Sentell’s Intel: What’s the recruiting buzz coming out of the final Georgia football home game of the season?

This Sentell’s Intel rep has the latest on Brien Taylor, Jamar Hamlin, Nasir Johnson and Travis Smith Jr., Nitro “Showtime” Tuggle, among others. And Baba O’Riley. Yes. Baba O’Riley. He’s not a 5-star guard from Wisconsin, though.

The back-to-back defending national champions just played host to their final home crowd of recruiting visitors for the 2023 season. The “Dawgs could still play 33 percent more of their season and last Saturday was the last time we’ll all be at Sanford Stadium to watch the 2023 Georgia football team.

Don’t think the recruits won’t miss it.

5-star QB Dylan Raiola gets a look on his face every game like he can’t wait to get on that grass. He gets one of those faces like he just saw the prettiest girl in the world.

“Atmosphere was crazy,” he said of the Ole Miss win. “How consistent Georgia was each play winning each moment and not getting too high or too low.”

His favorite part of a gameday in Athens is always the same. Always.

“Right before kickoff when they play Baba O’Riley,” he said. “Goosebumps every single time.”

He also said the fourth quarter moment where “Homegrown” by the Zac Brown Band gets played is catching to that classic UGA gameday staple. We’ve found Raiola is very musically inclined as we’ve gotten to know him.

Georgia hosted three official visitors for the 2024 class on Saturday, including a rare pair of junior college targets these days. There was also a slew of 2025 and 2026 targets in town.

What is the big news so far coming out of that recruiting weekend? Here’s a quick road map of what we have heard so far after those visits. We will come back this week with more detailed information about the entire weekend with distinct individual stories.

• The junior college targets were blown away by UGA. We can report that there was a moment or two where they both might have felt like going ahead and committing over the weekend. But they held off.
• The chances of Georgia signing 3-star JUCO targets Jaden Hamlin and Brien Taylor sound a little more likely than 4-star Dublin High DL (and Florida commit) Nasir Johnson at this time.
• The fact that Hamlin and Taylor got to experience Georgia football on full display this weekend together meant a lot to both of them coming from the JUCO ranks. They both realized how blessed they were to be recruited by the back-to-back national champions. They became fast friends. If they both wind up signing with UGA, I can see them living together in Athens.
• What was going through Taylor’s mind about the weekend? “It went really really well,” he said. “I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about it so far. I’m just going to take these other visits just to make sure. But everything about Georgia was just all that. For real.”
• Hamlin had a similar take on his OV: “Man, I loved it. I can’t tell you no lie,” he said. “It was a hell of an experience.”
• In probably the biggest single news item of the weekend, 4-star WR Nitro “Showtime” Tuggle made it back to UGA for his first game this season. The report we have to share on that visit is very encouraging for DawgNation. While there has been a lot of discussion on whether or not Tuggle remains in the class, we feel the chances are strong that he will remain locked in with the ‘Dawgs at this time. It appears this weekend’s visit helped a lot on that front.
• A key source shared this thought about Tuggle after the weekend: “He’s locked.”
• 5-star DL target Elijah Griffin was all smiles again on Saturday. He made another trip to check out the Bulldogs and this visit did nothing to sway the notion we hold that the Bulldogs are a major A1A contender to sign him in 2025. Griffin is easily one of the top two or three targets for the ‘Dawgs in 2025. The Savannah Christian junior is rated as the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect for 2025 on the 247Sports Composite rankings.
• The ‘Dawgs hosted basically the entire immediate family for 4-star Westlake junior WR Travis Smith Jr. on Saturday. The Bulldogs continue to keep their program as a primary read as Smith looks down the field on his eventual decision. The Bulldogs are clearly among his top schools.
• What impressed him the most about this visit? Smith had a lot of praise for DawgNation and the way the Sanford Stadium crowd supported the entire Georgia football program. Smith is a pretty introspective dude. He had a lot of pointed opinions that I don’t hear a lot from talking to the majority of top targets after visits.
• Smith was on the grass at Dooley Field early during pregame on Saturday watching the Georgia receivers go through their paces. He had zero offers or stars before the ‘Dawgs offered this summer. The other 2025 target was North Carolina wideout Nasir Newkirk. The ‘Dawgs offered the Dudley High playmaker back in September. The 6-foot-2-plus, 195-pounder still has no stars or rankings of any kind on all of the major services, but it is clear that the ‘Dawgs are after him. If someone wanted to start talking about how it seems like the ‘Dawgs don’t mind looking for a few “eat off the floor” guys to catch passes, I would not disagree.
• While some programs seek out the 5-stars, it is clear the Bulldogs trust their own evals in terms of guys like Newkirk and Smith.
• There was one recruit who was expected to make it but didn’t show up on Saturday. That was 6-foot-8 OT Juan Gaston Jr. in the 2025 class. That rocking environment on Saturday would’ve been a plus for UGA if Gaston had gotten to see that. That said, Gaston saw the ‘Dawgs the previous week against Missouri. He is also scheduled to be a guest of the home team when the Bulldogs travel to Knoxville to take on Tennessee this weekend.
• Georgia again hosted 5-star sophomore QB Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis on Saturday. We heard a lot more encouraging things about this visit, but the ‘Dawgs are going to need to build on several more of those before we consider the Bulldogs have a shot to flip him away from USC at this point. I would not say anything is likely to happen there even though Lewis has made several trips to see UGA play this fall.
• 4-star junior Ohio cornerback Dawayne Galloway Jr. made his first visit to check out UGA and said he left Athens with the ‘Dawgs clearly the leader in his mind. He needed the visit to see if the love he had been getting from the ‘Dawgs so far was real. He left knowing it was. Galloway was invited down to the Georgia locker room after the game to watch the team revel in the aftermath of the Ole Miss win.
• It was good for the ‘Dawgs to get 3-star Virginia Tech CB commit Marcellus Barnes Jr. back on campus for his second game this season. The ‘Dawgs are working on the flip here, but the intelligent senior from The McCallie School in Chattanooga continues to go through a methodical step-by-step approach to evaluating his final decision. He has stressed for the last two months he’s going to take this slow and get all the data he can in order to make the best possible choice.
• 5-star sophomore LB Anthony “Tank” Jones made the trip from Alabama. He’s the nation’s No. 1 LB prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite ratings. Jones was probably the biggest “surprise” level visitor on Saturday as far as the 5-star names go.
• 4-star All-American OT commit Mike Uini was there this weekend. Uini remains very much locked into the class and will be an early enrollee in January.
• We got to spend some time with Uini and his family this weekend and also check out his younger brother Marques. Marques looks to be a target for the Bulldogs in the 2026 class. He’s already an impressive 295-pound OL with a Georgia offer.
• 4-star RB commit Chauncey Bowens made his first trip to UGA this season for a game that we can recall. He looked to be having a very good time.
• If you missed it over the weekend, we had a detailed update with 4-star Buford High LB Jaden Perlotte. The 2025 prospect has been committed to the ‘Dawgs for almost a year and he gave us a definitive read on where that commitment stands as of now.
• Perlotte, who said he likes to mess with folks on social media, gave DawgNation a definitive answer to his commitment status after Buford’s playoff win on Friday. “Georgia doesn’t have anything to worry about,” Perlotte said. “... I told the Georgia fans not to worry about anything. I just like playing around. Going around. Traveling. I’m being a kid. You can post on Twitter on whatever you want. I’m a Georgia Bulldog and that’s where I’m going to stay.”

As stated earlier, this is the quickest way to share the initial juice off all the visits to stay up with the news cycle. Look for more detailed stories on each major visitor this week on DawgNation.com starting with both JUCO official visitors and also Travis Smith Jr.

We feel the Westlake receiver has emerged as one of the most important recruits in the 2025 cycle. We place the importance of Georgia potentially adding him to the 2025 class in the same tier as Griffin, 5-star North Carolina OT David Sanders Jr. and 5-star Schley County LB Zayden Walker.

Oops.

Forgot to share this picture series below. We don’t need any more words to convey that Georgia TEs coach Todd Hartley is still quite happy to have Alpharetta 4-star junior TE Ethan Barbour committed to the team.

Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley (left) wrapped up 4-star junior TE commitment Ethan Barbour in a big bear hug the moment he saw him on Saturday, November 11, 2023, prior to the Ole Miss game. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

4-star junior TE commitment Ethan Barbour was one of a number of elite recruits on hand for Georgia's final home game of the 2023 season when the 'Dawgs routed No. 9 Ole Miss by a 52-17 margin at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, November 11, 2023. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

4-star Alpharetta HS tight end commitment Ethan Barbour was one of a number of elite recruits on hand for Georgia's final home game of the 2023 season when the 'Dawgs routed No. 9 Ole Miss by a 52-17 margin at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, November 11, 2023. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

4-star junior TE commitment Ethan Barbour was one of a number of elite recruits on hand for Georgia's final home game of the 2023 season when the 'Dawgs routed No. 9 Ole Miss by a 52-17 margin at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, November 11, 2023. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

4-star junior TE commitment Ethan Barbour was one of a number of elite recruits on hand for Georgia's final home game of the 2023 season when the 'Dawgs routed No. 9 Ole Miss by a 52-17 margin at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, November 11, 2023. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

4-star junior TE commit Ethan Barbour was one of a number of elite recruits on hand for Georgia's final home game of the 2023 season when the 'Dawgs routed No. 9 Ole Miss by a 52-17 margin at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia on Saturday, November 11, 2023. (Jeff Sentell/ DawgNation) (Jeff Sentell/Dawgnation)

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will be able to see special 1-on-1 content with key 2024 prospects like Daniel Calhoun, Dwight Phillips Jr., Dylan Raiola and Sacovie White.

DawgNation put together a photo gallery of more than 60 images from some of the top recruits in town over the weekend. Check it out below.

SENTELL'S INTEL

(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)