Newcomer Profile: Georgia OT Jamal Meriweather
Most of the 2023 Georgia recruiting class enrolled in January — almost 70 percent of it, actually. The Bulldogs welcomed 18 players to campus and 17 of them got a taste of spring practice. Sixteen of them finished spring drills and got the full spring semester experience in the Classic City.
The other eight are arriving this summer with most of them having already enrolled. They’re going to get right into the flow of things with summer workouts and classes, but it’s going to take some time for them to catch up.
With that in mind, DawgsHQ is taking one last look at them before they fully settle in under the Bulldogs’ roof. Next up is another high upside offensive tackle and a relatively late add for Georgia in the 2023 class.
OT Jamal Meriweather
On3 Industry Ranking: No. 629 overall, No. 38 offensive tackle, No. 62 in Georgia
The Story…
It took a little while for Georgia to extend an offer to the talented tackle. In fact, UCF beat the Bulldogs to the punch by a large margin. Meriweather gave his commitment to the Golden Knights in April of 2022, approximately over six months before Kirby Smart and company came calling.
USC, Tennessee, and others threw a hat in to the ring as well, but Georgia didn’t give him a chance to commit until December. Luckily for the Bulldogs, he wanted to be one pretty bad. Meriweather reserved his spot in the class one day after getting an offer. He flipped from UCF to Georgia a little over a week before he could sign and shut things down.
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He played at Brunswick High School, the same place as Warren McClendon, where he had a hand in a lot of wins and played on both sides of the ball.
Where Meriweather fits…
Meriweather has the tools you look for in a tackle but he’s going to have to take a different route than most Georgia tackles. So many Bulldog linemen under Smart have had to come in and take weight off. Meriweather is going to have to put some on. He’ll need to add about 15-20 pounds of good weight before he’s ready to start competing for a job.
But when it comes to things like length, athleticism, and balance, he has those in spades. Meriweather is a bit of a waste-bender at this point in his development, giving the impression that he might be a better fit on the right side. But that might also be more habit than anything else because his film shows that he can bend when he really wants to.
Preseason camp expectations…
It’s going to be a shocker if Meriweather competes for a job in his first season. Georgia wants him to get after it like he’s in the mix but it’s going to take some time. He has to get bigger and stronger first. One thing that will help him is when the Bulldogs move to scout-team work in late August. He’ll get a chance to line up against some good players and adjust to the speed of the game. Those Friday lifts during the fall will also pay off.
