The Georgia Bulldogs received their first commitment from a defensive back in the class of 2012 on Monday night when 5-foot-11, 170-pound Sheldon Dawson of Ridgeway High School in Memphis, Tenn., switched his commitment from the Memphis Tigers to the Bulldogs.

Other than offensive lineman Avery Young, Dawson was the most important recruit left on the Bulldogs’ recruiting board, with an immense need for defensive backs to close the class.

Ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the state of Tennessee by Scout.com, Dawson is one of the quickest recruits in the nation.

SHELDON DAWSON

He has consistently been timed in the 4.4 second range in the 40-yard dash and has a first step that may be second-to-none in this year’s class.

He excelled on both offense and defense his junior season at Ridgeway, rushing for 1,045 yards and 14 touchdowns on an eye-popping 20.3 yards per carry, according to his Rivals.com profile. He also added 42 tackles, with one interception and 11 pass breakups on defense.

Just how did the Bulldogs sway Dawson from his home city school?

“Basically just the atmosphere and the coaching staff [at Georgia],” Dawson said. “They have a pretty unique coaching staff. I like them all a lot. I like the family atmosphere down there. It makes somebody want to go out and play, and that really attracted me a lot.”

Dawson expanded further upon his reasons for choosing Georgia.

“I like the coaches, I like overall how they’ve been playing lately, and if you come down there and work hard your going to play,” Dawson told the Red & Black. “I like the atmosphere, it was great. Players wanted to be around players, coaches wanted to be around the players. It was more of a family.”

When talking with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dawson said the Georgia coaches and players have extremely high expectations of him in Athens.

“Everybody on the team said I remind them of Brandon Boykin,” Dawson told the AJC, citing that the coaches told him he will have the opportunity to play offense as well.

Now that Dawson is officially the Bulldogs 17th commitment, he is set to sign his letter of intent at 2:30 p.m on Feb. 1.

The speedster couldn’t be more relieved to get things finalized and close out the recruiting process.

“[The recruiting process] was pretty hectic, it kind of wore me down, but I had to look at it overall as a blessing,” he said.

Whenever Dawson signs the dotted lines on Wednesday afternoon, he simply said that he would feel “good, great and relieved.”

After Signing Day, Dawson will turn to working out in the weight room and hard training to fulfill his plans in his first year as a Bulldog, which he said was to “win an SEC championship.”