‘He’s crying, his mama’s crying, his dad’s crying’ – The incredible gesture that helped bring David Gabriel Georges to Tennessee
The Tennessee Volunteers landed a commitment this week from 2027 five-star running back David Gabriel Georges.
There was a lot that went into the Tennessee Vols landing 2027 five-star running back David Gabriel Georges.
From former Vol Alvin Kamara showing up for Gabriel Georges’ official visit to the relationships built with the coaches, it wasn’t just one thing.
One memorable thing, however, that stood out to the five-star running back was the message in French that was painted on the rock when he came to Tennessee for his official visit.
Gabriel Georges is from Quebec and his native language is French, so the message was especially meaningful.
On Thursday morning, Matt from Baxter, TN called into 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will and shared the behind-the-scenes of his daughter and some friends painting the rock for Gabriel Georges.
“My daughter and two of her friends went up to paint the rock for him, and the other two girls are lifelong Vols fans as well,” said Matt. “These girls are in high school. They get up there and they start to paint the rock. Well, the band comes by and says, ‘Hey, we’re going to paint over this,’ and my daughter says, ‘You’re not going to paint over it until the guy I’m painting it for sees it.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we’re painting over it at 4:00.’ She said, ‘If he’s not here by 4:00, you won’t be painting it.’
“So David was up there and he speaks broken English. He’s French Canadian and a great young man. And my daughter was kind of like, ‘How do I break the ice to talk to him?’ So we share a friend — his name is Briggs Cherry. He was his quarterback at Baylor School, and now he’s at Louisville. So David gets out of the golf cart and he looks at the rock. He’s smiling. He’s crying, his mama’s crying, his dad’s crying. They’ve got welcome home in French on there. And David turns around and walks off. And she says, ‘David.’ And he stops, and she says, ‘Briggs Cherry,’ and he just stopped and he went up and hugged her. She said, ‘Your friend is my friend.’ It’s a lot of small things that go into getting these kids. And it’s not just always the money — they’ve gotta feel welcome.”
VolQuest’s Austin Price went even more in depth on the story behind painting the rock in an article that you can read here.
Landing Gabriel Georges was truly a group effort — from coaches, former players, current players, and even the community.