National Signing Day
South Georgia Commits
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
One of the most important days on any football program’s calendar…National Signing Day.
Once again, the state of Georgia and more specifically South Georgia had some of the most coveted high school talent in the country.
According to 247, the #2 player coming out of the state of Georgia is Benedictine’s LaDamion Guyton. The 5-star edge player signed to continue his career with the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Guyton began his career with Savannah Christian before transferring to Benedictine for the 2025 season.
Jae Lamar, a running back from Colquitt County signed to play for Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs. The 4-star speedster racked up over 1,000 yards rushing and scored 17 rushing touchdowns in 2025 while adding 2 receiving scores.
One player that is heading off the beaten path is Lee County’s Lesiah Jackson that signed with the Stanford Cardinal. Jackson was rated as the 23rd best safety in the nation and the 22nd best overall player in the state of Georgia.
The Leesburg native is a bigger-bodied defensive back that began his first two years as a two-way player before transitioning full-time to the defensive side for the final two years of his prep career.
One of the more interesting recruitments comes in Brunswick as the Pirates’ Heze Kent is listed on the recruiting sites as an Athlete at 6-6 and 310 pounds.
Kent was primarily a tight end for the Pirates, but likely projects as either an offensive tackle or defensive tackle as he signs with the Florida Gators just three days after the Gators announced the hiring of new head coach Jon Sumrall.
It wouldn’t be right to talk about National Signing Day without bringing up Benedictine in Savannah. Yet again, the Cadets have a top recruit as 4-star wide receiver Bubba Frazier signed his NLI to play at Notre Dame.
Frazier was one of the most dominant offensive weapons in the country over the past three years for Benedictine. While mainly looked at as a slot receiver, Frazier has also rushed for over 1,100 yards in his 3 years. For a grand total of 3,300 total yards, Frazier scored 33 offensive touchdowns in his 3-year career.
Traeviss Stevenson anchored the defensive secondary for Brooks County and looks to head to the ATL to bolster the Georgia Tech safety room.
The consensus 4-star recruit that goes by “stick” had offers from Georgia, Texas, Michigan, and Florida, but chooses the Ramblin Wreck (who just signed Head Coach Brent Key to a big-time extension).
That gets us through the top 30 prospects in the state from the area, but the talent pool goes much deeper than that. That’s a trend that has carried throughout the state to keep the in-state talent within the Georgia borders.
In addition to Jae Lamar, the Georgia Bulldogs also bring in Jordan Smith. Smith is a 4-star safety from Houston County.
Head Coach Clay Helton and Georgia Southern tap into the local talent too. The Eagles early on signing day reported the signing of a pair of teammates from West Laurens as O-Lineman Grady Howell and Running Back Ty Cummings. In addition, Camden County’s 3-star linebacker Xavier Brown.
Not surprisingly to those in the College Football world but the state of Georgia high school talent shines again and plants the next wave of stars to the next level from South Georgia…Just how it should be.
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The Rich Get Richer
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Outside of the opening weekend of March Madness, I’m not sure there’s a weekday in college athletics that deserves to be labeled an “unofficial holiday” more than a college football signing day.
For all the buildup, all the phone alerts, all the sneaking away to the bathroom so you can see if your team signed that three-star backup punter, it always seems to end the same; with the SEC on top.
Once again college football’s best conference (according to those in the Southeast, at least) treated this year’s signing day like a sumo wrestler at a Chinese buffet. As soon as the doors opened, they bum rushed the buffet line, grabbed all the Sesame Chicken and General Tso’s they could get their hands on, leaving nothing for left for anyone else except the beef and broccoli that had been sitting under the heat lamp since early that morning.
And just like death and taxes, the one thing you can count on is Alabama bringing in a recruiting class rated either first or second. I would say they always finish first, much like this year according to most sites, but Georgia has become Alabama 2.0 in almost every facet of their program and I’m pretty sure they had the higher rated class last year. Either way, when it comes to recruiting it’s been Alabama, Georgia, and then everyone else.
Of the other three SEC teams that finished ranked in the top ten, one is a regular participant (LSU), one is a familiar face we haven’t seen for a couple of years (Florida), and the third, is a new addition thanks to a head coach going through his first full recruiting cycle with the program (Texas A&M).
Having said that, it’s very easy to speak rhapsodic about a program that brings in a top ten recruiting class- they’ve all brought in talented players that should help their team, that’s why they’re rated where they are.
There are three teams however, that stuck a little bit as I was reading over the final outcomes: Tennessee, Ohio State, and Florida State.
For Tennessee, they’ve been just good enough on the recruiting trail recently to be able to have the product they put on the field not live up to expectations. It’s been a few years since they were able to put together the type of class Jeremy Pruitt was able to this year, and it will be intriguing to see if that success translates onto the field.
Ohio State signed some of the blue-chip athletes you would expect (plus a particular transfer from Athens), but where they “struggled”, was with quality depth. It would’ve been unrealistic to expect them to do much better than they did with everything that has transpired over the past year, but when you have a new coach you have to wonder if it’s a blip on the radar, or the beginning of a trend?
As for Florida State they just lost their primary target at quarterback to a Maryland program so toxic Montgomery Burns wouldn’t even have Smithers touch it.
I have nothing against Willie Taggart and I know he says he has a plan, but unless it includes owning stock in U-Haul, I don’t have much faith in it.
To absolutely nobody’s surprise the SEC puffed out its chest and dominated signing day. The national title may reside in another conference, but when it comes to pure talent, the SEC is first in line, and they’re not leaving many leftovers.
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