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TAMPA, Fla. – Barring a last-minute change of heart, Tampa Plant High School running back James Wilder Jr., considered among the nation's top high school football recruits, will attend Georgia next season, sources told FanHouse.Wilder has scheduled a 5 p.m. Wednesday news conference in the school's auditorium to announce his decision. The news conference will be televised locally in Tampa. Last week, the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder said that he had narrowed his final three choices to Georgia, Florida and Florida State.
"I've slept on it a lot," Wilder told the St. Petersburg Times last week. "Today I'll have FSU in the lead, tomorrow I'll have UF and in three days I'll have Georgia. I just have to make sure I think a lot about it. I've still got a lot of thinking to do in the last seven days."
Wilder, who also is a devastating force on defense at end and linebacker, narrowed his choices to Georgia, UF and FSU because they recruited Wilder as a running back.
Wilder is rated the nation's No. 1 overall recruit by MaxPreps and No. 3 overall recruit by Rivals.com. He's also rated the nation's No. 1 linebacker by Scout.com and the nation's No. 2 athlete by ESPNU.
Last season, Wilder ran for 1,004 yards and 15 touchdowns as a running back. He averaged 7.5 yards per carry and scored 14 touchdowns, leading Plant to the Class 5A state championship. At defensive end and linebacker, Wilder had 136 tackles and 19 sacks last season.
"A lot of people think I'm too tall, and too big and too huge (for running back) ... they're not worried about how I'm built now, but they know I'm just going to grow more," Wilder told the Orlando Sentinel in March. "But football is football. It's not a matter of how tall you are or whatever. If I was a coach, even if a guy is like 5-foot-5, if a guy was a player, he'd be on my team.
"I know a lot of big 6-9 people who are soft ... can't just look at size. Colleges that look at sizes or look at me and don't want me at running back because of my size ... I'm not going to be mad, but it's going to be their loss. I'm not trying to sound cocky or nothing like that."
At Georgia, Wilder will join two former Plant High standouts: redshirt freshman quarterback Aaron Murray, expected to be the Bulldogs' starter this fall, and sophomore tight end Orson Charles.
Before narrowing down to his three finalists, Wilder also considered Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Miami, Tennessee and USC.
Last week, Plant senior quarterback Phillip Ely verbally committed to Alabama and offensive tackle Tony Posada verbally committed to Michigan.
The Panthers have won three of the last four state championships in Florida. They will play two games on ESPN this fall: an Aug. 27 preseason game against Bradenton Manatee, in a rematch of last year's Class 5A final, and Sept. 16 at Abilene (Texas) High School, last year's Texas Class 5A state champions.
Contact FanHouse senior writer Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com or please follow on Twitter @BrettmcmurphY
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