Vandagriff is rated as a five-star prospect by 247Sports, who also ranks him as the eighth overall recruit, the top pro-style quarterback, and the best player from Georgia in the 2021 class.
Vandagriff, a student at Bogart, Georgia’s Prince Avenue Christian School, selected the Bulldogs over offers from prestigious universities including Oklahoma, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Michigan, and Penn State.
Vandagriff decommitted on January 1st, even though he had already committed to Oklahoma. At the time, Vandagriff had a strong interest in Georgia, according to Brad Crawford of 247Sports: “I entertained some calls and texts, but I had my mind set on Georgia for a while now.” That was the situation for a little while before I even decided to uncommit.”
According to Charles Power of 247Sports, Vandagriff is comparable to quarterback Drew Lock of the Denver Broncos. Power anticipates Vandagriff will be selected in the second or third round of the NFL draft in the future.
Vandagriff’s “prototypical stature and frame” and dual-threat potential are highlighted in the 247Sports scouting report, but it also says that he has to work on his mechanics and ball placement.
Rusty Mansell of 247Sports reports that Vandagriff expressed his satisfaction with Todd Monken, the new offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs, during their meeting.
“Todd Monken and I had a meeting on Monday, and I think his plans for the Georgia offence are fantastic. When I finally got to see him on Saturday, we mainly engaged in small conversation. We actually got to get into some X and O topics yesterday. We took a seat at the board, went through the entire presentation, and had a great conversation about coverages.
“He told me that while he wants to see more passing at Georgia, he also knows that success in the SEC requires running the ball. He stated that the offence will primarily be pro-style with a lot of passing interspersed with an RPO game. “Let me explain that clearly—he told me that we wouldn’t be passing the ball 40 times during a game. He made it rather evident that there would be several.”
Georgia’s seeming desire to throw the ball more could be a response to LSU’s change in strategy from a run-first to a pass-first squad during their push for the national championship the previous year. Despite finishing 12-2 and winning the Sugar Bowl, the Bulldogs’ scoring ranking was only 50th in the country.
Vandagriff appears to be the ideal quarterback to take over an offence that is shifting towards a high-volume passing attack given his skill set and innate brilliance.
