The Bulldog coaches have been on a scholarship offering jag over the past week, mostly to unheralded players emerging into the limelight. But in just the past couple of days they offered a four star prospect out of Fort Lauderdale power American Heritage, wide receiver/kick returner Isaiah McKenzie.
It's hard to get in on a highly rated prospect late in the recruiting game. Because recruiting is about relationships. In this instance a relationship may have helped Georgia immensely. Because McKenzie's American Heritage teammate Sony Michel had been committed to Georgia for a long time, and now it appears that he won't be coming to Athens alone.
This morning Isaiah McKenzie committed to the Bulldogs over offers from the likes of Virginia Tech, Ole Miss, and Florida. In fact, a cryptic McKenzie tweet* yesterday afternoon seemed to indicate he'd be signing with one of those three schools:
Vtech,FL,Ole Miss here I come
— Manda's Husband (@JoyStick_izzy) February 4, 2014
It didn't throw many people off the scent. A number of recruiting analysts picked him to sign with Georgia almost as soon as he got an offer from the Red and Black. Other schools offering McKenzie included Oregon, Michigan, Notre Dame, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. That's a national list for a national-level recruit.
McKenzie isn't the biggest prospect, measuring a slight 5'8 and 175 pounds. But he's about the quickest player you're going to see. Take a look:
McKenzie must return kicks in Athens. He simply must. One of the toughest things for a kick returner to do is to make that first guy downfield miss. McKenzie makes the first, second and third guys miss, and is fast enough that no one else even gets a hand on him.
I expect that McKenzie will also line up at slot receiver, perhaps occasionally at tailback. He's the kind of guy who an innovative offensive coordinator dreams up ways to get the ball to. There's plenty of time for Mike Bobo to figure all that out. For now, the Georgia Bulldogs just got a lot shiftier. Until later . . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!
*The shifty speedster's Twitter handle is "JoyStick_izzy", which makes a lot of sense. He moves like an EA Sports video game player with the agility cranked up to 99.