Two visits down and three to go for highly recruited DE KJ Green (6-4 220) of Stone Mountain, GA. Georgia got his first visit in the middle of May, and Oregon was visited number two last weekend.
This weekend, Green will head to LSU. South Carolina is still down for a June 12th visit, and he’ll wrap up the tour at Alabama on June 19th.
The Gamecocks have been heavy-hitters with Green throughout the recruiting process. He’s made multiple unofficial visits to Columbia, and head coach Shane Beamer and defensive ends coach Deion Barnes continue to make him a priority target.
“Oh, man, it’s usually the same old, same old with those guys. They understand communication,” Green said. “You know, I got the new position coach, Coach Barnes. We always tap down. We watch the film, always getting together on things. So, I mean, it’s been the same. Just make sure we don’t switch up on them.”
Green just talked with Barnes and player personnel assistant Sterling Harris on Tuesday. Their message was to continue to give them their shot to show him how much the program has improved.
“Trust the process. I feel like that’s probably their biggest message, especially after the season that they’ve just had,” Green said. “Really just trusting the process that everything will come together, especially with their new officer coordinator, which is exactly what they needed. And I’ve seen it firsthand, exactly what they need, a new officer coordinator. I definitely feel like they’re going to have a bounce-back year. I feel like they got what they needed, the offensive coordinator. So it’s a game-changer. I mean, you look at the games that they played. I don’t feel like it was ever the defense’s fault. They always did what they needed to do. But then you look at tight games going into the fourth quarter, they ended up losing. It came down to the offense not being able to get in the box one more time. Look at the Alabama game. Couldn’t score. You look at the Texas A&M game. Thirty points in the first half. Nothing in the second-half. Games like that coming down to the offense needing one more point, and they just weren’t able to do it.”
As he heads down the homestretch of his recruiting, and with a commitment date of August 8th, Green is starting to formulate a favorite from his final five.
“I feel like all the schools at the top of the leaderboard right now, but I’m still trying to pick and choose and figure everything out,” Green said. “Keeping it open. . I can say Oregon probably got a little edge on everybody right now.”
Green is coming off a junior season of 129 tackles, 40 tackles for loss, and 18 sacks.