Casey Barner reveals standout schools after highlight performance

It was only a year ago that Georgia became one of the first major Power-Four programs to offer McEachern defensive back Casey Barner. It was in the spring of 2024 that Georgia offered the then-freshman at Douglass High School in Atlanta.

Now, a year later, and after having played a full season of high school football, Barner has an offer list that continues to grow. Programs like Ohio State, Auburn, Florida State, Penn State, and Tennessee are in hot pursuit

“You got Nebraska, Ohio State, USC, you got, who else do you have? You got BYU, it’s a lot of schools out there, man,” Barner said. “I don’t even know how many, it’s a lot of schools that love me right now.”

Being an in-state school, the Bulldogs are among the schools actively recruiting Barner. And while they weren’t mentioned as standing out, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound defensive back knows of the interest from Georgia.

“Georgia, them guys love me, man. They do a nice job recruiting me,” Barner said.

After Saturday’s season-opener for McEachern, the list of schools actively recruiting the Atlanta native may only grow. Starring in the Indians’ 50-17 blowout win over Walton, Barner totaled 353 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns.

The defensive back was all over the field for McEachern. Not only did he feature at safety, but he also took snaps on offense, finishing with 71 yards rushing and 46 yards receiving. But he was McEachern’s star kick and punt team returner. He returned seven punts for 138 yards and took a kickoff 98 yards for a score.

But what may have been the most impressive play of Saturday’s game was the fake punt he scored off of. With McEachern already up 13 points in the third quarter, they faked a punt via a handoff to Barner, who not only made two Walton players miss, but also made a highlight reel hurdle on his sprint to the endzone.

“So we came out here, I didn’t even know it was gonna happen. My coaches called it, and I was excited to have the ball in my hand,” Barner said. “I broke out to the right. One dude was fitting to tackle me, and I made him miss. Then I was just in open field, made another man miss. Then I saw this dude coming, trying to tackle me low, and I just hurdled him. And I was just gone after that.”

He finished with three touchdowns—two on special teams and the other coming as a receiver on a double reverse pass.