Xavian Sorey Talks Georgia, Timetable

As Xavian Sorey works back from a foot injury ahead of his senior season debut, even more questions loom on his recruitment.

As Xavian Sorey works back from a foot injury ahead of his senior season debut, even more questions loom on his recruitment.

The Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy standout currently holds a top-five of "Florida, Georgia, 'Bama, LSU, and Auburn," but breaking that group down further just got a bit tougher with the NCAA extending the recruiting dead period through the remainder of 2020. It means no traditional campus or game visits or in-person coaching contact of any kind.

"We just found out like two days ago...dang!" he said. "Can't go to games and stuff, that's really what I've been waiting on, just to get a feel for it."

Sorey says he plans on seeing more campuses on his own as he has already done with Georgia a few weeks back with Amarius Mims, his IMG teammate Lovasea Carroll, Brock Vandagriff, Maason Smith, Korey Foreman, Terrion Arnold, and others. 

"Just to refresh everything, it's been a long time since we've been on visits," he said.

LSU is the only campus experience the SI99 member, ranked as the nation's No. 2 linebacker prospect, has yet to take in on a thorough, tour-included scale within his top five. He says otherwise the campus experiences are each similar between the contenders, all in the SEC because of the NFL pipeline each program has succeeded with at the linebacker position. 

As for his thoughts on Georgia, Sorey visited last year and said the visit was "crazy." 

"When I went to Georgia, that visit was crazy, I'm not even going to lie. That was one of the best visits I've been to. They paid me a lot of attention, there was other people there but the coaches really just focused on me. Glenn Schumman (Inside Linebackers coach) and Dan Lanning (Outside linebackers coach) are always battling over who's going to get me, so they plan to play me everywhere if I go there." 

Another factor in the decision is fellow SI99 Floridian Terrion Arnold, the versatile defensive back looking at similar programs, and that's not by accident.

"We've known each other from a little minute," Sorey said. "He's from Tallahassee and I'm from Campbellton, Florida, that's like 40 minutes away. We're real close. We FaceTime all the time, we go on visits together, stuff like that.

"So we plan on going to the same school together." 

Arnold and Sorey aren't the only top target tandem that Georgia is after in the 2021 class. Korey Foreman and Maason Smith have stated that they want to play together in college as well. 

He doesn't plan to make an announcement until signing day, and maybe beyond. Sorey will be playing in the Adidas All-American game and could make his commitment known then.