This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the first DawgNation read on 4-star California wideout Vance Spafford. He ranks as the nation’s No. 14 WR and the No. 97 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 16 WR and at No. 111 overall.
California junior WR Vance Spafford will be visiting Georgia football today for Mississippi State.
Put that in the Ron Burgundy “very big deal” file for the biggest recruiting visitors so far in Athens this year. Especially for the 2026 class.
Why? Well, there’s a whole lot of reasons why here.
Let’s start with the biggest.
Well, that’s debatable if that is actually the biggest.
On second thought, that’s probably not the biggest reason why the Spafford visit should have DawgNation’s full attention today.
The biggest reason to pay close attention to Spafford’s visit today is this will be his first-ever visit to the UGA campus.
And yet somehow the Dawgs are already very much in contention. They are already right among his top schools heading into his weekend visit.
Why? Follow along closely to what Spafford told DawgNation this week to preview this visit:
What would a great visit this weekend mean to Georgia’s chances to sign Spafford?
“Absolutely massive,” he said. “They have a big chance already and a great visit would just multiply it and put them out so far ahead of everybody else.”
It is overdue at this point to reference a sage decision made by Spafford’s mother when he was young. How did he get to be so fast? The answer was his mother Cathy Brouthers put him on game early. When he was in elementary school, she already had him working with track guys.
“If I’m being honest, it was a great plan by my mother,” Spafford said. “She had me do speed training when I was very young. So when I was very young, I was able to build the form and I had really good running form when I was really young. So then as I was getting bigger, I wasn’t worrying about if I was running right or if my running form correct.”
“My running form was already good. As I got bigger, I just added on strength and speed and just getting older and I feel like that’s what propelled me. And I’ve built that on a lot of God-given gifts.”
Looking for another reason to not sleep on this Spafford visit? There’s also this solid gold game film so far.
Spafford hears from Georgia wide receivers coach James Coley, assistant receivers coach Cam Odom and player connections coordinator David Hill. Hill has really made a connection to Spafford.
There is a common thread here between Spafford and what former Georgia great Ladd McConkey did to spark the Dawgs during his time in Athens.
“Well, they love the Ladd McConkey stuff,” Spafford said. “They love that I’m like him. They say great things about me as a receiver and my speed. The thing that they love most is that I can play special teams. I’ve very willing to do that. I’m willing to block the punts. Block the kicks. Return whatever you want. I’m kind of willing to do whatever. I want to see the field as much as possible and as soon as possible.”
“That’s what I tell them. I’ll do whatever they want me to. If they want to throw me out there to run routes, too, then that would be even more of a plus.”
He embraces the McConkey parallel. They both have that same start-stop twitch that made McConkey so dangerous in the SEC.
Spafford is already faster than McConkey was during their junior years of high school. The North Murray marvel wasn’t clocking any 10.69s or 4.35s yet at that time.
“I think Ladd McConkey is very great and he’s doing really good in the NFL right now,” Spafford said. “I watch him when he comes on. … I love the Ladd McConkey comparison. I think he’s great. I have nothing against that at all.”
Spafford said it would “be amazing” if he could have the type of career at UGA in the SEC that McConkey did and wind up as a second-round pick and a first-year starter in the NFL.
4-star Class of 2026 California WR Vance Spafford is visiting UGA this weekend for the Mississippi State game. He’s already feeling like a priority for the UGA staff.
Spafford has 4.35 speed in the 40 and has caught 14 TDs so far this year after hauling in another 22 TDs as a sophmore. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)
Spafford has blocked two punts this year.
He has a unique perspective on those given that he’s scored 36 touchdowns so far across his sophomore and still-very-much-in-progress junior season.
“I am going to be a little bit humble here,” he said. “But catching the touchdowns for me is not like a big whoopty woo. I love blocking the punts and blocking the kicks and doing all the special teams stuff. I feel like it is a very unique thing. I feel like a lot of people undeestimate it and they don’t think it is very big. But that is such a big way to change the game in a way that people don’t expect it.”
If that sounds like this is the ideal Kirby Smart receiver target, then it should.
He doesn’t return the punts for his team this fall. That will be next year. He wants to block them this year. He will return the punts next year and he already returns kickoffs for Mission Viejo.
Spafford loves to be underestimated. He had a grandfather that played college basketball, but he would be the first member of his family to play college football.
“I just love to play football,” he said. “It is just what makes me happy. I love to prove people wrong. I love how everybody thinks that I’m a white receiver. I’m not really that big. I love to justto show them that even though you might say all this it is not going to be anything to me. I just like to show everybody I can really do anything. I don’t like to be told no like ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you can’t be a jump ball guy’ and go out there and show everybody I can do everything you think I can’t do.”
How does he feel about playing in the SEC?
“Distance is not a factor at all,” Spafford said. “When I was getting bigger, I kind of realized I want to get out of California to play college ball. So [distance] is not a factor at all for me. I can figure out the traveling and all that. To be able to play on the big stage and to play in the SEC on the best team in the nation, flying into Athens from California will not be a big thing for me. Because I want to leave this state. I want to experience something new. I’ve lived here my entire life. I want to be very versatile in the way I live my life. I want to experience new things.”
When he won that fastest man among the 50 of the highest-rated junior skill guys this summer, he turned heads.
“I kind of do feel like a unicorn,” he said. “Because people don’t really expect that at all and I kind of take that as my advantage. All these DBs, they look at me when I go, if I’m just behind honest they go ‘He’s a little white kid’ and “He’s not really going to do anything’ and I take that as an advantage. I love the disrespect. It does nothing but make me feel good. I hope people press me so I can run a fade and just score a touchdown. It feels great.”
“I hate when people know what I can do because it just makes it a little harder. But I love the disrespect. Everyone can disrespect me all they want and please don’t think I’m good. All that stuff. I’ll take it all day because it makes me look amazing.”
He’s confident. Not cocky. It feels like the same ways that Deion Sanders used to be. Especially in the way that Travis Hunter is now.
But don’t think for a second he’s not earning his success. We’ve seen a lot of fast and twitchy guys who can fly but their route tree looks like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
That’s not Spafford. He puts in the time.
“I’ve spent countless hours perfecting my craft,” he said. “Still perfecting it. I will always be perfecting it. Just running routes for hours after practice. After a full practice, I’m like ‘let’s run some routes’ and just doing little things and then I’ve always loved the game of football. I love how everything works. I always try to be as smart as the quarterback. I want to know what they’re thinking. I want to know what they see and compare it to what I see. I want to know where to fit in the windows. I want to know everything about football. I’m still learning the pass protection. That’s about all I need to learn.”
“Once I get that down, I feel like you can test me on anything and I’d be locked in.”
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
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