The New Jersey big man liked everything about the Bulldogs after his visits to Athens.
This isn’t a news flash, but the New Jersey influence in Athens can’t be ignored.
Fran Brown made sure of it before he left.
The No. 1 and No. 2 football players in the state from the 2024 recruiting class both signed with Georgia. That was headlined by the state’s top player Jordan Thomas, a defensive lineman from Don Bosco Prep (N.J.) who Brown knew Georgia needed the second he spotted him jumping at 320 pounds during a workout.
“Georgia, when Fran was working there, he came to a workout. He saw that I could move at my weight. I was moving pretty well. I was jumping and stuff like that over hurdles, moving, twisting my hips, spinning, so he offered me there,” Thomas told Dawgs247 before enrolling at the start of the month. “He’s a Jersey guy, so we always had that good relationship. Jersey guys always have a great connection with each other. He was a good guy. Outside of football, he always made sure you were good. He was always checking in on my grades and my film to make sure I was doing good.”
Even after Brown’s departure, he made clear to Thomas he needed to stay true to his plans — and that Georgia still needed his Jersey energy.
“They always bring hard work,” Thomas said. “People sleep on Jersey. They say it’s not a football state, that it’s a basketball state. Jersey kids always have a chip on their shoulder, so it’s a good thing for the team to have a couple Jersey guys coming in.”
Aside from Brown, Thomas credited Kirby Smart and Tray Scott for playing the biggest roles in holding him down.
He loves how Smart is a defensive coach who’s “always around his defensive guys.” Thomas said seeing Smart work at practice definitely helped ease him toward the decision to choose the Bulldogs. But ultimately it was Scott’s tenacity that sealed the deal.
“The way he coaches. When I visited spring practices, he’s hard on the D-line, but he’s also coaching them up too,” Thomas said. “He’s giving them good technique. That’s what made me think that’s the place where I want to be.”
A few months after that spring practice trip, Thomas returned for his official visit.
He said he knew leaving Athens then that the Bulldogs were the clear choice.
“On my OV. The guys around, the players at Georgia already, I felt like I was already getting to vibe with them. It wasn’t like other visits. When I took other visits, sometimes it would be awkward, but at Georgia, you just feel like yourself around everyone,” Thomas said. “That’s why I felt that was my home.”
Thomas brings a rare versatility to Georgia’s defensive line. He has the ability to play in several spots on the Bulldogs’ line. Most of his talks with Scott have been about the interior defensive line, but Thomas thinks there’s a chance he could play in multiple spots.
He’s already gotten a chance to work with Justin Greene at the All-American Bowl in January. Thomas is already on campus as an early enrollee. He became quite familiar with Georgia’s DL group through the process.
“It’s good getting a fresh head start playing around my teammates. You see me and Justin putting in that work. We talk in between reps. It’s been fun. He’s good. He’s good with his hands. He was helping me sometimes when I was confused on a technique, so he got me some good details. Our D-line class is nasty,” Thomas said. “Coach Scott said I’m flexible. I can play the 0 tech, the 3 tech, maybe even the 5 if I get a little skinnier. I see myself playing through the whole line because I’m flexible to play anywhere. I’m fast enough and big enough to play anywhere. … My goal is to get in the rotation. I want to get experience as a freshman. I don’t expect to start, but I expect to work hard.”
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