How Georgian football found its 5-star barber, Xavian Sorey

Georgia coach Kirby Smart had a need. He was looking for a new barber, so Smart posted a video on Twitter in which he and a few Georgia coaches wondered where he could take him on December 10th.

In the video, Georgia defensive coaches Dan Lanning and Glenn Schumann joked about Schumann’s need for a haircut and how, after completing Georgia’s new $ 80 million football facility, the Bulldogs will have their own barber shop away from offices.

Smart then sent a text to special teams coordinator Scott Cochran if he knew of anyone who could play that role.

Cochran claimed to know a guy, an interesting remark for the bald first-year Georgia coach.

That guy happened to be Xavian Sorey, general perspective no. 20 in recruiting class 2021. He had cut Schumann once before on a recruiting visit to Georgia before the pandemic. Schumann asked him to do it, and Sorey happened to have the cuts with him.

Many internet recruiters have figured out who the video really was for. So is Sorey.

“I knew it was for me and I knew other people knew it would be for me,” Sorey said. “It simply came to our notice then. No other school has done that, but Georgia has. That’s why I’m a Georgia Bulldog. “

Sorey’s haircut skills are not what everyone is excited about. He is also a 5-star leader and one of 20 potential signers with Georgia in the signing class of 2021. Just days after Smart’s video came out, Sorey ended up picking up the Bulldogs over the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators in a gym near his hometown, Campbellton, Florida.

“I felt at home with them,” Sorey said. “We’ve had a great relationship with the coaches in Georgia for a long time and they’ve been consistent.”

Like a good haircut, Sorey will last a while. He will have to work out all the little details – the elements of precision – if he is to be the next support who will add the NFL pipeline to Georgia.

When Sorey joins Georgia in January, the Bulldogs are considering moving him on defense. He has the gifts and the athletic tools to play in the bottom line and in the bottom line.

He displayed the same athletic facts on the basketball court, the same place where he held the signing ceremony. Also there Smart had a close and personal look at what a special 6-foot-3, 215 pound Sorey athlete is.

“I have to see him play a game of basketball, one of the few guys I have to watch in basketball and I just thought he was a very good athlete on the basketball court, falling, very talented and he’s really a kid. good, ”said Smart.

Sorey knew for a while that he was going to play football in college. He had been recruited since freshman season and he knows it his success as a football player will help improve the lives of his family members.

Georgia’s future defender was easily the best player every time he stepped on both sides of football at Graceville High School. This was partly due to the size of the school; Graceville plays in the lowest ranking in Florida and has only 167 children in grades 6-12.

Sorey wanted a challenge. So he went on to play senior season at IMG Academy, a football factory in Bradenton, Florida, that usually plays some of the best high school teams in the country. Sorey was one of 10 seniors to play at IMG Academy this year, signing with a Power 5 team.

Georgia has now signed at least one IMG Academy player in each of the last three classes. Some of the boarding school students include Isaac Nauta and Nolan Smith.

Smart liked that Sorey would be willing to challenge himself by increasing his level of competition. It also didn’t hurt the Bulldogs that fellow 2021 signatories Lovasea ‘Carroll and Marlin Dean were teammates with Sorey this year.

“I think it put him in a position to be more successful in college because he was exposed to other players like him, where he hadn’t seen that in his hometown,” Smart said. “That kind of woke him up, thinking, ‘Wow, there are a lot of players like me, these guys are pretty good.’

While Sorey has the athletic gifts and inner drive to excel, Smart has pushed the idea that he is a finished product. He pointed out that Sorey is still a raw player. He played in just three games at IMG Academy due to an off-season foot injury that required surgery.

Sorey said Wednesday she wants to be a part of it.

Smart tried to temper expectations with the 5-star linebacker. But he also called the wound “a disguised blessing.”

“He’s going to have to be patient and really understand the defense and grow as a player, but I think he’s willing to do that,” Smart said. “He is engaged in the relations he has here. He has many relationships with many coaches that will push him to excel and it just won’t happen overnight. “

Linebacker was a must for Georgia in this class. Sorey definitely fills that hole, both inside and outside the quiet, the Bulldogs also signing Smael Mondon, Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Chaz Chambliss.

Related: Kirby Smart talks about restraint, Mel Kiper lists the Bulldogs in the top 10 in positions

He offers Smart the new barber he wants.

“Come in and play hard,” Sorey said of what he will bring to Georgia. “Be the best player I can be. Go win some championships. I’m definitely going to cut myself. “

Smart swears that the video he sent to Twitter was not just for Sorey, but rather to show the new football facility, which is to be completed in 2021. The inclusion of Lanning, Schumann and Cochran was certainly no coincidence. , because Smart and Both Sorey emphasized the role that all three coaches played in bringing Sorey to Georgia.

As for Smart’s own relationship with Sorey, he has no problem sitting down and getting a haircut from the Georgia signatory.

“I could care less about my hair so I could take care of it,” Smart said.

Jeff Sentell of DawgNation also contributed to this story.

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