This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest on who made it into Athens to check out the Bulldogs for G-Day on Saturday.
Picture Georgia staffer David Cooper standing in front of the West End Zone stands every Saturday.
“I’d like to welcome you all to Sanford West,” he might say. “My name is Coach Coop and Kirby owns this spot.”
Georgia’s Director of Recruiting and Player Relations has built quite a following for his pop culture references to big UGA buzz with commits over the last few years on social media.
He’s very good at what he does. We hear recruits bring up his name and the names of Associate Director of Recruiting Operations Angela Kirkpatrick and Logen Reed routinely for all the work they do helping build those top-ranked recruiting classes.
The work they all do, with the help of their staff on gameday, is tireless. So many moving parts.
Yet the symphony of all that are the West End Zone seats at Sanford Stadium. The first few rows have become A1A real estate for Georgia to place its most welcomed guests every Saturday.
That’s where the official visitors go. Or the All-American top targets with 5-star billing. Or the underclassmen where they hope to make a great impression. We’ve seen the ‘Dawgs give 5-star OT David Sanders and his family the whole front row before. That was his parents and three adorable sisters.
That’s something every week to check out and see how big of a welcome mat Cooper, Kirkpatrick and Reed rolled out at the instruction of Kirby Smart and his staff for the biggest names in town.
This will be a new feature on DawgNation this season. It will go up the day of or the day after every home game. The intent is to show who made it in and who got the choice seats up close to the action on Dooley Field.
Why? Because it shows folks which recruiting targets are the most in-demand by the program.
Smart says he doesn’t pay much attention to recruiting rankings. Georgia has its rankings. That’s an internal matter there, but we’ve found over the years that the ‘Dawgs usually put the players they want to become future ‘Dawgs up front in an exclusive club we’ll call “Sanford West” in this report after every home game.
What did it look like for G-Day on Saturday? Read on.
Sanford West: Who made the Georgia football front row at G-Day?
- 5-star 2025 DL Justus Terry (6-5/270) - Manchester HS/Manchester, Ga. (USC commit)
Georgia couldn’t have planned it much better here, but the first group to take their seats in “Sanford West” on Saturday was 5-star DL Justus Terry and his group. Terry and his party of three were perhaps the most important visitors on Saturday.
Terry had been a longtime commit to the ‘Dawgs, but he made a shocking flip to USC after his first visit to check out the Trojans earlier this year. This was his first time back in Sanford and he looked very much at ease in the thick of the commitments just past midfield during pregame on Saturday.
The ‘Dawgs want the nation’s No. 2 DL and the No. 8 overall prospect to stay home. Needless to say.
- 5-star 2026 QB Jared Curtis (6-4/220) - Nashville Christian/Nashville, Tenn. (UGA commit)
Curtis was back in town shortly after his recent commitment. He had a group of four with him on Saturday. He joined Terry in the front row to the left of the west end zone tunnel at G-Day.
This was his first time in the front row at Sanford Stadium, but his third overall gameday visit. We love the backstory here about how his mother, Barbara, has secretly hoped that her son would choose UGA. She tried her best to keep that bottled up at the family dinner table, but she did cry for two days straight when former Georgia OC Todd Monken offered him a few years back.
“It was awesome,” Curtis said of his G-Day experience. “Love the way they were throwing that thing today.”
- 5-star 2025 TE Elyiss Williams (6-7/235) - Camden County High School/Kingsland, Ga. (UGA commit)
Williams was the easiest recruit to spot on Saturday. He didn’t have to be in the front row to the right of the tunnel to the Georgia locker room. He was closest to the rail.
The nation’s No. 1 TE and No. 20 overall prospect had an important return trip to Athens on Saturday. Miami and others and gunning for the flip so every time he gets back to UGA and Sanford Stadium to reinforce why he chose UGA in the first place is a good thing.
The 5-star has been committed to UGA for about 53 weeks now. Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley is one of the nation’s top recruiters, but he will play defense against rival collectives here. It is a good thing he had a wingman to help him with that on front.
- 4-star 2025 TE Ethan Barbour (6-3/235) - Milton High School/Milton Ga. (UGA commit)
That wingman was Hartley’s other TE commitment for the 2025 class in Milton transfer Ethan Barbour. The Under Armour All-American has been committed to UGA since last September. Barbour hung tight around Williams for most of G-Day at midfield pregame and then until halftime when most of the recruits retreated to the gameday recruiting lounge to chill and for some snacks.
Barbour has been the most invested peer recruiter among the 2025 commits up to this point. It appeared on Saturday that the whole right front row of “Sanford West” was Hartley’s special V.I.P. area because we had a rare TE-tac-toe of top prospects at the same position at G-Day on Saturday.
Williams and Barbour weren’t the only TE prospects in the front row on Saturday. The third was a prospect who wore No. 19 in high school and his teammates called him “Baby Brock” a year ago.
- Unrated 2027 TE Mark Bowman (6-4/220) - Mater Dei High School/ Santa Ana, Calif.)
We’ve already written about Mark Bowman on DawgNation earlier this year. That shows just how promising his future is at the TE position. Not to mention that “Baby Brock” he earned from his teammates catching four touchdown passes for the mythical national high school champions in 2023.
He’s a bonafide football player who looks much more advanced playing his position and grasping all the nuances of route running and toughness than future UGA signees in Hartley’s room had shown through their freshman season.
The rare profile on a 2027 prospect included some telling comments from 2024 All-American RB signee Nate Frazier. Those two were teammates last fall at Mater Dei.
- 4-star 2025 LB Jadon Perlotte (6-3/210) - Buford High School/ Buford, Ga. (UGA commit)
Perlotte committed to UGA back in December of 2022. While some focus on the visits he continues to take to other schools and perceive him as a potential flip, we are reminded that Perlotte said he would still do that from the jump of his UGA pledge. He told DawgNation in advance of that early commitment but also said at the same time he was always going to take his visits.
We saw the Buford star defender chatting it up and hemming and hawing with several other top UGA targets at midfield on Saturday. We know he knows who the coaches want and who he needs to talk to each week and tell them about UGA. He’s on the same California Power 7-on-7 team with Barbour and Bowman so those three knew one another very well.
- Unrated 2024 ATH Henry Delp (6-3/200) - West Forsyth High School/Cumming, Ga. (UGA commit)
Delp, the younger brother of Georgia starting TE Henry Delp, has decided to become a preferred walk-on at UGA this fall. He’s a two-sport athlete (lacrosse) at West Forsyth in Metro Atlanta and this was a recruiting visit to check out the West End Zone stands before beginning his career in Athens this fall as a PWO. He made plays as a receiver in his time at West Forsyth.
It was rare to see a PWO get a front-row West End Zone seat at Sanford, but given the Delp family’s ties to the program with Oscar in the fold, it makes sense. The Delp family is a big ‘Dawg family.
Sanford West: Who else did the ‘Dawgs seat very close to the action?
There’s another layer of understanding here with watching the V.I.P. section for recruits at Sanford Stadium over the years. While the front row is the front row, there’s always a lot of A-list recruits and star power among the first few rows on each side of the locker room tunnel at Sanford Stadium.
The first two to three rows on each side feel like the most wanted targets in town for every game. There’s also the notion that sometimes players go in when the game is out of hand or the elements (rain, cold) don’t make for the best viewing experience.
When they do, their seats are freed up and we see several new faces move down to take advantage of the chance for an unprecedented view to watch the ‘Dawgs play in Sanford.
Georgia had several most wanted recruits in the first few rows on Saturday including the following:
- 4-star EDGE Darren Ikinnagbon (Hillside/ Hillside, NJ) - NEW UGA commit
Ikinnagbon came to UGA this weekend with UGA as his No. 1 school. He settled into his second-row seat at G-Day and it wasn’t long before he made his commitment public. Ikinnagbon committed to UGA as the seventh member of the 2025 class essentially right after G-Day on Saturday.
That’s the power of that priority seating inside “Sanford West” on Saturday clearly at work there. Why did he choose UGA?
“I want to win a national championship and this is a place I can do it,” he said on Saturday.
- 4-star 2025 WR Travis Smith Jr. (Westlake/Atlanta, Ga.)
James Coley has an ideal lineup of receivers he wants to sign in the 2025 class. Smith’s name is on that list. It was on Bryan McClendon’s list before he left for the NFL. UGA will have to fight off Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee for Smith. Those are his four official visits scheduled for June.
Smith said he spent a lot of time with Coley on Saturday going over the plan in place at Georgia for its wide receivers and how it relates to their development. We’ll have more on his visits in a future story.
- 3-star 2025 RB Todd Robinson (Valdosta/Valdosta, Ga.)
Robinson has been an emerging prospect for a ton of schools since UGA offered him on March 26. The versatile ATH is a QB/RB hybrid at Valdosta, but he should play RB on Saturdays. He got an early seat at G-Day and it was a good one.
Georgia running backs coach Josh Crawford has begun to make him feel like a priority. The fact he got an up-close seat in “Sanford West” and Crawford came out to check on him during pregame says a lot. Robinson is a good example of why watching the stands each gameday offers a good idea of how valued a certain prospect is in the minds of the UGA coaching staff.
- 5-star 2025 CB Dijon Lee Jr. (Mission Viejo/Mission Viejo, Calif)
Talk about a massive cornerback prospect. Lee was big and barrel-chested for a cornerback. The 247Sports Composite has him as the nation’s 5 CB and the No. 24 overall prospect. He’s listed at 6 feet, 4 inches and 185 pounds on his recruiting page for On3, but he looked much thicker than that.
We saw Lee sticking close to Georgia’s 2025 commits (public and silent) on Saturday. That might be a great omen for the ‘Dawgs as the consensus forming around Lee’s recruitment is that his decision will likely come down to Alabama and UGA.
- 2026 5-star OT Ekene Ogboko (South Garner HS/Garner, NC)
Ogboko was one of the most intriguing prospects at G-Day. For a lot of reasons. First and foremost, he’s the younger brother of Georgia freshman NG Nnamdi Ogboko. Those family ties are strong and that at least means the Bulldogs are a team to watch closely in Ekene’s recruitment.
The other prime reason is that Ogboko is a very skilled left tackle in the 2026 cycle. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 3 OT and the No. 15 overall recruit for his class on the 247Sports Composite. His On3 Industry Ranking also lands him as a top 25 overall recruit. The 6-foot-6 Ogboko is also up to 285 pounds.
It all starts up front at UGA and the ‘Dawgs made sure to have that philosophy represented by Ogboko and two other G-Day visitors inside “Sanford West” on Saturday.
- 4-star 2026 IOL Leo Delaney (Providence Day/Charlotte, NC)
Delaney plays for the same Providence Day program in Charlotte as the previously-mentioned David Sanders Jr. The 6-foot-5, 275-pound rising junior certainly looks the part. He made his first-ever trip to check out UGA for G-Day and ranks as the nation’s No. 2 IOL and the No. 51 overall prospect (247Sports Composite) for 2026.
He’s also a black belt in Jeet Kune Do. That is the same martial arts form created by legendary actor and global icon Bruce Lee.
- 4-star 2024 OT Marcus Harrison (St. Francis/Hamburg, NY) -- UGA signee
Harrison was the largest prospect in the stands on Saturday by far. The recruiting is all done for the 6-foot-7-plus, 335-pounder who signed in the 2024 class. This was a rare chance for him to take in a game at Sanford Stadium. We can’t recall ever seeing him last season after he committed back in May 2023. His team played in a private school league and his team was often playing its games on Saturdays.
As the picture shows, he is a massive OT recruit who will make the OL room for Stacy Searels even bigger and better moving forward.
- 4-star 2026 OL Carter Luckie (Norcross HS/Norcross, Ga.)
Luckie is a promising Class of 2026 DL at Norcross High School. He was offered by UGA back in June of last year and with good reason. His father and uncles were the Luckie triplets who signed with UGA a generation ago. Of course, that means he has to be the younger brother of Georgia sophomore TE Lawson Luckie.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder is already a top 75 national recruit for On3. We’ve always liked his style and approach. While some can let this recruiting stuff inflate their heads and ego he’s been a no-drama type up to this point. He’s made multiple trips to UGA over the last year. He was in the stands for several games last year to see his brother play. When he does, he usually makes a quick lap around pregame warmups and it isn’t long before he’s sitting comfortably in the stands waiting on kickoff.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
