ALPHARETTA, Ga. — As customers breeze through the self-checkout line at Publix, there’s a doting grandmother standing at the end of the register. She can’t wait to tell anyone who passes through her line about her grandson.
“She’s always talking about me,” said Shamurad Umarov, a four-star offensive tackle who has verbally committed to Tennessee. “She asks everyone if they know Sham. Half the people from our school know my grandma. … She loves to tell everyone I get my genetics from her because she was really good at handball.”
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On this September afternoon, Ansha, Sham’s grandmother, takes a quick pause from her duties as cashier to show off photos of her 6-foot-7, 325-pound grandson, who stars as the senior left tackle on the Denmark High School football team in Alpharetta. The school is located down the street from Publix, and Umarov’s classmates and even some Tennessee football fans have met Ansha. During games, she wears his Tennessee hat — which they refer to as his “lucky hat.” The Danes are 3-1 this season.
“You’re the third person who came here to see me,” she says with the kind of warmth and enthusiasm that many have long lost by this point in a Power 5 recruiting process. The other two visitors were Georgia Bulldogs assistant coaches who swung by this Publix, where Umarov’s mother and grandmother work. Sham’s father is a truck driver.
“He goes left and right across the United States and then home a couple days,” Sham says.
GO… VOLS!!! 🍊🍊🍊 @Vol_Football #GoVols #GBO pic.twitter.com/QAytvskCdI
— Sham Umarov (@ShamXXl) July 8, 2022
Tennessee made sure to tell Umarov during his recruitment that Pilot Flying J, the North American chain of truck stops, is based in Knoxville. Pilot’s CEO, Jimmy Haslam — who along with his wife, Dee, own the Cleveland Browns — went to Tennessee. That trucking connection, the Vols told Umarov, could have name, image and likeness potential for the person who could one day be blocking for five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the headliner in a Tennessee class that ranks ninth nationally in the 247Sports Composite Rating. Umarov is ranked as the No. 142 player nationally and No. 13 in Georgia.
The beauty in the often wild world that is college football recruiting is found in Umarov and his family. When the family boarded a plane for the United States from Russia in 2006 when Umarov was 1, they couldn’t have dreamed of him one day getting his schooling paid for, let alone him being a coveted football prospect. Umarov’s father was born in Kazakhstan and his mother in Uzbekistan. The family is Turkish, Ansha said, but they were displaced to Russia, where Umarov was born.
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“In Russia, it was like, you can’t stay here forever, we’ll help you find places to live,” Umarov said. “We had choices from, like, Italy, and then they mentioned the state of Georgia.”
As his parents told him, and as Ansha reiterates, the greenery captured in pictures they saw of Georgia looked pleasant enough for them to decide to start their lives there. On the plane to America, they learned the world “milk” so a hungry baby Sham could be fed. Other family members also headed to the Atlanta suburbs. Eventually, all of them lived in the same apartment complex. Together they’d step into a new world and learn a new language.
“I’m basically a Georgia boy,” Umarov said. “Our Turkish culture is all about close family. It’s such a family-oriented culture, and there are so many good things about it because you’re always around people who will love you no matter what. … Just the things my family has sacrificed to get to this land and to have the things we have and the amount of effort it took to make a better life for us … I just want to repay them as much as I can.”
Umarov’s physique makes it easy to see why schools saw upside in the kid who didn’t start playing football until eighth grade. What started as a way for him to try to lose weight morphed into him continuing to grow. By his sophomore year, he was playing at 245 pounds. It became clear to the coaching staff they had a special player on their hands, one who would have Georgia coach Kirby Smart flying in on a helicopter to try to impress him. The Bulldogs offered Umarov a scholarship in January. He committed to Tennessee six months later, but the in-state school still left quite the impression.
It’s a big shift for Umarov. He said that for years when classmates would say “Go Gators” or have a Georgia Bulldog on their T-shirt, he didn’t understand what they were talking about. He wasn’t even sure until starting high school that athletes could go to college on scholarship. When he told friends he’d do that, they pointed out how difficult it would be.
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“They were like, ‘All right, Sham. Whatever you say,’” he recalled. “I just slowly grew to love football, and the more I played it, the more I learned and then the more I watched it, it just engulfed me.”
That’s why Umarov knew Smart coming to his high school was a big deal. With Denmark High 90 minutes away from Athens, the Bulldogs are the fan favorite among his classmates.
“I’m sitting in class and we hear it,” he said of the helicopter. “I told my friends, ‘Guess who’s coming to see me? Kirby Smart in a helicopter.’ They didn’t believe me. Why would they? We see the helicopter and they were like, ‘Oh my God, he was being serious.’ The teacher is teaching and everyone just gets up and they don’t care and they just start recording a helicopter landing on our field and then they see Kirby Smart walk out.”
Ansha still has the photo on her phone of the family posed alongside Smart during Umarov’s official visit in June. She shows that to customers in Publix who ask if she’s his grandma.
It’s a memory for the family, but building a relationship with Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel and offensive line coach Glen Elarbee proved to be a difference-maker for Umarov. They kept in close contact via FaceTime and texts. Umarov called Heupel a “players’ coach.” By the time his official visit arrived in late June and he had a chance to meet Iamaleava and other members in the class, he was ready to commit.
Teams like Auburn and Michigan State are still trying to recruit him, but Umarov says thanks, but no thanks. He remains focused on improving his footwork, something he felt happened already this season after he dropped weight. He said he started the season around 335 pounds and now fluctuates between 320 and 325. Being able to dominate at this level is what he knows he must do. Most kids he goes up against will never again play against someone his size and with his strength.
His newfound love of eye black only adds to the intimidation factor that he’s already nailed. Ansha laughs when asked her thoughts on the designs.
Great win last night! @DenmarkDanesFB #GoDanes
(check the insta) pic.twitter.com/yfjR2Cp7pN
— Sham Umarov (@ShamXXl) August 27, 2022
“I saw a couple people do the Joker one and I was like I’ve got to try it,” he said. “I did it and put my hair down a little and I was like, dude, this is menacing. I found other techniques and now I’m learning the art of this. I’m trying to get some rock styles and like some stars or something.”
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Umarov knows soon all of this will be different. For the first time in his life, his family won’t all be nearby. One day, they’ll drive 3 1/2 hours to Knoxville to watch him play instead of heading to the high school down the street. Ansha will still tell customers that Smart was a “very nice man” during his recruitment of her grandson, but that her Sham — the boy who got his athletic talents from her and who hopes to help make a name for Turkish football players — chose Tennessee.
(Photo: Audrey Snyder / The Athletic)
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