Asa Wall has seen his recruitment take off heading into his sophomore season at John Milledge Academy (GA). Asa has received offers from Alabama, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Georgia, where his father, J.T. Wall, played fullback before a career in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts. Asa grew around three inches and gained nearly 50 pounds in the offseason, currently with a 6-foot-3, 220-pound stature.
Asa Wall has seen his recruitment take off heading into his sophomore season at John Milledge Academy (GA).
The offers started to roll in in June.
“The recruitment process has been going very fast. I was very surprised by it moving this fast, and didn’t expect offers going into the sophomore year,” the 2028 tight end prospect told UGASports.com. “I thought freshman year was just me, like, exposing myself, putting myself out there, and (the offers) would come later on.”
Gaining national recognition
Asa has received offers from Alabama, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Georgia, where his father, J.T. Wall, played fullback before a career in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts.
Asa grew around three inches and gained nearly 50 pounds in the offseason, currently with a 6-foot-3, 220-pound stature. He also delivered a stellar performance at the Under Armour Next Camp in Charlotte last April.
J.T. Wall has been a successful high school football coach at John Milledge Academy, his alma mater. He led the Trojans to win 62 games, one of the longest active streaks in the country, from 2018 to 2023. They won five region championships and four straight titles in that span.
Even though JMA went 2-9 last season, Asa Wall had a stellar freshman campaign. The young tight end caught 20 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns in 2024.
Asa also had a team-high 94 tackles and 11.0 tackles for loss last year on defense.
Asa is hoping to improve on a few things heading into his sophomore season on the offensive side of the ball.
“Definitely my route running, footwork, my hands,” Asa said. “I can always use work.”
The difference between being a father and a coach
J.T. has seen his son grow up playing football at every level.
Now, the former Georgia fullback is coaching Asa at the high school level, which he said is a challenge.
“I’m only dad at the house. The hardest part is not trying to be dad, too. I’m never dad on the field,” J.T. said. “We always say we try to treat all of the players like they’re our own, and we do. I probably try to treat him a little harder than I do the others. But he responds well; he understands the deal. He understands that if we don’t win, we won’t get bills paid at the house, and we won’t get groceries. So it is what it is.”
J.T. told UGASports that he remembers getting recruited by the Bulldogs. He also mentioned that he and Asa had set goals for the summer and were working hard to gain attention from Division I schools.
“I think that one of the big differences is that I thought I was getting recruited,” he joked. “I was getting the letters that everybody was getting. But he’s actually getting recruited, especially since it’s early. I was trying to gain interest and do whatever I could to get the interest, and he’s getting it early on. We set some goals for this summer, not knowing if they were even attainable. But he had a really good June, so he’s got to have a really good sophomore season now. He’s got the attention, but now he’s got to deliver.”
One of the main differences in the younger and older Walls recruitments is the emergence of NIL.
“It’s really something that we hadn’t even really talked about because we know that at the end of the day, that’s probably gonna be the last box to check if it’s even there in three years,” J.T. said. “Because it changes so much each year that you don’t really know. And we’re trying to lock in and get ready for this football season and let the recruiting stuff fall where it may. And we know we have a good little while to worry about that. But at the end of the day, we want him to go to a place where he wants to play, where they want him to play, and the NIL will take care of itself, even if it’s there.”
Following footsteps
Asa grew up bleeding red and black. The offer from the in-state Bulldogs was big for him and his father.
“It was really great because I used to watch a lot of (my dad’s) tapes and watch him run the football because I used to be a running back, but got a little too big for running back, so I had to switch positions,” Asa said. “I think the offer means a lot, from where my dad used to go to school, and to where I could go now.”
Asa is being recruited as a tight end at the next level. He is developing his relationship with Georgia position coach Todd Hartley. They have a lot in common, both being from bordering counties in the Peach State.
“Every time I go visit Georgia, I know where to find him and he knows where to find me,” Asa said of Hartley. “We just talk for a while. We do a little bit of (individual) work whenever I go down there. He told me when I visit, I’m not just going down there for photo shoots or anything like that, I’m going down there to work.”
While it’s still early in the recruiting process for Asa, he can see himself playing between the hedges one day.
“It would mean that I follow in the footsteps of my dad, try to have the same impact that he had, and possibly get drafted,” Asa said.
Asa said that sometimes he watches old highlights of his dad to see what kind of player he was.
“I think that this guy’s getting old,” Asa joked. “Like, I didn’t know he used to be able to do this, because my 40, it used to be slow. So I was like, dang, I’ve got to get faster than him, and eventually I did.”
Asa said he plans to visit Athens when the Bulldogs take on Alabama on Sept. 27.
Category: General Sports
