From Rusty Mansell 247
The nation's No. 1 athlete gave the latest on his recruitment -- including a new leader -- to 247Sports' Rusty Mansell at the Army All-American Bowl check in.
"I'm just coming to have fun and compete," Hardman said on Army week. "Hopefully I can (play) both ways. Learn new things and try make my game better for the next level."
Hardman touched on his opinion of recruiting rankings and what it means to him.
"You look at the rankings and stuff but I don't go into it in depth like that," Hardman said."You know, sometimes you feel like your better than your ranked, but like I said you're not the one doing rankings, somebody might see something in your game that you don't see. All you can do is improve on it and show what you got. When you get to college you're at the bottom of the barrel and you've got to prove yourself."
With over 30 offers, the five-star athlete has a new leader.
"Alabama, right now," Hardman said. "I just feel like their program is on top, their program, their facilities, their coaching staff, you know with Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt coming there, I feel like that's a big hire for them and I feel like their one of the top schools. I feel like I've got a good chance to go in there and have fun and win."
Georgia continues to pursue Hardman.
"Me and Coach (Kirby) Smart have a good, good relationship," Hardman said. "We're building it on and on. He wants me to talk to him as much as I can. My parents like him so that's a good thing."
Hardman talked about remaining officials for January.
"It's like a 70 or 80 percent chance I still go (to TCU)," Hardman said. "I'm participating in the USA-Canada game, so you know that's something I can do right there. Maybe that 15th weekend I might do something like Tennessee or Alabama."
Any ofter schools that could sneak in and grab an official?
"Maybe Florida," Hardman said. "They're losing some key DBs. They feel like I can come in and play right away and that's something you like to hear. I like that coaching staff with Coach (Geoff) Collins and Coach (Jim McElwain), he's great coach. He's doing great things with Florida. I think they're missing a couple key playmakers but they're going to be good."
Hardman went on to talk about his preferred side of the ball in college.
"I think my mind is kind of made up on DB," Hardman said. "But I feel like I don't want to put too much on DB, because I do want the ball in my hands. I feel like any school I go to will have some packages to put me in on offense. We'll see how that goes."
Hardman is close with UGA commit Jacob Eason, and is looking forward to watching the five-star signal caller perform this week.
"No doubt, I'll keep an eye out and see how he looks and how he progresses throughout the week," Hardman said. "See how he stacks up against Shea (Patterson), I think Shea is one of the best quarterbacks in the class, he has the strongest arm I've seen. We'll see how that goes. It should be fun watching him throw. Hopefully I can get on offense and he can throw me a deep ball or two."
