Early enrolling, a personal choice

Georgia could have as many as 18 early enrollees for the 2013 class that currently stands at 30 commitments. To help wrap your head around that, Gentry Estes gives this thorough account of the growing practice of getting on campus early, both to help your team manage its roster and to help yourself get a head start.

Here's some nuggets:

Tray Matthews moving to Athens very soon.

• "Enrolling early helps at any position, but the general consensus is that quarterbacks benefit the most from it. Of Georgia’s four scholarship quarterbacks currently on campus, three of them enrolled early, including three-year starter Aaron Murray."
• “I have a real, real good opportunity to come in and start as a true freshman, because Bacarri Rambo and Shawn Williams will be leaving,” Matthews said. “If I come on in, I’ll get a good head start on some of the other players coming in then. Coaches said I have a good shot at coming in and starting. … It’s just a good opportunity, and you can finish school early too. In three or three-and-a-half years, we could be done with school and have our degree too.”
• Lynch, a Massachusetts native, was in a similar place. He could have enrolled early opted against it because he was class president and played on his high school's basketball team. “I just think I would have been cheating my class,” Lynch said. “I think my career would have taken off a little bit faster had I done it. That being said, everything’s worked out now, and I’m glad I didn’t. The way sports are for teenagers right now, they’re put in such a bind. When I was growing up, I played soccer, baseball, football, basketball, hockey. Where now it’s like you’ve got to focus on one, and that’s all you can do.