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."
In leading Dwyer High to a 9-1 regular season this past fall, Bauta completed 59 of 112 passes for 1,006 yards with 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. The 6-foot-3, 225-pounder ran 78 times for 352 yards and six scores.
Dwyer advanced to the Class 7A semifinals before falling 19-14 to Bradenton's Manatee High despite Bauta rushing for 162 yards and two touchdowns.
"A quarterback is throw first and run second," Bauta said. "I know it's pro-style here, and I was aware of that coming in. I have aspirations to be in the NFL one day, and the NFL except for [Tim] Tebow's offense with the Broncos is all pro-style. If I could master that here and continue to use my running ability, I think it would help me out in the end."
Bauta was an all-state linebacker in Brooklyn, N.Y., before his family moved to Florida before his senior season. He visited LSU, Alabama, Mississippi State and Tennessee last summer before trekking to Georgia, where he said he received a scholarship offer after throwing for Bulldogs coaches.
The only other dual-threat quarterback Georgia has signed in the Mark Richt era was D.J. Shockley, who was in Richt's first signing class in 2001. Shockley threw for 1,861 yards and rushed for 864 as a North Clayton High senior in College Park, Ga., where he earned Parade and USA Today All-America status.
Shockley threw for 24 touchdowns and five interceptions as a redshirt senior in 2005, leading the Bulldogs to an SEC championship. He encountered a depth chart in '01 that had David Greene and Cory Phillips at the top, and Bauta is looking up now at Aaron Murray, Hutson Mason and Christian LeMay.
Mason has elected to redshirt this season.
"Wherever you go, you've got to beat somebody out to get to where you want to be, and that's exactly what I'm going to do," Bauta said. "The reason why I'm here is because I'm a competitor, and I have been ever since I came out of the womb."
Bauta has heard the comparisons to Tebow, and he has heard that he will have to switch positions before his Bulldogs career is over. He said his detractors are "fueling his fire" to play quarterback and play it well.
His parents came to the United States from Albania when they were teenagers, so there is that motivation, too.
"I don't really know too many Albanian quarterbacks," he said. "Hopefully I'll be the first one."