Georgia Football: Getting to know OLB target Quay Walker
Georgia Football fans have had a lot to cheer about on the recruiting trail this winter already, but Quay Walker is another kid to keep an eye on.
After cleaning up back in December, you’d be forgiven for thinking that recruiting season was over for the Georgia Football team. Kirby Smart signed 20 players. 6 of whom were 5-star players. No, you didn’t read that wrong, 6. That means that UGA currently has the number 1 recruiting class in the country.
But there are still a few more spots to go and UGA is fighting hard to get the best possible players to fill them. With national signing day now 10 days away, I thought I’d start diving into some of the names that Dawg fans should know.
Right now, it looks like the Dawgs have either 4 or 5 spots (depending who you believe) up for grabs in this class. They seem to be actively recruiting about 8 or 9 players for those positions. So let’s take a quick look at another of those players who could end up in Athens.
Quay Walker’s recruitment has been a long journey
It has been a long and complicated recruiting process for Walker. Back in his junior year, it looked like a certainty that he would end up in Athens. He was a big UGA fan and his best friend from his Crisp County high school Markaviest Bryant was a Georgia Silent commit. Things all started to change last signing day however when Bryant committed to Auburn.
That recruitment caused a lot of people in Athens to be taken aback. They thought Bryant was going to be joining them. To go and play for one of their big rivals was a shock. When he later said that he did it because ‘UGA recruited him too hard’, people were even more baffled.
That recruitment affected Walker. While it probably shouldn’t have, the Georgia coaches were wary of Crisp County players. Something with the Bryant decision didn’t smell quite right and so they dialed back on Walker. He went from being a clear priority to someone further down the line.
That didn’t sit well with Walker who has clearly said from day one that he equates attention to respect. He went from being a Georgia lean to no longer having the Dawgs as a to school. It was no surprise when he later committed to Alabama.
One week from signing day and the battle continues
But it seems that the battle for Walker’s services isn’t over quite yet. With Jeramy Pruitt departing from Alabama, things changed for Walker. He found that his two primary recruiters from Bama and UGA were now at the same school. Tennessee hired both Pruitt and Kevin Sherrer who Walker is also close to.
And so he didn’t sign with Alabama on the early signing day. A rumor emerged that UGA sent him papers to signs with them if he wanted to on December 20th. He never did, but it was clear that his recruitment was back open again.
New UGA OLB coach Dan Lanning made Walker his very first visit after he started in Athens. That’s a sign that he’s a priority for Georgia right now. While UGA is pretty loaded at OLB in this class, you can always find room for a player like Walker. His game really took a step up in his senior season.
Walker has the potential and the game to become an every-down player in Kirby Smart’s system. That’s a very valuable tool and it seems that UGA is keen to bring him in. To do so, they are going to have to beat out Alabama and Tennessee. That isn’t going to be an easy task, but it’s something they can do.
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If Lanning and Smart can bring Walker in, that would be a tremendous win for the program. He’s been a steady riser and is now a borderline 5-star player. You can never have too many of those. Stealing a second Bama commit would also help the Dawgs right a wrong from the past Championship game. Maybe it’s time Kirby took his ‘revenge tour’ onto the recruiting trail…