4-star LB Chris Cole trending to Georgia ahead of USC, Tennessee visits

Georgia already has the No. 1 class in the On3 Industry Football Team Recruiting Rankings, but Kirby Smart’s staff is looking to add on.

Salem (Va.) four-star linebacker Chris Cole is set to announce his commitment on September 10. Georgia is thought to lead in his recruitment, but upcoming trips to USC and Tennessee could prove difficult for the Bulldogs.

DawgsHQ recruiting insider Jake Rowe spoke with Josh Newberg on On3’s Inside Scoop recruiting show about Cole’s recruitment.

“Well if he committed today it would be Georgia, I really believe that,” Rowe said. “Georgia has been a leader here for a while. The issue that Georgia’s going to run into here is that he’s going to see USC, he’s going to see Tennessee right before he makes a decision. Now, the good news for Georgia there is Tennessee is kind of getting a hail-mary type of an official visit — and phenomenal job by them of recruiting him and getting a couple late visits here. But it’s not going to be a true official visit because he’s got a game on Friday night and he’s making a decision on Sunday. It’ll be more like a 24-hour deal or 36-hour deal as opposed to a full-scale official visit.

“You can never count out USC with all the opportunities and everything out west, you get kids going out there. Listen, I love L.A., I know a lot of other people who do too. I could never blame the kid for that. But I do like Georgia going into those visits with both of those teams having a chance to kind of turn the worm there.”

Cole set to visit USC, Tennessee

Cole will visit USC next weekend before taking a trip to Knoxville the week after — a day before his commitment announcement. Rowe said that the shortened visit could play in Georgia’s favor — just as much as the timing could help Tennessee.”

“And that might be a little bit of an advantage, it might not. Who knows?” Rowe said. “He did visit Tennessee, Georgia was leading going into the unofficial visit to Tennessee there at the end of July whenever Tennessee got him on campus. They impressed him. I heard a lot of good things about the way they felt about that Tennessee visit. Then things kind of died down a little bit and the Georgia noise started to pick right back up.

“And I think Tennessee’s going to have an excellent shot, don’t get me wrong. But going into it, I think they’ve got a lot to overcome there because you look at what Georgia has done at inside linebacker, what Glenn Schumann has done at inside linebacker, they’ve accomplished a lot at that position. And Tennessee has got a lot to sell, their program on the rise and I definitely wouldn’t count them out by any means. Maybe that visit being a little shorter might end up helping Georgia — maybe the timing of it is all Tennessee needs.”