AJC College Sports Recruiting » Non ACC/SEC Schools

Whitaker talks Georgia-Auburn and recruitment timeline

Chip Towers — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:08:50 +0000

Auburn and Georgia are in a tug-of-war over Warner Robins defensive tackle Jeffrey Whitaker (55). (AJC photo by Jason Getz)

His senior high school football season is over. But Warner Robins’ Jeff Whitaker is not hanging his head.

“I’m good. I’m fine,” the Demons’ 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive tackle said. “I have no regrets. I played as hard as I could.”

The Demons finished 6-4, which meant a rare playoff miss for the four-time state champions. But Whitaker had a fantastic individual season.

“He’s a great player,” coach Bryan Way said. “And a good kid, too.”

Apparently college recruiters think so, too. Whitaker, a four-star prospect who shot up as high as 11th in the nation at his position in recruiting rankings, landed more than a dozen major college scholarship offers.

His season now officially over, this U.S. Army High School All-American has trimmed down his list to five schools: Georgia, Auburn, California, North Carolina and South Carolina. Most recently Whitaker went …

No matter how you say it, there’s only one Da’Rick

Chip Towers — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:52:11 +0000

It seemed a simple-enough question.

I asked Da’Rick Rogers, whose name I had heard pronounced a half-dozen different ways and had said at least a few different ways myself, “what is the correct pronunciation of your first name?”

Da'Rick "Da Freak" Rogers poses outside Phil Reeve Stadium in Calhoun. The 5-star wide receiver says he's "rock solid" on his commitment to Georgia. (Photo by Jason Getz)

“I really don’t know if anybody says it right or not,” Rogers says with a laugh. “My mom (Deborah Rogers), she says it was supposed to be like David and Rick together, so she says DAY-rick. But I really don’t know how to pronounce it I’ve heard it so many different ways. I just know it’s everything but Derrick. Anything else is fine.”

Well, I asked, what do you say when you answer the phone?

“I say DAY-rick,” he told me. “But a lot of people want to say duh-REEK, because it rhymes with my nickname, ‘Da Freak.’ So I hear that a lot. It kind of depends on where somebody’s from. …

Avery Walls adds Stanford to his list of official offers

Chip Towers — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:18:17 +0000

You have to like Avery Walls’ proactive approach to recruiting.

A junior defensive back at Union Grove, he already has landed an offer from Oklahoma because he and his parents sent a “recruiting packet” they put together that included personal information, video highlights and academic information. They did the same thing for Stanford and it resulted in an official offer from the Cardinal Monday night.

“I talked to Coach [Jim] Harbaugh last night and he asked me if I’d received my official offer letter,” Walls said. “I said I hadn’t seen it. We talked for a while and he was telling me a lot about the school and the campus about the football program. It’s a very prestigious school. I feel great about it.”

Walls (5-10, 180) transferred to Union Grove from Sandy Creek last year. As a safety this season, the junior has four interceptions and leads the team 60 tackles, 10 pass breakups, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Walls has been to at least two …

Williams is third Grayson player to accept D-1 offer

Chip Towers — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:04:51 +0000

UPDATED 4:25 P.M. . . .

Grayson linebacker Terry Williams has been arguably the most dominant force on one of the most dominant defenses in Class AAAAA. Yet when it came to recruiting, he waited and waited for a major scholarship offer to come.

Alas, an ACC or SEC team never came calling. But East Carolina did on Thursday and Williams happily pounced on the opportunity. Now the jumbo linebacker is eager to prove that all the others missed out on him.

“It was my first really big D-1 scholarship offer and it feels good to take it,” Williams said. “All I do is take all that stuff that people say and use it as motivation. I’m just going to continue to work hard and prove everybody wrong.”

The knock on Williams is his size. At 6-feet, 260-pounds, college recruiters were skeptical about him being able to play a stand-up position on the next level. East Carolina believes he can. The Pirates have a linebacker position they call the “Jack” they believe Williams is a perfect fit …

Mumphrey excited about heading north to Michigan State

Chip Towers — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:02:57 +0000

It’s 921 miles from Keith Mumphrey’s doorstep in Vienna, Ga., to Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, Mich. But he felt more at home up north at Michigan State University than he did at any of the number of colleges that recruited him in the South.

So earlier this week, Mumphrey made it official. He committed to the Spartans and will sign with them in February.

“You know how you just get a vibe about people?,” said Mumphrey, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound wide receiver and defensive back at Dooly County. “I just really liked how the coaches treated me and how they made me feel about things. I had done a lot of research and stuff and I liked the education there and the football there. I just felt like it was the best situation for me.”

Mumphrey, a three-star rated recruit who will play wideout for the Spartans, had opportunities closer to home. He received scholarship offers from Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Oklahoma State and Wake Forest and virtually every mid-major school …

Stephenson’s Thornton names Penn State his favorite

Chip Towers — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:03:39 +0000

Generally the battle for Stephenson defensive tackle Mike Thornton is thought be between Georgia and Auburn. But I’ve long said not to discount Penn State in the battle for the state’s top uncommitted senior defensive lineman.

Sure enough, Thornton told me this week that Penn State is “pretty much” his favorite. The 6-foot-2, 280-pounder plans to make an official visit with the Nittany Lions the weekend of Nov. 7 when they play host to Ohio State.

Thornton said the same thing to PalmettoSports.com, which covers South Carolina recruiting, earlier this week. “They’ve got a good coaching staff that is going to be there for a while and they’re a good team,” Thornton said. “They’re probably my favorite right now.”

That news comes on the heels of Thornton’s second unofficial visit of the fall to Georgia this past weekend. But he said he had a great time in Athens.

“It went well. I enjoyed every phase of it,” Thornton said. “I went up there basically to see our [Stephenson] guys play …

Fortt admits he’d decided on Penn State 4 weeks ago

Chip Towers — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:26:10 +0000

Just to close the door on Khairi Fortt saga and be done with it (for this week any way), The Stamford Times updated the news the elite linebacker’s decision to choose Penn State over Georgia with a report from Fortt’s actual announcement during an assembly at his high school Monday afternoon.

Fortt, considered one of the top linebackers in the country, did not address earlier reports that he had been abandoned by his two Georgia hosts during his official visit to Athens on Sept. 12 (though it is mentioned in Monday’s newspaper account). But he did say that he has known he was going to go Nittany Lions for at least a month and told coach Joe Paterno two weeks ago.

“I’ve been keeping it a secret for about four weeks and I’ve been eager to get it out,” Fortt told the crowd. “I’m happy it’s over with and I just get to focus on my senior year, helping my [high school] team win and focusing on my grades.”

Simple math tells you Fortt had his mind made up before he visited …

Abandoned on UGA visit, 4-star LB picks Penn St. over Dogs

Chip Towers — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:21:18 +0000

Georgia lost out on one of its top remaining targets Monday when Khairi Fortt, a four-star linebacker from Stamford, Conn., chose Penn State over the Bulldogs.

Fortt (6-3, 225), who also had North Carolina in his final three, was to make an announcement Monday afterno0n. But The Connecticut Post and Sports Illustrated broke the news on their websites earlier today.

That’s only half of the bad news for Georgia regarding this story. According to BlackShoeDiaries.com, a Penn State fans’ blog site, Fortt really liked the Bulldogs but was disenchanted when the UGA player hosts in charge of showing him around on his campus visit reportedly abandoned Fortt at a dorm party and left him to find his own way home. Fortt made his official visit to Athens on Sept. 12 when Georgia played South Carolina.

Fortt first told the story about the two unnamed Georgia players to ConnPost.com:

“Two guys left me. I was left at a dorm party with people I didn’t know. Once I was just walking alone in …

Prospects such as Grayson’s Champaign market themselves

Chip Towers — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:50:48 +0000

Not every aspiring college football player has multiple stars beside his name and recruiters lined up at the front door. But that doesn’t mean they’re not tremendous players and deserving scholarship recipients.

Grayson defensive end Joseph Champaign is such a football player. While he’s a dominating force on the Rams’ vaunted defense, the 6-foot-1, 250-pound senior doesn’t have a firm Division I offer and, at the moment, has no official visits planned.

“I’ve been in contact with a lot of schools and I’ve gotten some phone calls,” Champaign said. “But I haven’t made a decision anywhere. I’m still open. I’m still looking.”

But that doesn’t mean Champaign and his family are resting on their laurels and waiting for something to come their way. They’re tackling the situation proactively.

Champaign’s father, Craig Champaign, with the help of a neighbor produced a video of Joseph’s junior season highlights (see above) and sent it to more than 100 schools from coast-to-coast. He’s …

Mallett’s torching of Georgia secondary no surprise to Carr

Chip Towers — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:01:45 +0000

A lot of people were surprised to see what Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett did to Georgia’s secondary this past Saturday night in Fayetteville. Lloyd Carr was not.

The retired Michigan football coach was the one who signed Mallett out of Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas, and played him as a true freshman in 2007. The Wolverines beat out Texas, LSU and numerous other schools for the 6-foot-7 quarterback, who was ranked the top prospect in his state and No. 4 in the nation in 2006.

“Yeah, I guess I made at least four or five trips down to Texarkana to see him,” said Carr, in Athens on Tuesday to speak to the Touchdown Club of Athens. “And you know, there’s just no way to get to Texarkana. You have to have connections just to get in there.”

Carr said Michigan was able to beat out Texas because they had a quarterback named Colt McCoy in hand. He said Mallett’s parents, Jim and Debbie Mallett, actually were Arkansas fans. But Houston Nutt was the Razorbacks’ coach at the time and, …