ATHENS - Nearly 24 hours after announcing his commitment to Georgia, Josh Harvey-Clemons has finally sent in his letter-of-intent.

UGA announced at 8:50 a.m. on Thursday that the LOI from Harvey-Clemons arrived at 8:30 a.m.

The outside linebacker from Valdosta held off on sending in his LOI after committing on Wednesday morning, after his decision to attend Georgia apparently met resistance from family members.

Harvey-Clemons was rated by three recruiting services as the top prospect from Georgia. He becomes the 19th member of Georgia's signing class.

The situation was reminiscent of last year, when top recruit Cyrus Kuoandjio committed on television to Auburn, then never sent his letter-of-intent. He eventually signed with Alabama.

Mike Farrell, the national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com, said the situations are happening because of the television announcements, but may occur more often outside of public view.

"The last two years it's happened now. So hopefully it's not becoming a trend," Farrell said.

The situation is likely to result in Georgia having to turn in a secondary violation for head coach Mark Richt, who commented on Harvey-Clemons after the announcement but prior to the LOI being received. Under NCAA rules, coaches are not allowed to comment about recruits until their signatures have arrived or they have enrolled.

UGA spokesman Claude Felton said on Wednesday that the school would look into it, but it was too early to say whether any action would be taken. 

But in any case, the secondary violation is likely to be described as inadvertant  - because he thought the LOI was on the way or already in - and not result in any harsh punishment for Richt.

So what kind of impact will Harvey-Clemons make?

While Rivals rates Harvey-Clemons as a five-star prospect, Farrell believes he's not ready to make an immediate impact, and might even need to redshirt.

"I don't think he's ready. He's still growing," Farrell said. "Right now he's a safety in a linebacker's body. He's in between what he's gonna be. He's still growing, he's still filling out. He's gonna be a linebacker, so for their system I think he's perfect for what he's gonna do. But he's not ready."