Frederick Douglass DL Jamarrion Harkless on verge of breakout summer

Lexington’s (KY) Frederick Douglass High School has developed yet another potential Power 5 prospect. Class of 2023 defensive lineman Jamarrion Harkless picked up a massive offer from the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday. Now, he’s on the verge of a breakout summer.

The 6-foot-4, 290-pound native of Kentucky had been under the radar up until a couple of months ago. Heading into February 2022, Harkless held just one Divison I offer from Eastern Kentucky. Since then, he’s received, in order, scholarships from Miami (OH), Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green, West Virginia, Marshall, Georgia State, UT Martin, Austin Peay, Western Kentucky, Liberty, Illinois, and Georgia — the type of offer that can completely change how a recruit is perceived.

“He’s not a super emotional kid and he was pretty emotional this morning,” Frederick Douglass head coach Nathan McPeek told KSR on Wednesday. Roughly 24 hours after we spoke with McPeek, Harkless would pick up another massive offer, this one coming from the Auburn Tigers.

Blessed to receive an offer from Georgia!🔴⚪️⚫️ pic.twitter.com/Rdr4WPDzDb

— Jamarrion Harkless (@JamarrionHarkl2) April 13, 2022

Blessed to receive an offer from Auburn!!🟠🔵 pic.twitter.com/iks8h9ClJE

— Jamarrion Harkless (@JamarrionHarkl2) April 14, 2022

Where did all this interest spawn from? Harkless was named the co-MVP at the Best of the Midwest Combine back in February alongside four-star DL prospect Kendrick Gilbert (a top Kentucky target). Harkless has performed incredibly well in camp settings in 2022. Prior to that, he registered 30 total tackles, including nine tackles for loss and two sacks, during his junior season at Frederick Douglass in 2021. His play over the last few months was enough to attract the attention of the defending national champs.

“They don’t come up here and recruit a whole lot at all, it was just kinda a fast thing that occurred over the last two days,” Coach McPeek said of Georgia’s interest. “Got on the phone with their d-line coach (Tray Scott) and (head) coach (Kirby) Smart, and they’re gonna come up and watch spring practice during May and check (Harkless) out and watch him.”

Harkless currently plans to make a visit down to Georgia in June, along with an official visit to Illinois. He was on an unofficial to check out the Fighting Illini this past weekend when the Illinois coaches extended him an offer. As for Kentucky, the school right down the road, the staff is beginning to make serious contact with Harkless following the UGA offer. UK reached out to Frederick Douglass on Thursday about him and is expected to get more involved moving forward.

On the field, McPeek compared Harkless as someone built in a similar mold to that of current Kentucky defensive lineman Octavious Oxendine. The junior defensive tackle from Radcliff (KY) has been drawing early praise as a leader on that side of the ball throughout spring practice for the ‘Cats.

Harkless isn’t currently ranked by On3 but is considered a three-star prospect by 247 Sports and the No. 13 overall junior in the class.