Rusty Mansell, 247Sports recruiting analyst
Today’s interviewee is Rusty Mansell, 247Sports recruiting analyst, color commentator for Peachtree TV’s Friday night football telecasts and co-chairman of the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame. Mansell will be in Watkinsville tonight commenting on the game between Jefferson and Oconee County.
1. What are you looking forward to seeing in the Jefferson-Oconee County game? “I picked this game because of two programs that have been very successful but have not had the opportunity to be on television as much as others. I am big on two factors – a great football atmosphere and players. This game was an easy choice for me. We locked this game in early.”
2. The best-known players on each side are probably Jefferson’s Sammy Brown and Oconee County’s Whit Weeks. What’s your assessment of them? “I think most will get their first look at both around the country on Friday night. Both are household names in the recruiting world, but not many have seen either play on live TV. I love the upside of both, I am very familiar with both families. Both players are really good kids, but they are really high-level football players. Sammy has the potential to finish as a top-five player in the country for the class of 2024. He checks every box as a prospect. Whit Weeks is big-time underrated. He did not do the camp circuit. He came to one MVP Camp to get a verified height and weight for his 247Sports profile, and he has let his tape do the talking for him. I will tell you this, he had committable offers when he made his decision, and that is what really matters at the end.” [Weeks is committed to LSU, where his brother West is a sophomore. Brown is uncommitted.]
3. A common question that we get at GHSF Daily but aren’t experts on the topic: Are players who don’t play for a marquee program, or those outside of metro Atlanta, underrated in recruiting services? “Ten years ago, I would have probably said yes. Nowadays, you take two players by example from tiny Schley County in Zayden Walker and Jalewis Solomon. Walker is a 2025 OLB, and he’s already a top-15 player in the country. I saw both at Georgia Elite Classic, and they held their own with anyone. There are so many opportunities for players now to compete against 'larger' or 'higher profile.’”
4. What Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame candidate (or more than one) did you come away thinking, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize how good he was,’ based on the process of learning about the candidates and voting? “I had heard the name before, but to hear so many people speak about Andy Johnson, the 1969 quarterback, I had to look at his stats. He had to be special, but hearing Buck Belue, Lynn Hunnicutt and others talk about him, I knew he was special.” [Johnson led Athens to a 1969 state championship and played eight seasons in the NFL with the Patriots. Hunnicutt, a Hall of Fame board member, was Mansell’s high school coach at Pepperell and a teammate of Johnson’s at Georgia.]