Recently-announced Georgia recruits Mark Beard, from left, Faton Bauta and Keith Marshall sit together at a news conference during national signing day at Butts-Meyer Heritage Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Athens Banner-Herald, Richard Hamm)While perusing his latest list of football signees last week, Georgia recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner said, “We covered things across the board.”
The Bulldogs landed a player to address every area, even signing a place-kicker and a punter. Their one quarterback signee was Faton Bauta of West Palm Beach, Fla., who is an early enrollee eager to prove that a square peg can someday fit into a round hole.
Bauta (pronounced BOW-ta) was rated by Rivals.com as the nation’s No. 15 dual-threat quarterback, and he may be Georgia’s most intriguing signee considering the Bulldogs run a pro-style offense.
“I’m a dual-threat guy,” he said. “I do have the ability to run and throw the ball. I do run hard and have a really hard running game, and people usually don’t like tackling me. At least that’s what I heard in high school. I know this is different in college and that it really doesn’t matter.
“I’ve got to make a new name for myself here, and my game is going to be whatever helps this team win.”