Georgia can now expect 25 football signees to enroll in camp this summer instead of 26.
Chris Mayes, a 6-foot-5, 295-pound defensive tackle from Griffin, will be heading to junior college instead. Mayes has accepted a scholarship offer from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Spalding High School officials confirmed.

Mayes
“Yes, he’s going to Mississippi Gulf Coast,” said Jeff Hyland, athletic director at Spalding. “That’s what the plan is. They’re going to try to get him in summer school. He’ll play his freshman and sophomore years, he’ll graduate in December and be at Georgia that spring. That’s the plan. That’s what they try to do down there.”
Mississippi Gulf Coast is the same school that produced fellow Georgia signee John Jenkins and former Alabama star Terrance Cody. It’s actually good fortune for Mayes to be able to get into the school because it offers only a very limited number of scholarships to out-of-state players.
“They’re only allowed so many out-of-state players the way the Mississippi junior college system is set up,” Highland said. “Most have to come from a particular area of that state. They decided to take Chris and we’re happy about that.”
Mayes was considered a longshot to qualify even before he signed with the Bulldogs back in February. He was a four-star prospect, according to Rivals.com and ESPN.com, and a three-star according to Scout.com. He recorded 34 tackles, nine tackles-for-loss and two sacks as a senior on a struggling Spalding team last season.
Though he was not like to compete for playing time as a freshman at Georgia, he was one of only two defensive line signees for the Bulldogs in this class, with Jenkins being the other.
Mayes is the first member of the 2011 class to fall short of academic requirements. It is not known at this time if there will be any others. Most high school seniors are currently negotiating final exams before graduating. The Bulldogs signed 26 players to national letters-of-intent on Feb. 2.
By Chip Towers, The UGA Blog
118 comments Add your comment
Tobias Funke
May 5th, 2011
9:58 am
To all the Nerds on the Bulldog Blog:
Please go to the Academics Blog so you can brag all you want. These blogs are about SPORTS. Nothing to be proud of, right?
Movin on up
May 5th, 2011
9:59 am
No Georgia Military for this kid?
footballfan-365
May 5th, 2011
10:00 am
I wish people would take the time to understand what oversigning really is. At the start of fall camp you can only have 85 scholarship athletes. Its not about how many you sign on signing day its about how many scholarship athletes arrive for fall camp. In the case of lsu and bama they signed to many players knowing they were over the 85man limit and as result of this they had to trim the roster by any means necessery. Uga didnt oversign two players went to juco from last yrs recruiting class and two players enrolled early this yr so those scholarships count towards the 2010 class
Butt Smear Building Resident
May 5th, 2011
10:00 am
So he got into UGA?
One of the better junior colleges in the state, in my opinion.
GO DAWGS< RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF RUFF
Tobias Funke
May 5th, 2011
10:01 am
Trolls, Trolls, surrounded by Trolls.
RHALL55
May 5th, 2011
10:05 am
What happened to the “Ten @ Ten”?
Was this concept to another level also? JC?
mcdawg
May 5th, 2011
10:08 am
as a conversaltionist-i’m just saying how can you judge a man you never met
Georgia | MrSEC.com
May 5th, 2011
10:43 am
[...] will be heading to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College after inking with the Dawgs in February.“Yes, he’s going to Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Mayes’ high school AD said. “That’s what the plan is. They’re going to [...]
alex
May 5th, 2011
11:32 am
He will come back to another school in the SEC….
Bama loves to take advantage of a situation like this…
but he could go elsewhere…..
It Ain't Rocket Science
May 5th, 2011
12:00 pm
Read the article Alex. I think it states what his plans are.
MikeP
May 5th, 2011
2:58 pm
It Ain’t Rocket Science is reading impaired. Read Chip’s opening line again: “Georgia can now expect 25 football signees to enroll in camp this summer instead of 26.”
It has nothing to do with early enrollees. Georgia oversigned by one, signing 26 for the 2011 year. Now, thanks to the academic gods, they won;t have to show one of them the road or tell him he has to take a grey shirt, which is Saban’s favorite trick..
If you don’t think UGA signed 26, check Rivals, Scout, 247 Sports or any UGA site that lists signees. They all show UGA signing 26 for 2011, as plain as day.
I’d say that in your case it’s a good thing it ain’t rocket science, that-there rocket would crash if building it required reading comprehension.
It Ain't Rocket Science
May 5th, 2011
6:07 pm
Mike P,
Are all of these 26 from the class of 2011 or do they all count for the class of 2011? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
You can not sign more than 25 for each year you dunce. 24 were signed for 2011 and two count for 2010, as early enrolls.
Now is that so hard for you to understand?
I have the NCAA rulebook in PDF form if you need to read it since, you obviuosly do not get it as I am explaining it to you.
MikeP
May 5th, 2011
11:31 pm
Quoting It Ain’t rocket science”
“Are all of these 26 from the class of 2011 or do they all count for the class of 2011? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
Of course they all count for 2011.. Signees that counted back for 2010 would have had to enroll in school in January. They would have gone through spring practice and would not be enrolling for summer camp, as Chip clearly stated these are.
Quoting him again: “You can not sign more than 25 for each year you dunce.”
Wrong again. A school may sign up to 28. Only 25 may enroll on scholarship. How do you think the term ‘oversigning’ came into being? Richt signed 26. Now one won’t qualify so he’s down to the limit of 25 enrollees. Lucky him, now he won’t have to tell a kid he lied to him when he said there was a scholarship available.
If you do indeed have the NCAA rulebook in PDF form, I suggest that next time you read it before you make yourself look so foolish.
It Ain't Rocket Science
May 6th, 2011
2:19 am
MikeP,
UGA did have two in for the spring, Lemay being one of them.
You can still only have 25 per recruiting year. Your original statment was that UGA had 26 and would have to grey shirt or some other way, to be legal. This was not true as I showed you. I don’t give a darn if any other school signs 100 but UGA would have been fine had all 26 of those signed would have met all the requirement because they still only signed 24 for 2011. USC had the same condition as UGA did this year. No matter what you say and how much you hate UGA, facts are facts, so you willneed to find something else that you think CMR is guilty of and expound on that. You are an Auburn fan right?
MikeP
May 6th, 2011
8:56 am
Ok, Rocket Science: Scout, Rivals, ESPN and Chip are all wrong and you are correct. Gotcha.
Chip Towers
May 6th, 2011
9:38 am
Rocket Science, MikeP: Since Christian Conley and Christian LeMay enrolled in January, they counted toward the Class of 2010 and the other 24 signees counted toward 2011. Now that we know Chris Mayes is going JUCO, that means that 23 will count toward 2011 class, leaving two spots for early enrollees next January. Never can you bring in more than 25 in July/August or have more than 85 total.
Quid Pro Quo
May 9th, 2011
9:46 am
Dont forget:
Richt has guaranteed Mike Tamburo a scholarship by Sept 1.
NBANOTGOODNOMORE
May 11th, 2011
5:27 pm
He’s not the only one. Trust me there will be at least several others in this class that will not qaulify for sure. Its sad that these High School Coaches dont have the kids better prepared.