K.J. Bolden is set to make his announcement at 7:30 PM Saturday evening. Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia and Ohio State are the five finalists for the five-star safety. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs have been the favorite to land the No. 9 nationally rated prospect dating back almost a year. He has been on campus in Athens over 15 times during that timeframe but other schools have come on strong to make this decision more difficult. Bolden visited Georgia for an official visit on the weekend of June 10th and the Bulldogs held all the momentum following that visit. The following weekend, Bolden made his way to Columbus, Ohio to visit the Buckeyes. During that visit, we were told that Ohio State made up a lot of ground and made things interesting between those two schools.
Fast forward a week, rinse and repeat. Florida State hosted Bolden on a midweek unofficial visit and the Seminoles had some momentum coming out of that visit. Alabama hosted him on an official visit on that weekend (June 24th) and there was some talk coming out of that visit but not as much as others. Georgia was still talked about heavily and both Florida State and Ohio State making up a lot of ground in those recruitments. Originally, Bolden had a plan to announce at the beginning of July but that was pushed back a month to evaluate further.
Throughout the month of July, majority of the talk shifted to Florida State and Georgia with an upcoming unofficial visit scheduled to Auburn for Big Cat weekend. Following that visit, the Tigers seemed to garner that same momentum that came out of some previous stops. As the week has progressed, the talk has slowly transitioned from Florida State and Georgia to Auburn and Georgia as the favorites to land the No. 1 nationally rated safety.
Everything is tight lipped from the Bolden circle as we inch closer to a decision on Saturday. While talking with numerous sources throughout the week, I continue to stick with the prediction of Georgia that I put in on May 21st of this year. The relationships he and his family have made with the Bulldogs staff and players over the last year (plus) will be a tough aspect to overcome from the opposing finalist in his group.
Rivals100 running back Nate Frazier took an unofficial visit to Georgia on June 10th. We are told that was an eye opening trip for the No. 1 nationally rated back and the Bulldogs set the bar high for the other contenders in his recruiting process. One of those contenders was the Oregon Ducks who hosted Frazier on an official visit the following weekend. An Alabama official visit transpired the weekend after that one. Texas A&M was another school that was talked about frequently but the No. 70 nationally rated prospect recently canceled an unofficial visit to College Station. He followed that up with announcing a commitment announcement date of August 6th at 3:00 PM. The finalist in that announcement are Alabama, Georgia and Oregon.
From talking with sources over the last several weeks, we really like where Georgia stands with just over three days until a final decision. An official visit to Athens is already on the calendar for the South Carolina game in September as well. The Bulldogs already hold the commitments of the No. 6 nationally rated running back in Chauncey Bowens, as well as the No. 10 nationally rated athlete in Dwight Phillps. After missing on Justice Haynes in last years class, Dell McGee is on the verge of landing three talented backs in the class of 2024. The depth will be much needed with both Kendall Milton and Daijun Edwards entering their senior seasons in Athens while Andrew Paul is coming off of an ACL injury that forced him to miss the 2022 season.
The announcement for five-star defensive end Williams Nwaneri continues to get pushed back further and further. Originally scheduled for August 1st, that date was pushed back to August 7th and now seems to be back even further to maybe the 14th of this month. Oklahoma seemed to be the favorite coming into the summer but that is when things heated up for the No. 3 nationally rated prospect. Georgia hosted him for an official visit on the weekend of June 3rd. Nwaneri raved about his visit to Athens: "I felt really good about Georgia going into the visit, and I still feel really good about them after the visit. They set the bar high for other schools and the other visits, too."
An official visit to Oklahoma, Tennessee and Missouri were the next three official visits in the month of June. That is when things started to get interesting. Following his final official visit to Columbia, MO, the No. 1 nationally rated strongside defensive end flew in to Atlanta to see some family and also took a trip back up to Athens for an unofficial visit. He was scheduled to go back to Oklahoma with an additional trip to Oregon in late July but that was canceled due to some discipline issues within his household.
Over the last month, the talk has been all over the place when it comes to Nwaneri. From the information we have been able to gather, this seems to be a Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma battle with the Sooners fading a little in this recruitment. There might even be some disagreements among his inner circle of where that final destination should be. It is tough to pull a kid out of the state of Missouri as we saw with Luther Burden a few cycles ago, but Georgia is right in the thick of this thing as we inch closer to what we believe is a final decision date. Ask me today and I would predict Missouri but I believe the continued delays in his process are pointing towards a final choice not being fully agreed upon just yet.
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