Recruiting is not for the faint of heart, either for coaches or fans. Wednesday’s first day of the Early Signing Period certainly fit that bill.

One of the biggest surprises came early in the day when Georgia picked up four-star quarterback Dwan Mathis, who flipped to Georgia from Ohio State.

At 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, Mathis hails from Oak Park, Michigan and is the No. 102 prospect for the Class of 2019.

“We liked his athleticism and his arm motion,” Smart said. “He's got a really strong whip, he can pop the ball and we thought a lot of him.”

The rest of the afternoon had all the ups and downs of a roller coaster at Six Flags.

At approximately, 1:20 p.m., Bulldog fans were crying in their beer after missing out on five-star running back Trey Sanders, who spurned Georgia for Alabama. However, spirits were lifted an hour later when five-star linebacker Nakobe Dean chose the Bulldogs over Alabama and Ole Miss.

Despite the loss of Sanders, it was still a solid overall effort by Smart and his assistants, who hauled in what stands as the No. 2 class according to Rivals.

Heading up the group is five-star Nolan Smith, the nation’s top-ranked defensive end and No. 5 player overall.

The Bulldogs were also to shore up other spots on the defensive side, signing the nation’s second-ranked junior college defensive end Jermaine Johnson.

“I don't look at Jermaine as a defensive lineman; I look at him as a pass-rusher. We certainly feel like we've dropped off in our speed on the edge from the Lorenzos and the Davin Bellamys and Leonard Floyds of other years,” Smart said. “To be able to get Jermaine and Nolan—I don't know that there's two better pass-rushers in any signing class anywhere in the country when it comes to speed. Jermaine can run, Nolan can run, and these guys have got to help us disrupt quarterbacks. That's something we struggled with this year.”

A quartet of four-star defensive linemen—Travon Walker, Zion Logue, Bill Norton, and Tymon Mitchell—will help shore up a defensive line that graduates Jonathan Ledbetter and DaQuan Hawkins-Muckle.

The Bulldogs also added junior college transfer Tramel Walthour, who, along with Johnson, is already in Athens and working out with the team. This is also true of five-star center Clay Webb and junior college cornerback transfer DJ Daniel.

Along with Dean, the Bulldogs also signed four-star performers Rian Davis and Trezman Marshall.

"We got three. The biggest issue at inside 'backer is we're losing about 800 snaps. That's a lot of snaps,” Smart said. “So who's going to replace those 800 snaps? You look at the two guys we signed: One has an ACL (Davis), and one's probably going to have shoulder surgery (Marshall). When you add that up, we're signing guys, but they're not going to be available immediately.”

Smart said both Davis and Marshall should be ready for the start of the 2019 season. Dean, he said, is ready to go right now.

“He’s really athletic. He’s fast, athletic, he’s intelligent, he’s high character. You look at the intangibles this guy has: he’s got a great family. The first thing his family said was safety, academics, and football. They wanted him to go to a safe, good, wholesome campus,” Smart said. “They know Georgia is that. They believe in Georgia, they know the program we have, and they really bought into Athens.”

Although Georgia missed out on Sanders, the Bulldogs did sign four-star running back Kenny McIntosh, the nation’s 7th-ranked running back and No. 99 player in the country.

He joins other offensive signees Ryland Goede (four-star tight end), Dominick Blaylock (four-star wide receiver), and Makiya Tongue (four-star athlete), along with four-star offensive linemen Warren McClendon and Xavier Truss.

Tongue, who played both offense and defense in high school, will be a wide receiver for the Bulldogs, said Smart, who indicated the Bulldogs aren’t done.

The Bulldogs had hoped to hear from cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, but the Rivals100 player said he will wait until Jan. 5 at the U.S. Army All-American Game to choose between the Bulldogs and Miami.

However, he’s the only recruit the Bulldogs still have in mind.

“We have few spots left, and we’ve still got some targets out there that we want to go after. I think the totality of the class is a good balance. You can obviously see we had to go after some defensive linemen, the good big-bodies types, and we were pleased to get that done,” Smart said. “There are areas we’ve still got to work on—probably defensive back, receivers and another offensive lineman. So, those are things to add to this class, but we’re excited about what we have.”

Wednesday night, Georgia added another signee and he’s a familiar face to Bulldog fans - quarterback Stetson Bennett - who spent last season at Jones County Junior College.