Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep offers a good look at where the 2024 Georgia football recruiting class sits on July 10. What’s left? Who are the biggest remaining targets?
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Can’t help but look at what the Georgia football program has done recently on the recruiting trail and start thinking about Greek mythology.
Athens is in Greece. After all.
It might look mythic to many with all these offensive line prospects that stand like the pillars of Olympus. That’s what Stacy Searels has stacked up like cordwood of late. But my mind drifts to mythology.
Does anyone remember those literature classes? Yet instead of the Twelve Labours of Hercules, we’ve got the “Twelve Labors of Kirby” for the 2024 recruiting cycle.
Think about it for a second.
This is that “we ain’t done yet” Richard LeCounte III line on repeat.
Hercules (or Heracles if we’re going by the book) conducted a series of tasks for King Eurystheus. Kirby and his black belt staff of ninja recruiters are doing this for DawgNation.
We could even look back at that 2020 season and those two losses to Alabama and Florida that stoked the fires in Smart’s furnace to start recruiting like this in this age of the transfer portal and NIL.
Every great Greek story starts off with tragedy and despair and then has the hero filling up the River Styx with his rivals.
Smart’s got 12 Labours and is off to a tremendous start in this cycle.
Consider the following:
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 CB (Ellis Robinson IV) ✅
- Build the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class ✅
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect (Dylan Raiola) ✅
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 QB (Also Dylan Raiola) ✅
- Earn the commitment from a pair of Elite 11 QBs (Also Dylan Raiola and Ryan Puglisi) ✅
- Earn the commitment from six OLs that are at least 6 feet, 5 inches in height ✅
Those six tasks are quite difficult to do. It is safe to say that any championship-contending program would be quite happy with any three or four of those and call it a grand slam class.
The work that has already been put in is so strong that a mere chore like signing the No. 1 player in the state of Georgia or the No. 1 offensive line prospect in the state can’t crack the big list.
Georgia currently has commitments from 18 of the nation’s top 200 overall prospects (On3 Industry Ranking) and that doesn’t even crack the list yet.
What’s left in Kirby’s 12? Well, there are a few noteworthy tasks ahead.
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 LB (Justin Williams)
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 DL (Williams Nwaneri)
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 safety (KJ Bolden)
- Earn the commitment from the nation’s No. 1 RB for On3 and Rivals (Nate Frazier)
- Sign three of the nation’s top four overall prospects (Nwaneri, Raiola ✅ and Robinson.✅
- Sign the highest-rated recruiting class in Georgia football history
That sounds about right. We are not even in the second week of July and Georgia’s work feels right at the halfway point. That’s even though the Bulldogs already hold a similar 247Sports Team Composite rankings score now as they did at the end of the 2023 cycle.
- Final Georgia football composite score with 26 signees (2023): 315.68
- Current Georgia football composite score with 26 commits (2024): 311.60
That’s borderline incredible given that both classes there included either a punter or a kicker. Those positions are never weighed heavily by the national recruiting services.
The current Georgia football class of commits would have finished third nationally by a wide margin in the final 2023 rankings and yet we’re still in July.
Look for the Bulldogs to finish out this class with about four or five more additions to this class. They might also see a de-commitment or two that will push the class to around 30 prospects.
If Kirby checks off all his labours, then the Georgia class should very well push to the best class ranking score in program history. It will also challenge 2022 Texas A&M and 2021 Alabama for the all-time best class.
UGA can do all that and the closing “Kang” flurry doesn’t even include the long-sought signatures on scholarship papers from 5-star WRs Mike Matthews Jr. or Jeremiah Smith.
The ‘Dawgs have put up 15 commitments on the board since Raiola went public with his pledge. What’s left for the class in terms of the most important remaining targets in the class?
There are a few names left on the DawgNation weekly “Top Targets” board that appears weekly on the “Before the Hedges” streaming program that airs live at 8 p.m. on all the DawgNation social channels.
Georgia football recruiting: Which names are left for the 2024 class?
Smart and Georgia have been on a dizzying pace over the last six weeks.
We haven’t even gotten to August yet and there’s really only about eight or nine names left to focus on with this class. Several of those do still plan to make their college decisions prior to the start of their senior seasons.
The ‘Dawgs could very well be sitting at 28 or 29 commitments by the time the season opener against UT-Martin rolls around.
Check out the embedded table below.
Priority | Rank | Name | Location |
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8 | 4-star LB | Chris Cole | Salem HS (Salem, Va.) |
7 | 4-star DL | LJ McCray | Mainland (Daytona Beach, Fla.) |
6 | 4-star LB | Kristopher C. Jones | Fairfax HS (Fairfax, Va.) |
5 | 4-star DL | Aydin Breland | Mater Dei HS (Santa Ana, Calif.) |
4 | 4-star RB | Nate Frazier | Mater Dei HS (Santa Ana, Calif.) |
3 | 5-star LB | Justin Williams | Oak Ridge HS (Conroe, Tex.) |
2 | 5-star S | KJ Bolden | Buford HS (Buford, Ga.) |
1 | 5-star DL | Williams Nwaneri | Lee’s Summit North (Lee’s Summit, Mo.) |
The ‘Dawgs won’t sign all eight of those names up above. But they will close out this class with several of those.
That just about covers it aside from the continued efforts to flip the nation’s No. 1 WR prospect (Smith) away from Ohio State. There’s also a big in-state name like Kam Mikell who plans to make his decision deeper into next year and possibly even after the traditional National Signing Day date in February.
There’s not a lot of meat left on the bone for the ‘Dawgs in the 2024 recruiting cycle. The staff will surely continue to recruit a lot of their top commitments and prospects in the fold like they are still undecided, but that’s just part of the deal trying to come back to Athens with the greatest recruiting class in program history.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)