The tea leaves of football recruiting now have Carrollton quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis trending away from the verbal commitment he made to USC back in August 2023.
A report this week indicated that Lewis, a five-star prospect and AJC Super 11 selection, was likely to flip his commitment to Colorado to play for Deion Sanders with just over three weeks to go until the new early signing period on December 4. Lewis has also been considering the Buffaloes or surging Indiana for much of this season.
On3.com reported that Georgia will host Lewis for the Tennessee game, which fits right into the wheelhouse of storylines for the biggest recruiting weekend of the season in Athens.
It’s been a while since Georgia has had any real quarterback recruiting drama.
Lewis has put up a prolific high school career, leading Carrollton to the state finals against Mill Creek with an impressive freshman season in 2022.
The 6-foot, 185-pound Lewis also has Carrollton perfect and ranked No. 1 in Georgia’s Class 6A heading into the playoffs this fall. The top prospect has completed 76 percent of his passes for 2,549 yards, 36 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Those numbers have moved his three-year high school career totals to 9,761 yards, 132 touchdowns and just 18 interceptions. That’s a ratio of 7.3 touchdown passes for every one INT.
Lewis has completed 68 percent of his 943 career attempts playing in Georgia’s top classification. As the starting QB, he’s led his Carrollton to a combined 35-3 record.
At the time Lewis made his USC commitment, he was a member of the 2026 recruiting cycle before he reclassified earlier this year.
Lewis’s trip to Athens is intriguing for a few reasons:
- While at this time Lewis is not expected to be a candidate to join Georgia’s 2025 class, the Bulldogs plan to take two high school quarterbacks in this class. Especially since 4-star QB Ryan Montgomery missed his entire senior season to a knee injury.
- Montgomery, the nation’s No. 10 QB and No. 100 overall prospect for this cycle, is ahead of schedule for his rehab but it is not certain he will be a full go for spring drills.
- The move to bring in Lewis also is a signal that the Bulldogs are trying their best to make sure they have a loaded quarterback room after starter Carson Beck leaves for the NFL after this season. The Bulldogs currently have a 2022 signee in redshirt sophomore Gunner Stockton backing up Beck. Stockton has yet to see any significant snaps for the program.
- The Bulldogs also have Arizona State transfer Jaden Rashada and true freshman Ryan Puglisi behind those two on the depth chart. Rashada was the nation’s No. 7 QB and the No. 81 overall prospect in 2023. Puglisi was the nation’s No. 10 QB and No. 114 overall in the 2024 cycle, but has yet to see any snaps this fall in Athens.
- Rashada appeared in three games for Arizona State last season. He threw for 485 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. The redshirt freshman has not seen any action for UGA this season.
Lewis strongly considered the Bulldogs in the past, but it appeared that Georgia turned to Montgomery as their QB for this class.
Lewis is seen by the recruiting industry as a higher-rated prospect than everyone the Bulldogs have on their roster or currently committed.
The need for UGA to build up its QB room going forward increased exponentially last month when junior 5-star prospect Jared Curtis decommitted from the program. Curtis is seen by many as the nation’s top quarterback prospect for the Class of 2026.
Both Curtis and Montgomery are also expected to be at the Georgia-Tennessee game.
Additionally, four-star Hawaii native Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele will be in Athens this weekend on an official visit. The nation’s No. 19 QB prospect (247Sports Composite) is currently committed to Cal, but is also being courted heavily by Oregon.
