Just a thought…
UGA signed 19 players in December. They’ve since taken 2 scholarship transfers, taking them to 21 signees. Further, the Bulldogs also have two unsigned OL commitments who they’re hosting this weekend and desperately want to hold onto in Broderick Jones and Sedrick Van Prann. Importantly, they took two transfers on top of their 25 enrollees from 2019, so unless they want to roll scholarships into 2021 (like Tennessee appears willing to do and as Jesse Simonton from Volquest.com has astutely noted is the smart thing to do if you’re taking instant impact transfers each year) then theoretically they’re done at 23 if they hold onto those two OL.
However, they are also hosting a good number of newly offered kids this weekend, including 3-star DBs Daran Branch (a former Ole Miss commit) and Charles Bell (a former Syracuse commitment who in particular appears to be on commit watch); 3-star ATH DJ Lundy; and 3-star instate DL Cameron Kinnie (previously down to Army and Air Force). UGA is also battling Florida and Miami for 4-star S Avantae Williams, who is in Gainesville this weekend and could potentially visit Athens next weekend depending on what happens with Branch and Bell. Additional last-weekend visitors are OL Marcus Henderson (who UT has passed on) and WR Ladd McConkey (set to visit Tennessee this weekend unofficially).
All that to say, there are *quite* a few scenarios in which UGA hits its theoretical maximum 23 signees – and potentially a handful more than a couple of additional – very easily before 5-star RB and major Vol target Zach Evans is considered. And that’s before we get to perhaps the most salient visitor to the point here: 4-star instate RB Daijun Edwards who is also visiting Georgia this weekend. Edwards is currently scheduled to trip to Tallahassee next weekend, but it’s far from beyond the realm of possibility that the two parties could decide to pair up this weekend and be done, with Edwards shutting down his recruitment and UGA finishing up its RB class with Edwards and signee Kendall Milton. Obviously that in and of itself would almost certainly remove UGA from contention for Evans.
What all of that means is that, whatever Georgia and Evan’s relationship is right now and whatever either side would like it to be going forward, there are a LOT of moving pieces on just Georgia’s side of the ledger that could preclude them from being an option for Evans should he want them to be. Now, in order for Tennessee to end up signing the 5-star, program-changing RB, they’ll have to knock this weekend’s official visit out of the park – a near certainty – AND get themselves comfortable with whatever off the field issues have existed in the past. But assuming both of those things happen there could very well exist a scenario in which Evans sees the Vols as not just his best choice but his only choice. And that would be, to put it mildly, huge for Tennessee.