Kirby Smart provides backstory on the recruitment of Darnell Washington

Darnell Washington is currently part of the two-headed monster Georgia has going at tight end right now, playing alongside Brock Bowers. They have been a weapon all season for quarterback Stetson Bennett, both being in the top four in receiving for the Bulldogs.

Head coach Kirby Smart took some time to reflect on Washington’s recruitment. He said despite the tight end being from Las Vegas, he always showed interest in playing in the SEC and not just for Georgia. Visits to other programs throughout the conference occurred as well.

But once Smart knew the SEC interest was legit, he built the relationship with Washington before getting him to sign with Georgia.

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“A lot of trips to Vegas to get to know him,” Smart said. “He made a couple of trips here and showed interest in really coming to the southeast. Because I know he went and visited some other places. Maybe Florida, Tennessee, Alabama.

“Once you know someone has interest in coming this way, then you take a heightened awareness and you evaluate. Obviously his size and athletic ability blended with the SEC. I remember watching a basketball game where he was pretty phenomenal in that.”

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Coming out of high school, Washington was ranked a five-star prospect by the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services. He was the second-ranked tight end in the country, with only Arik Gilbert being higher. Funny how that turned out, with Gibert now being on Georgia’s roster.

Kibry Smart raves about Darnell Washington

On the same drive that Bowers scored his second touchdown against Kent State, Washington caught a 23-yard pass from Bennett. Washington ended the game with two catches for 39 yards, and joined Brock Bowers in earning postgame praise from Kirby Smart.

“The other incredible player out there is Darnell,” Smart said. “If you go back and look at Brock’s big plays this year, Darnell’s been a big part of that. I was so proud and happy to see him. First play of the game, he’s wide open and it was supposed to go to him. Stetson took a shot being aggressive and Darnell was there. The very next play, Brock gets a touchdown and Darnell’s celebrating. He’s the first one in the end zone celebrating. Darnell blocking combined with what Brock does on the perimeter, the package of those two, they complement each other really well.”