Shawn Kemp, Jr., to Dawgs?

It could happen.

Kemp was successfully recruited to Alabama by Gottfried and his staff. However, Gottfried is the former coach at Alabama, and his staff moved on to other schools. In the meantime, Kemp decided to spend a year at a prep school to reportedly improve his test scores.

One of the key members of Gottfried's staff, Philip Pearson, is now a UGA assistant coach. And while it seems that new Tide coach Anthony Grant was not convinced that Alabama was a still a good fit for Kemp, I am sure that Pearson, once hired by the Dawgs, kept in touch with Kemp and let him know that UGA would love to have him.

As readers of the Blog know, I have thought for a long while that Kemp was a quality recruit (click on Kemp's name in blue hypertext below to pull up my earlier posts and other background information on him). Big body, good height at 6' 9", with the possibility of growing a few more inches. We're going to lose Albert Jackson after this year, and we don't have any other true centers on the roster.

Kemp is the kind of recruit that Georgia needs to get. Great upside, in-state player, at a position of need. As far as I can tell, Kemp, as a prep student, is unranked this year. However, he was a 4-star and ranked #105 last year. And earlier in 2008, Kemp was ranked much higher, determined by Rivals.com to be a 5-star and #25 in the country. He's not a guy who fell in the rankings due to injury, but as I understand, there were questions about whether Kemp would maximize his true potential.

If Fox can successfully attract Kemp, then he will make his first coup in recruiting. Georgia should get good press on it, based on name value alone. Put Kemp together with Gerald Robinson (a transfer who is already on campus and will become eligible next year), and Jalen Kendrick, and Georgia will really have something.

I won't "call him for Georgia," just in case Kemp reads the Blog (doubt it), and decides not to commit just to prove the prognosticators wrong. Of course I don't have that much pull in recruiting, but I don't even want to jinx UGA in any way. I will say that I am very optimistic that Kemp will commit to Georgia at some point soon.