The last few weeks have been wild for 2027 Thomas County Central wide receiver Jabari Watkins. First, his semi-final game was delayed 6 days, then Watkins and his TCC squad played a back-and-forth game against Roswell with TCC pulling away and winning 49-28 to advance to the 5A state championship. TCC dominated in said state title game winning 62-21 and finished the year ranked 11th in the country per MaxPreps. After all the celebrating ended, the 4-star junior decided to back down from his commitment to Nebraska, who he had been committed to since September.  

The reason as to why Watkins decommitted is really odd, especially because Watkins was one of the highest-ranked commits in Nebraska’s class. According to Watkins, the Cornhuskers coaches, “just stopped texting me back.” Watkins was hurt by this and said that he felt, “that they are not interested anymore.” Previously, Watkins was one of 7 commits to Nebraska and one of four 4-star recruits.  

Where Watkins goes from here is still unknown; Watkins had a top four of Nebraska, California Berkley, Florida State, and Illinois before he committed to Nebraska. However, Watkins informed me of four schools he is looking at (three of them are different, FSU was the only one from his original top four) which are UGA, Georgia Tech, and Missouri. 

The in-state Georgia Bulldogs have done a great job of recruiting in the state of Georgia. They landed multiple Georgia high school receiver commits in its last few classes including the 2026 class in which the signed 4-star Ryan Mosely (Carrollton) and 4-star Craig Dandridge (Cambridge). The Dawgs have even done a good job of recruiting down south with notable Colquitt County star Jae Lamar signing with Georgia earlier this month. 

 Watkins spoke of Georgia being “more of a family than anything.” 

As for the Seminoles, Florida State has done a great job of recruiting north of the border. In fact, their highest ranked receiver commit in the 2026 class was Devin Carter (Douglas County). Tallahassee is also the closest to Thomasville with it only being about 34 miles between the two. Watkins also visited FSU this season when it faced East Texas A&M.  

Watkins mentioned that he liked how close FSU was to home, but he also cited that he enjoyed, “the way FSU runs their program.”  

Watkins enters the offseason with a lot to ponder after all that went down with Nebraska. 

“I learned that I was not ready, and it was the wrong time to commit,” Watkins commented regarding what he will change before he makes his next commitment.