Tift’s Bateman officially a Golden Gopher

Published 9:00 am Friday, December 22, 2017

TIFTON — Tift County Blue Devil Rashod Bateman made his commitment to the University of Minnesota official Wednesday.

Taking advantage of this first ever early signing period for football, Bateman inked with the Golden Gophers, staying true to a promise he made six months earlier.

“I told y’all I wasn’t going ANYWHERE!,” Bateman tweeted Wednesday. “I’m HOME!!”

Bateman verbally committed to Minnesota on Twitter June 12, two months before his senior football season began.

During his senior football season, Bateman caught 83 passes for 1,539 yards. He had 21 receiving touchdowns and also scored on a two-point conversion. With a pair of 200-yard receiving games under his belt, which included 248 yards versus Parkview, Tift County finished 11-2 and advanced to the Class AAAAAAA quarterfinals.

Bateman’s receiving marks smashed all previous records for Tift County.

In September, he broke Darrien Teals’ career receiving yards record of 1,842 and 21 touchdowns, set from 1982-84. Bateman finished his career with 2,364 yards and 26 receiving touchdowns. Teals had also accumulated 1,000 yards during his senior season, a mark which only took Bateman seven games to eclipse.

At the time of his verbal commitment, Bateman was considered a three-star prospect by 247 Sports, but after a remarkable 2017 campaign, he was raised to being a four-star prospect.

Bateman’s football prowess in 2017 began attracting the attention of other schools.

Other reported football scholarship offers came in from Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Central Florida and Virginia Tech. Following the 2016-17 basketball season in which Tift County won the state championship, he had scholarship offers in that sport as well.