Sophomore Wall sitting on four offers, including UGA

Published 8:51 am Wednesday, July 2, 2025

First Alabama, then Georgia, then Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech — recruitment of John Milledge Academy Class of 2028 tight end/linebacker Asa Wall has taken off in recent weeks.

Wall, son of JMA head coach and former UGA fullback J.T. Wall, has scholarship offers from all four of the aforementioned programs and is drawing interest from others.

“It’s been a dream,” Wall said last week. “I was hoping it was going to happen soon and it did. I’ve thought about this my whole life.”

Take a look at him and it’s easy to see why the attention is coming his way. A rising sophomore, Wall already measures a little over 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 221 pounds. The gene pool is strong with a former college fullback and NFL draftee father along with his mother April who played women’s basketball at Georgia College & State University.

The prospect isn’t just a big body. As a freshman in 2024, he was a bright spot on a Trojan team that battled injuries and struggled with the program’s youngest squad in many years. Wall caught 20 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns and took some snaps at wildcat quarterback, toting the football 56 times for 229 yards and five scores. He added one short passing TD from behind center and more than held his own as a blocker by leading the team with 39 pancakes.

Most schools are looking at Wall as a tight end prospect, but he’s been good on defense, too. He had 93 total tackles, 11 tackles for losses and one interception returned for a touchdown in his All-State freshman campaign.

Asked if he has a preference for which side of the ball he’ll play in college, Wall said, “I prefer tight end, but linebacker’s fun, too.”

Georgia is the only school that has come with an “either” offer so far.

A multi-sport athlete, this summer Wall traded travel baseball for the prospect camp circuit. College teams hold camps in order to work athletes out and evaluate whether or not they are worthy of an offer to come play. Not every camp invite ends in the promise of a scholarship, especially not for those in the ‘28 class like Wall. Recruiting rankings and star ratings for rising sophomores aren’t even out yet, but he’s obviously made an impression with the opportunities he’s been given.

Wall left Athens without an offer on June 1 then attended a camp in Tuscaloosa a couple of weeks later when the Crimson Tide became the first team to extend an offer his way. That tends to get the ball rolling in the arms race that is college football recruiting, and it was no exception in Wall’s case. Four days after Alabama, John Milledge was at UGA competing in a team 7-on-7 event. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart pulled Wall aside after the Trojans’ first “game” and offered him the opportunity to play for the Bulldogs as a tight end or linebacker.

“I think [the Alabama offer] got them (Georgia) more interested,” said Wall. “It got other schools looking at me too.”

Vandy and Tech threw their hats in the ring a few days later.

It’s too early in the race to call anyone a frontrunner as it will likely be junior year before Wall makes a decision. What he’s looking for, though, very much aligns with what Kirby Smart and his staff are doing in Athens. Wall wants to wind up at a winning program that will turn him into the best version of himself on the football field.

“Georgia works the hardest and practices harder than most schools,” Wall said. “The coaches are going to push you until you can’t go anymore.”

While he’s open to continuing his family’s legacy at UGA, Wall isn’t opposed to forging his own path too. Other positives he’s noted along the recruiting trail include the sheer size of Alabama’s weight room and its state-of-the-art strength and conditioning program. Georgia Tech offers degrees that set its people up for success after football.

The son’s recruiting journey could not be any more different from his father’s. J.T. Wall played the long-forgotten position of fullback and linebacker during his years at JMA. At that time in the late 1990s, it was near impossible for players at small private schools to get any D1 attention. The internet and social media have since helped mightily in that regard. But back in the day, J.T. wound up at NAIA D2 Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. After two years of playing fullback there, he transferred to Georgia as a walk-on under Jim Donnan. Transfer rules at that point mandated a one-year sitting out period. Good thing for Wall he still had his redshirt. He was told that if he kept doing what he was doing, he would be granted a scholarship.

Then Donnan got fired.

“They hired this gunslinging coach from Tallahassee that ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me,” Wall said of former UGA head coach Mark Richt. “I got a scholarship that spring.”

Wall primarily led the way for running back Musa Smith in his 1,300-yard season in 2002 when the Bulldogs won the SEC. The fullback Wall also totaled five touchdowns himself that season, including a pair in a 51-7 rout of Georgia Tech. After coming to Athens as a walk-on, Wall wound up being drafted in the seventh round by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Now coach Wall’s son is a soon-to-be high school sophomore with four major scholarship offers in hand.

“We had some goals going into this spring and summer to try to hit,” the father said. “You really couldn’t fathom he’d be where he is now. It’s happening fast. You could see each camp he went to he was getting a little more comfortable and a little better. Everything’s based on projection, that he’s going to keep performing the way he’s projected to. So he’s got to keep growing, got to get faster, stronger and work harder.”

As a UGA alum, Wall would of course love to see Asa don the red and black one day, but he knows the decision lies with his son.

“At the end of the day, I’ve got to get out of the way,” coach Wall said. “He’s got to be the one to make that decision. He’s going to be the one that lays his head on his pillow at night and has to be happy. I made my decision and was happy with it, but this one is his to make.”

With the June summer camp period over, Asa will mull his options and continue prepping for his sophomore season of high school. Wherever he chooses, he’s planning on enrolling early in January of his senior year.