Whitaker Talks About His Decision

I've been told by about a half-dozen people who know a thing or two about football that the perfect fit at nose tackle in Todd Grantham's new scheme would be Warner-Robins' defensive lineman Jeff Whitaker, who will be announcing his college decision on Monday. (He's also considering Miami and Auburn.)

The Telegraph's preps writer, Jonathan Heeter, spent some time with Whitaker earlier this week and will have a more in depth story in Sunday's paper (so be sure to pick it up!), but here's a bit of what Whitaker had to say about UGA and his upcoming decision.

On Todd Grantham:
“He’s a really great guy. I think he is going to do a great job with the defense. He's honest with you and shoots straight, and that means a lot.”

On Grantham's scheme:
“I’ve played some 3-4 defense. I feel comfortable with it, although it isn’t what we played most of the time. I think (Georgia) feels like I would be a very good fit at nose tackle.”

On Georgia vs. the other programs he's deciding between:
“The thing I tell people all the time is that Georgia will be great with me or without me. It’s a great football program, and they have a great coaching staff."

On his decision to announce his decision Monday rather than to wait until signing day:
“I wanted to get it out of the way before Signing Day. Signing Day is a day for all of my teammates who are signing, not just me. It’s about our Warner Robins family.”

And one more big reason to like this kid -- he told Jonathan that he won't be doing the traditional picking from a row of hats because he doesn't want it to seem like a slap in the face of the other coaches who recruited him. “I’m not playing games with those men when I make my pick,” he said.

Classy kid who's going to be a heck of a player.

One other thing: A few of you have asked about our coverage of signing day. Last year, I was in Butts-Mehre for the entirety of the day and live blogged the event. My plan was to do something similar this year, but with the construction going on at Butts-Mehre, the media has been pushed over to Stegeman. So... I'm not entirely sure how I'll be doing it yet, but I can promise you that we'll have full coverage (or as much as possible at least) on the blog as the day progresses. Mark Richt is scheduled to meet with media at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, so I'll obviously have updates from that as well.