For the fourth time in Kirby Smart’s eight years as Georgia’s head coach, the Bulldogs sit atop the Rivals team recruiting rankings.
With 28 signees, Georgia’s 3,159 points easily outdistanced No. 2 Alabama (3,001 points) and No. 3 Texas (2,835).
The Bulldogs also finished No. 1 in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Only once in the last eight recruiting classes has Georgia finished lower than third. That year was 2021 when the Bulldogs finished No. 5.
“Since Nick Saban retired, he (Smart) is unequivocally the best recruiter in college football. I don’t even think it’s a discussion at this point,” Rivals National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney said. “Not only is what he’s doing impressive recruiting-wise, but he’s turning them into national champions and NFL draft picks. That has a snowball effect. Kids are going there and getting developed, they’re becoming millionaires because of it, and that will only beget more kids that want to do it in Athens.”
Gorney credits Smart’s passion for recruiting for making that the case.
Not all coaches grasp that competing in the living rooms of recruits is equal to the competition on the field.
“Kirby Smart, a lot of coaches really don’t love recruiting. They put on a happy face during official visit weekend,” Gorney said. “The guy is out there every day, at basketball games, traveling around, helicoptering in,” Gorney said. “He really seems to have a passion for it. He’s seeing a lot of positive outcomes because of his efforts.”
A quick scan of Georgia’s 2024 class shows what Gorney is talking about.
Of the Bulldogs' 28 signees, four are five-stars; 19 are four-stars.
“I think it starts with Ellis Robinson. He’s a kid who’s big, and it looks like he could be a lumbering cornerback, but he’s so smooth and so competitive that he’s going to have a very solid career in Athens. We project him as clearly a first-round draft pick,” Gorney said. “Then you go down the list, and you’ve got Demello Jones who is a four-star but is a guy who on the field is super, super productive. Pretty much everywhere across the board, you look at the three running backs they got, (Ryan) Puglisi, who is a super-competitive, or Justin Williams or Joseph Jonah-Agonye and his (Smart’s) ability to go into Texas and take two five-stars from the same team in a year where Texas goes to the playoffs. Again, it’s just another impressive class.”
Even some of Georgia’s “under-the-radar" signees have a chance to impress.
Defensive lineman Jordan Thomas (four-star) and running back Dwight Phillips (four-star) are two that come to mind.
“Jordan Thomas maybe needs a little fire lit under him at times, but that’s exactly what Tray Scott does,” Gorney said. “(Thomas) has the size, he has the speed up the middle. He was very good in San Antonio as a guy who might have fallen under the radar, but he’s going to be a very productive defensive tackle in Athens.”
Phillips, meanwhile, brings a dynamic to the Bulldog backfield that perhaps has been missing until now.
“He’s so fast. If Nate Frazier is more of an all-purpose guy, Dwight Phillips is going to be the speed guy that can kind of counter all of that stuff,” Gorney said. “Those two guys (Thomas and Phillips) were maybe a little under-ranked, but just because other ones had more of a national profile.”
