Current Affairs: Atlanta
An Overview of Recruiting for the Class of 2024 in and around Atlanta
Atlanta is, perhaps, the most influential recruiting battleground in the nation. Clemson, Alabama, and Georgia among others have built the backbone of their rosters with talented players from the capital of the Peach State. And the talent present in the area cannot be overstated. There were 8 top-100 picks in the 2023 draft who were at one point blue chip recruits in Atlanta’s 2019 or 2020 recruiting classes alone (DJ Turner II, Wanya Morris, Myles Murphy, Josh Downs, Will Anderson, Brian Branch, Broderick Jones, BJ Ojulari). Given how much talent is in the area - and how important that talent is to the nation’s top programs - if we want to predict the future of Power 5 football, it is essential to understand the present of recruiting in Atlanta.
We will attempt to get a baseline understanding of recruiting in Atlanta by answering 3 questions:
Who are the best players in Atlanta in the Class of 2024?
Which Power 5 programs most actively recruit in Atlanta?
What are important individual battles to look out for in the upcoming season?
Names To Know
Atlanta is arguably the most talented metro region in the country for the class of 2024. It has the most 5 stars (4) and the 3rd-most blue chips (24) of any metro in the class of 2024. The metro is led by Buford high school, which has won 4 state titles in 5 years at various levels of Georgia HS football, with nearly all of the region’s 5 stars. Buford has gotten to the point of suffering from its own success, as head coach Bryant Appling has discussed the difficulties of going through spring practices with hosting several dozen college coaches watching.
The biggest name of the group is UGA Commit and 2024 #1 recruit Dylan Raiola. Raiola will now be attending his 4th school in three years. As a sophomore he attended Burleson High School in Burleson, TX before moving to as a Junior to be closer to family and attended Chandler High School in Chandler, AZ. While at Chandler, he committed at Ohio State in May 2022 before decommitting in December of that year. Dylan and little brother Dayton then transferred to Pinnacle High in Phoenix under Arizona’s lax school choice laws. At the end of the semester, Raiola announced his commitment to Georgia in May 2023. Unfortunately, Raiola would have been forced to sit out the first five varsity games of Pinnacle’s schedule due to Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) transfer rules.
That last fact played a significant factor in the Raiola family’s decision to move to Buford to play for the powerhouse. As his father and former NFL player Dominic Raiola told the Arizona Republic, “Biggest thing is missing games. We talked to [Pinnacle coach Dana] Zupke, and, with his experience with the AIA, he is in full support of Dylan being free and clear to play a full senior season.”
Langston Hughes QB and Ohio State commit Air Noland is also a player of particular interest. The #5 QB in the class, according to On3, has generated buzz recently after his performance at the Elite 11 camp generated positive reviews from all major outlets.
Active Schools
Atlanta is the recruiting battleground for the SEC’s traditional powers. Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, and Alabama have collectively earned 60 commitments from Atlanta recruits over the past five recruiting cycles, with 45 of those players being labelled Blue Chips by On3. Clemson is a willing participant in this battle for supremacy, and has arguably won the area since it has earned the 2nd-most commitments overall (21) along with the most blue chip commitments (16). Outside of these 5 schools, Georgia Tech and Ohio State are noteworthy players on the Deep South’s most prominent stage.
Georgia Tech’s campus is in downtown Atlanta, and thus finds the plurality of its players from the area with 45 total commitments since 2019. Under former head coach Geoff Collins, the Yellow Jackets led the Power 5 in Atlanta commits each cycle with 7-9 commitments a class. Current head coach Brent Key has double downed on this strategy by adding 14 players from Tech’s backyard in the class of 2023. Despite this insistence on owning the 404, Tech has failed in recent years to attract and retain the region’s upper-echelon talent.
The 4 Atlanta Blue Chips Tech has added to its roster in the past 5 cycles are 2020 EDGE Jared Ivey, 2020 WR Nate McCollum, 2021 WR Leo Blackburn, and 2022 RB Antonio Martin. After starting 13 games at GT, Ivey transferred to Ole Miss for the 2022 season where he begun as a rotational piece before transitioning to a starting role late in the year. McCollum led Georgia Tech in receiving in 2022 but transferred to ACC rival North Carolina this offseason. Blackburn has suffered multiple season-ending injuries, and only caught 5 passes in his lone healthy season. Martin redshirted his freshman season and entered the transfer portal in April.
Ohio State is best conceptualized as the anti-Georgia Tech. While they are not completing the FBS equivalent of Sherman’s Match with 7 Atlanta commits in the past 5 classes, they are the only school outside the Deep South with sustained ATL success. The catch is that all of those commitments have been deemed Blue Chip prospects.
Battles to Watch
With no reason to expect either Dylan Raiola or Air Noland to decommit in the near future, Atlanta’s intrigue for 2024 will revolve around the three uncommitted 5 stars. KJ Bolden, Eddrick Houston, and Mike Matthews have each taken 4 official visits so far. Their OV lists look remarkably similar, with all visiting Clemson and Georgia as well as two of Ohio State, Tennessee, Alabama and USC. Bolden also has an OV scheduled with Auburn in October on their bye week after playing UGA.
Houston is scheduled to announce his commitment on August 22nd with insiders at both On3 and 247Sports predicting he will choose Ohio State with medium confidence. Neither Bolden nor Matthews have announced commitment dates nor do they have solid predictions from any insiders. Bolden has several 247Sports insiders with medium confidence on his commitment to Georgia, and Matthews has a sole On3 insider with medium confidence on him eventually attending the University of Tennessee. From my outsider vantage point, I don’t see a strong reason to discount any prominent Atlanta power or USC in their recruitments.
There are six remaining uncommitted Blue Chips in the Atlanta metro. Considering the official and unofficial visits they’ve taken at time of writing, these are the schools we can reasonably expect the player to narrow their lists down to:
Carrolton TE Caleb Odom: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Miami (FL)
Walton IOL Daniel Calhoun: Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas
Parkview CB Jalyn Crawford: Auburn, Florida, LSU, North Carolina
Grayson TE Kylan Fox: Colorado, Florida State, Georgia Tech, UCF
Grayson IOL Waltclaire Flynn Jr.: Georgia, UCF, LSU
Buford CB TyShun White: North Carolina, Maryland