody what I was capable of doing. I had offers before that, but I think it put in everybody’s mind what kind of player I can be.”
According to Gillespie, the sky’s the limit for Mitchell.
“Jay Rome is a fantastic football player. He’ll probably play in the NFL one day,” Gillespie said. “But Malcolm Mitchell is the best athlete I’ve ever coached.”
When I spoke to Mitchell on Monday night, he insisted he still had not made up his mind. So asked him what would he do to arrive at a decision.
“I’m just going to spend some time thinking about it and praying about it,”he said. “I’ll talk to my mom and we’ll decide what’s the best thing for me.”
Whatever that is, it won’t necessarily be the same as his buddy Jay.
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395 comments Add your comment
14 CRIMSON HAMMAH 23 27
January 19th, 2011
8:01 pm
Nick Saban stays – in your heads! Roll Tide
bigtime
January 19th, 2011
8:03 pm
Mr. Malcom Mitchell , we are glad that you committed to Bama…..Oh wait that’s not till tomorrow night . I’ll just save the rest of my comments for then. ROLL TIDE and good luck tomorrow DAWGS , with Rome and Barnes that is…..Mitchell 75%/25% Bama. That’s pretty good odds in recruiting but I’ve seen stranger things happen. IMO Mitchell says ROLL TIDE !! as he reaches for the crimson cap.
14 CRIMSON HAMMAH 23 27
January 19th, 2011
8:07 pm
alot of coaches move around until they reach the pinnacle bear,saban, etc
K Conley
January 19th, 2011
8:07 pm
@ ATL_Dawg and Ca Dawg, bleacherreport is just as reliable as ESPN. (haha) I do agree that bleacherreport hasn’t been the best but neither is the Mothership. Yeah, I agree, but I was just putting it out there that this was their opinion. I honestly think tomorrow will be rather uneventful. I say Rome a Dawg and Mitchell to Tuscaloosa. With Deion Barnes deciding tomorrow also, I would be extremely happy to get 2 out of 3. It is about time for our program to catch a break, so maybe tomorrow we’ll receive a big surprise. The thing for me with Mitchell is, I sincerely believe he wants to play wide receiver in A.J.’s spot in Athens. I just also believe that the state of the program will be the deciding factor for Bama. Here’s to hoping that Mitchell has more courage than other recruits and wants to be a part of turning his home state school back to where it belongs. Go Dawgs!!!
14 CRIMSON HAMMAH 23 27
January 19th, 2011
8:14 pm
Ga. has a very good program and highly respected but Bama is another stratosphere
bama bama bama bama bama ga bama bama bama ga bama/ga.
and the question is?
bamaguy
January 19th, 2011
8:14 pm
Without any intention to incite, but why would any top tier recruit consider UGA, given the state of affairs in Athens, if they are holding scholarship offers from schools like Florida, LSU, Auburn or Alabama? And what parent would send their child there with the lack of discipline and off-field arrest record?
DawgZeppelin
January 19th, 2011
8:24 pm
Bamaguy, do you think uga will be down forever? Some of our kids have pride in their state and school just like the kids that go to Bama. In the end, we still have a great school with a team hungry to turn it around.
Alabama Dawg
January 19th, 2011
8:26 pm
@Bamaguy
I Lived in Tuscaloosa for the last 3 yrs, and my neighbor was a cop. The stories he told me is that the cops there are afraid to arrest the football players their due to their fear of Nick Saben. A lot of things get forgiven quite easiley in T Town. So it is pretty different in Athens where the cops are looking for anything on football players from Georgia
bamaguy
January 19th, 2011
8:33 pm
Good point Zeppelin. I have noticed in-state recruits fall into two categories 1) those who grew up as fans of the state school and want to go there regardless 2) those looking for their best chance at the NFL.
Don Delk
January 19th, 2011
9:25 pm
Its wonderful to hear a kid praying about a life chioce..The Bulldog fans are praying the dream team
commits to UGA !!
Houndstooth
January 19th, 2011
10:03 pm
BAMA vs UGA all time record:
BAMA leads 36-26-4
BAMA has 13 National Championships
UGA has 5 National Championships
UGA leads in the Heisman catagory but as the “Bear” once said, “We don’t win Heismans; We win
Championships”.
BAMA has more depth riding the pine than UGA has in their sights.
BAMA is currently ranked #2 in the recruiting stats behind Texas.
UGA not ranked.
Why would UGA be more appealing than BAMA for 4 & 5 star football players who want to win a National Championship?
UGA however will probably get several 2 and 3 star guys to come and play because they know they can get some play time…
Mark Richt will be forced out by the UGA ulumni before Saban decides to move on. I’m just saying…
UGA is known for arrogance.
BAMA is known for discipline.
SouthGADawg
January 19th, 2011
10:42 pm
What a bunch of bull on here. Mitchell would be stupid to go to Alabama. He will ride the bench with the others and maybe play some his JR year. If he goes to UGA he will be seeing time as a FR. He will never be a first round pick at AL. UGA puts receivers in the NFL not Saban.Saban will leave for the NFL in a year or so anyway. Alabama will be a running team next year. Mitchell use your head scouts are not interested in players who ride the bench. Dont be another DaRick come to UGA and play football or go to Alabama and sit on the sideline. GO DAWGS.
Derek
January 19th, 2011
10:49 pm
Richt won’t be there in 2012.
Athens Tider
January 19th, 2011
11:35 pm
@Alabama Dawg
I lived in Athens for the last 3 yrs, and my neighbor was a cop. The stories he told me is that the cops only arrest half of the football players that commit crimes there due to their fear of Mark Richt. A lot of things get forgiven quite easily in Athens. It is pretty different in Tuscaloosa where the players don’t constantly commit crimes since Tuscaloosa police will arrest them and Saban will hold them accountable, as opposed to no accountability in Athens.
“See. Anybody can say stuff like then when nothing has to be proven.”
dawgs01
January 19th, 2011
11:58 pm
We need these boys. I like Malcom Mitchell’s attittude thats what we need in the locker room he is not about all him like Rome is. He is including the people that help get him there and they are all celebrating together that is the way it should be
Recruiting
January 20th, 2011
8:37 am
Anyone notice that in the picture there is a guy in the background with his back to the camera with the name Depriest on his jersey. His name is Trey Depriest and he is a 5 star prospect and the no. 1 rated Middle Linebacker in the country and is a Bama commit.
Bama is in on so many 5 star prospects still in play that it is a certainty that the tide will finish with the nation’s no. 1 ranked recruiting class for the 3rd time in 4 years. Truly amazing when you think about what a talent juggernaut Saban has built at Bama. Regardless of what happens with these 2 recruits the Tide is loaded this year and for years to come.
Alabamadawg,
Nice piece of fiction writing sport.
SouthGaDawg,
Mitchell would never be a first round pick if he goes to Bama? Tell that to Julio, Ingram, and Dareus who will all be going 1st round this year as jrs.
Saban never puts receivers in the NFL? I guess Julio Jones going 1st round doesn’t count does it smart guy? Never mind all those former LSU receivers that Saban put in the NFL.
You dawg fans are not only losers but you’re dumb also.
Delusional
January 20th, 2011
8:59 am
UGA fans have lost the plot. You may well lose Crowell to UA, you’ll probably lose Drew to AU…the dream is mostly over. If you don’t think UGA is a tough sell this year considering your program is in turmoil, Richt is on his last leg, and you are suffering from a plague of dirty play and off the field issues, you’re nuts.
tbm117
January 20th, 2011
9:17 am
Georgia will improve a little, I still see bama as a big threat, a little inexperience on offense, but they only lose 4 guys, 2 in my opinion in Mark Ingram and Julio Jones. Defense returns intact losing only one key player, and to me both McCarron and Sims make Greg look like a qb from the pop warner ranks as far as athleticism and mechanics go. So in other words bama is still as good if not better, both rome and mitchell should go to bama.
Crumpy favorite game is the blackout
January 20th, 2011
9:44 am
Soooooooooo……………. fleabags?
timthebrave
January 20th, 2011
9:54 am
Come play in Athens. We want you to be dawgs!
285exp
January 20th, 2011
10:02 am
Dawggie,
Saban’s head coaching history:
Toledo Rockets
Michigan State (upward move)
LSU (upward move)
Miami Dolphins (upward move)
As Saban discovered: be careful what you wish for, you may surely get it. He made it to the NFL, and found he didn’t like it. Partly because his family apparently did not like Miami, but primarily because he is much better suited to the college game. He loves to recruit, and is clearly one of the best in the business. He can build a team by getting some of the best players at every position every year, where he could only get a few players in the NFL draft, and only the ones that had not already been drafted by other teams. He is not the only great college coach to discover that he is not a great NFL coach. He wanted to get back in the college game, and went to the best available open job. He is now at a job where he has some of the best facilities in the country, total control of the program, rabid support from the fans, can recruit the best players in the country, is paid quite well, has the job for as long as he wants it, and lives in a place where his family is happy. He is extremely unlikely to return to the NFL, even assuming another team would even hire him given how his last stint ended. Again, there is nothing in his college head coaching history that indicates that he jumps to another job just for a change of scenery. Nobody down here is under the illusion that he has any great loyalty to Alabama, but it’s pretty telling that his name doesn’t come up when folks speculate over candidates for jobs like Michigan or Florida. He’s not going to take a pay cut to take on a “challenge”. I suspect that as long as we don’t make him mad, Alabama is his final stop. If it’s not, he was absolutely worth it, and we won’t have much trouble hiring another top notch coach to take over the program he has built.
monty
January 20th, 2011
10:30 am
KIds today grow up without any or with very little in-state loyalty. I grew up a Bulldog, if I had the talent and they offered me a scholarship I would have been thrilled to death. Not saying you couldn’t grow up in GA and be a BAMA fan. Not saying either that I wouldn’t to to a school who would play me versus one where I would have to sit a year or two. But all things equal give me the school I grew up rooting for. I sure as (you know) wouldn’t choose a school because they “showed me a good time.”
Gatormeat
January 20th, 2011
10:47 am
Rome and Mitchell to Bama, Crowell to Auburn. Can you blame them? All they will learn in athens is how to get arrested and lose to teams like Colorado and C Florida. No one with any character would go to georgia because they are such a disgrace to SEC football. Florida, Bama, and Auburn are much better places for a young man than the cesspool that is athens. You just plain suck dogs, to us you are Vandy. You are Kentucky. Accept it
legioncat
January 20th, 2011
11:08 am
Mark it down…….Mitchell and Rome to UGA
jsmooth
January 20th, 2011
11:48 am
Gator Meat: Check the academic standards at UGA compared to all the rest. The rank of the SEC is Vandy, UF, UGA and so on when it comes to academics. Athletic facilities are second to none at UGA without an indoor practice facility (same as UF.) There are actually more Rhodes Scholars from UGA than any other SEC school may be with the exception on Vandy. When you speak, have all of the facts. UGA is a great school with a struggling football program. It happens everywhere in college football.
GT84VHS80
January 20th, 2011
12:03 pm
As a Tech man and Valdosta High alum, even though I have no love for UGA, I’d rather both of them go to Athens than to Alabama. Oversigning is dishonest and shouldn’t be rewarded. Good luck, dawgs.
shankit
January 20th, 2011
12:05 pm
Malcome, Coach Richt is the longest tenured coach
in the SEC.
Alabama has gone thru 6 head coaching changes since 2000.
Chances are, you won’t be playing for Saban by your Junior Year.
Just sayin’
Go Wildcats and go Dawgs.
shankit
January 20th, 2011
12:07 pm
Gatormeat, Georgia has moved up to 12th in recruiting.
The Gators are not in the top 25 in recruiting.
Ya’ll had a good run, but get used to the prior Spurrier
years.
shankit
January 20th, 2011
12:16 pm
All the folks in Valdosta and Georgia will be reading and blogging about
Jay in the AJC for the next four years.
Malcomn, not too many folks in Georgia blog or read
the Birmingham news.
Go Wildcats and Dawgs.
NORRIS
January 20th, 2011
12:19 pm
Richt is NOT going anywhere. He will also have a very good season this year!
WIN WITH RICHT
January 20th, 2011
1:28 pm
Richt will have another ten years at Georiga!!
LSUTigerin ATL
January 20th, 2011
1:32 pm
Why would either of these guys want to go to a second rate program like UGA? If they do what’s best for themselves they will chose Bama or another great SEC school.
Danny Ford
January 20th, 2011
1:33 pm
Sad but loyalty is a thing of the past! What’s in for me! Who can do the most for me in the shortest amount of time!
Pete
January 20th, 2011
2:21 pm
Both are dawgs!!
westside shawty
January 20th, 2011
2:40 pm
@ want more, eat less……
I would want to go to a championship contender as well, but with all of these 4- star and 5-star rcruits and players…. how many are actually going to get to play as promised… remember its only 11 players on the field on each side… it’s going to be hard getting all those players some PT… but uga can get mitchell the ball instantly with green going to the nfl…. crowell can possibly start over fumble/injury prone caleb king, and troubled ealy… and as far as school and graduation… thats based on your in class performance.. u cant be worried about what everyone else is doing
westside shawty
January 20th, 2011
2:49 pm
@Gatormeat
a couple bad years has nothing to do with your program and personnel…. wat about all those years uga was a 10-11 win team which was last seen in 08 season…jus becausethe last 2 years are much below uga standards… im sure it will pick up with the soon to be best qb in the sec (murray) . watch this year 2011 bulldogs will rise
285exp
January 20th, 2011
3:10 pm
shankit,
I’m not sure if advertising Richt is going to remain the coach at Georgia is a bug or a feature. And you need to check your math, there have not been 6 head coach changes at Alabama since 2000, not that it has anything to do with Saban staying or going.
sol
January 20th, 2011
5:01 pm
yippee. whatever. they’ll be committing crimes if they pick the uga
ronald
January 20th, 2011
5:03 pm
Who gives a sh*t where two 18 yr olds go to college? Get a life, folks.
Mark Richt and Nick Saban both are able to turn just about any Tight End in the country into an NFL ready player after 4 years. Neither of them “need” either of these kids to be successful.
BuckheadDawg
January 20th, 2011
5:08 pm
Ronald- two words- NaDerris Ward. We need these playmakers at Georgia.
ronald
January 20th, 2011
5:18 pm
Buckhead- I hear what you are saying. And I think that Mitchell and Rome will do well wherever this go. For smaller programs with less talented coaching staffs, these guy are a required ingredient to win. Said another way, if these guys went to Kentucky, they’d add 2 wins per year over the next 4.
However, the same cannot be said about programs led by Saban or Richt. I firmly believe that Saban or Richt could take almost any TE or CB from any metro-ATL school or from any big program in south Georgia….and they could turn that TE and CB into an elite player. Richt’s great years in the early 2000’s were with a lot of 3 star athletes as well. David Green and David Pollack were not 5 star athletes, they were smart players that were developed by outstanding coaches.
ronald
January 20th, 2011
5:55 pm
Rome to UGA. Next…..
Get News and Book » Malcolm Mitchell Commits to Georgia: 4-Star Wide Receiver Joins Jay Rome – Bleacher Report
January 20th, 2011
9:20 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
ARSLANQAMAR
January 20th, 2011
9:22 pm
http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/
ARSLANQAMAR
January 20th, 2011
9:23 pm
Malcolm Mitchell Commits To Georgia Over Alabama, Live From Valdosta….http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/http://www.12newsalerts.com/