To get us started for the week I’m just going to give you a quick rundown of what’s out there regarding Tech and Georgia recruiting:

• Believe it or not there were some positives to come out of the Georgia-Kentucky game for the Bulldogs. According to Scout.com’s Chad Simmons, Valdosta tight end Jay Rome came to the game and said “the visit helped Georgia a lot. A whole lot.” The 6-foot-6, 240-pound Rome may be the top tight end in the South next year. He also likes Clemson and Florida.
• Both Scout and Rivals.com wrote stories over the weekend about Georgia being back in it for Washington wide receiver Antonio Goodwin. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Goodwin, who was also in Athens for the Kentucky game, is a four-star receiver in the Class of 2010 and committed to Auburn this past summer. …

Harris, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound high school senior, signed a scholarship with either Tech, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Syracuse or West Virginia yesterday, the last day of the early signing period. But Harris will keep that a secret until this evening when he unveils it at the ESPN Zone in Manhattan’s Times Square.

Harris attends Half Hollow Hills West High in Glen Head, N.Y. Rivals.com rates him the No. 1 player at his position and the No. 5 prospect overall.

Bama all the way, says Gainesville's electrifying quarterback Blake Sims. (AJC photo)

VIDEO ADDED BELOW

The answer to the question was delivered politely and succinctly.

I asked Gainesville quarterback Blake Sims – arguably the best overall player in the entire state — if there was any chance at all he could end up at Georgia.

“No, sir,” the longtime Alabama commitment stated flatly on Wednesday.

By itself that would not seem a stirring statement. He’s going to go where he said he said he was going to go. But placed in the context of the last few weeks it resonates powerfully.

Sims, as I have reported, grew up a Bulldogs’ fan. Living just 41 miles from Sanford Stadium, he attended their camps for four years and his parents have framed photos of Sims and coach Mark Richt on the walls of their Gainesville home.

But it was the Crimson Tide that was the first to offer this dynamic athlete last spring. And Sims accepted a day later. But the day before Sims practically begged …

So far there hasn’t been much in the way of surprises. Those who had committed before the week-long window in which you can actually sign a scholarship have done so, for the most part.

For instance, Georgia got a letter-of-intent from the one commitment it had gotten for the Class of 2010 — 6-foot-8 power forward Cady Lalanne of Orlando-Oak Ridge High. Lalanne signed early this morning. The Bulldogs did receive some bad news, however. Center Shawn Kemp Jr., who’s at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia but hails from Canton, signed with Auburn earlier today. He was actually an Alabama signee out of high school but did not qualify.

Georgia State has received the paperwork from two of the three commitments it got this fall: point guard DaVonta White of Roswell-Centenniel …

Georgia Tech came hard after Southwest DeKalb defensive end T.J. Stripling recently but the longtime Georgia commitment said he intends to stick with the Bulldogs. (Photo by me)

“Nah, I’m still Georgia,” said the 6-foot-6, 215-pound defensive end from Southwest DeKalb.

Rumor had run rampant over the last few days that Stripling not only was wavering on his commitment to the Bulldogs but that he was leaning toward flipping to Georgia Tech, which had just come forth with an official offer.

Stripling said neither was true. But he thinks he knows how the rumor started.

“Georgia Tech coaches came to the school last Friday and offered me [a scholarship],” Stripling said Tuesday night. “They said they wanted me to come down there [to The Flats] Saturday and I told them I’d try to but that I was committed to go to Tennessee Tech game up at Georgia and that’s what I did. I guess …

James, a senior tackle at North Gwinnett and the top uncommitted offensive lineman in the state, committed to Tennessee Tuesday night. A one-time Alabama commitment, he chose the Vols over Georgia and UCLA.

“It’s a blessing to be recruited like I was,” James said Tuesday night. “I really appreciated everything everybody did and I have a lot of respect for Georgia and all the other teams that recruited me. They did a good job. But I just felt like I fit better at Tennessee. The coaches, the players, I like that new environment. I think Coach Kiffin is going to do big things and I want to be a big part of it.”

James

James, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound left tackle, took an official visit to Tennessee the weekend of Oct. 12 when the Vols dismantled the Bulldogs 45-19 and Kiffin gave his infamous “We’ll never lose to Georgia as long as I’m the coach” speech. James took two unofficial visits to Georgia before that and an …

Plagued by hamstring problems in both of his legs this season, Brown underwent an accupunture procedure three days before M.L. King’s regular-season finale against the Wolverines.

Brown didn’t do much in the first half. But after deciding to take off his hamstring sleeves at halftime he ran like the Mack Brown of old in the 20-0 victory.

“I took them off and went to work,” said Brown, a five-star prospect who is committed to Florida. “I didn’t feel any pain when I ran. It was a blessing to be able to run without pain.”

That said, Brown said he probably won’t try it again before this week’s playoff game against Jenkins.

Here are some of the other top performances by area prospects of this past weekend:

• QB Blake Sims, Gainesville: The AJC Super 11 selection and Alabama commitment had 145 yards passing, …

Jeff Luc, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound linebacker at Treasure Coast High in Port St. Lucie, Fla., will be traveling to Athens with Rogers. Luc (pronouced Luck) is rated as a five-star prospect and the No. 1 middle linebacker in America by Scout.com. He is being pursued by virtually every premier program in the country, including the three major programs in his home state. Long considered a lock for the Florida Gators, he has visited Tennessee and Southern Cal and plans to take an official trip to LSU before  making a final decision. He will be an early enrollee in college.

Rogers is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound, three-star linebacker who committed to Georgia back in June. He is doing what he can to get Luc to follow him.

“Of course I want him to go to college with me,” Rogers said Sunday …

AJC Super 11 quarterback/athlete B.J. Bostic of Jefferson County, DT Shawn Green of Grayson and DT Denzel McCoy of Northview were invited to play in the high school all-star game Jan. 2 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The game, in its third year of existence,  pits nationally-ranked high school all-stars from the East against others from the West. It competes with the UnderArmour (Jan. 2, Orlando) and U.S. Army (Jan. 9, San Antonio) All-America games.

Now for some other news and notes:

• Word is that Union Grove athlete Jordan Akins is about to land a scholarship offer from Georgia. Akins is a 6-foot-3, 190-pound multi-skilled athlete who plays quarterback, wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner for the Wolverines, depending on where they need him when. He received a scholarship offer from Georgia Tech last week and holds offers from Ole Miss, UConn, …

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. …