Good morning, everyone, and happy Wednesday! It’s Olivia, again, filling in for Sarah this week!
We’re going to switch it up today, starting with some football.
I wanted to share this article DawgNation’s Jeff Sentell wrote about 5-star commit Jaxon Dollar. The story details Dollar’s commitment, highlighting the moment he fell for Georgia football.
Enjoy!
The ‘This is me’ moment Jaxon Dollar fell for Georgia football
The aforementioned story:
There’s a lot of focus (and fan angst) at the moment about the elite players that Georgia hasn’t won the recruiting battles for of late. That list continues to grow.
How ‘bout a deeper read on an elite target that the Dawgs did win the head-to-head with Miami and Notre Dame for? That’s 5-star TE Jaxon Dollar.
He’s the rare prospect that had to think a minute to answer accurately whether he’s scored more touchdowns or had more dunks in a single game before.
For the record, he caught four touchdown passes in a game last fall. He also had six dunks in a basketball game during his junior season.
That’s pretty rare for a 6-foot-4-plus and 233-pound rising senior.
Dollar just spent last week shredding some of the best secondary prospects in the country at Nike’s Opening event in Oregon. He was named the “Alpha” for Day 1, and his name popped as one of the consensus standout players at the showcase event.
He’s coming to Georgia. He’s known that for sure since early April and hasn’t wavered in that. The 5-star actually felt a real pull to commit to the G way back in November.
Use the link below to read the rest of the story.
Tracking Georgia baseball’s transfer portal haul
Now, let’s go back to some baseball. The transfer portal officially closed Tuesday night with one more Bulldog entering his name.
Georgia also gained a commitment, bringing its total to 12 in this cycle. The Bulldogs still have the top-ranked class, according to 64 Analytics.
To keep track of all the movement, intern Hunter DeLauder put together a very helpful tracker:
Transfer portal commitments
- RHP Luke Howe — Long Beach State (June 10)
- RHP Cristofer Cespedes — Maryland (June 11)
- RHP Cooper Walls — Florida (June 12)
- INF Mathew Farner — North Florida (June 13)
- INF Mikey Bell — Gonzaga (June 15)
- C Hunter Carns — Florida State (Friday)
- OF Jet Gilliam — Utah (Saturday)
- INF Jacob Hanley — Indiana (Monday)
- UTL Naulivou Lauaki Jr. — Oregon (Monday)
- RHP Matt Cuccias — Wichita State (Monday)
- INF Casey McCoy — Louisiana Tech (Monday)
- RHP Riley Goodman — South Carolina (Tuesday)
Transfer portal departures
- RHP Lucas Morici (May 11)
- RHP Luke Wiltrakis (June 19)
- RHP Jordan Stephens (June 19)
- OF Scott Newman (June 20)
- OF Ty Peebles (June 20)
- RHP Dylan Wood (June 24)
- INF TL Saxon (Thursday)
- LHP Bradley Stewart (Tuesday)
Although the portal is closed, athletes can still commit to a program. They just can’t enter the portal until the next opening.
CBS Sports predicts surprising loss for Georgia football in 2026
Switching back to football, one media outlet predicted a surprising loss for the Bulldogs this season.
Georgia went 11-1 during the regular season last year, making it to a fifth consecutive SEC championship game.
Many key faces from that team return, as the Bulldogs aim for another national championship.
Based on the season prediction by Brad Crawford of CBS Sports, the Bulldogs will be in a spot to do so once again.
In predicting every SEC’s team record for the 2026 season, Crawford had the Bulldogs going 11-1 and 8-1 in conference games.
That mark would put the Bulldogs back in the SEC championship game.
“Sparkling wins over Oklahoma, Alabama and Ole Miss would give the Bulldogs every ingredient the selection committee values in a top-five CFP (College Football Playoff) seed,” Crawford wrote. “You know that Georgia has that matchup with the Rebels circled after what happened in last year’s quarterfinal down in New Orleans. With an 11-win finish, the Bulldogs would own one of the nation’s strongest résumés — likely with multiple wins over ranked opponents — a convincing strength of schedule and enough road-tested credibility to outweigh a single surprising blemish.”
The loss on the schedule, according to Crawford, won’t come against 2025 CFP participants Oklahoma, Alabama or Ole Miss.
Crawford has the Nov. 21 game at South Carolina as the game the Bulldogs would drop. Per Crawford’s South Carolina predictions, the Gamecocks would enter that game with a 5-5 record.
Trivia section
What is Georgia football’s record against South Carolina since coach Kirby Smart took over?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.
The 2 player comps that show why Georgia football wants Adryan Cole
Diving back into some recruiting, we’ll turn to another article written by Sentell. This one highlights 4-star safety Adryan Cole:
Georgia currently has 17 commitments. The Bulldogs probably won’t get to 24 or 25 signees in this cycle. There’s not much meat left on the bone for the 2027 class.
Cole, a 4-star safety from Douglas County, could very well be the highest-rated prospect left in the class that stands a strong chance of choosing UGA. (The other would be 4-star Alabama DL Karlos May.)
If that’s not enough to get the ears perked up about Cole’s value, he plays defensive back. As odd as it might seem to read this, Smart’s program does not have a single DB commitment for this class yet.
Cole is now also the highest-rated prospect in the state of Georgia this cycle who has yet to lock down his college choice. He’s the No. 15 prospect in Georgia this year.
If he chose UGA, he’d be just the third commitment for the program among the state’s 15 highest-rated prospects.
That’s a lot to consider here with Cole, but we’ve succeeded up to this point in sharing just the periphery of why Cole is one of the few remaining vital targets for the class.
He’s considering the Dawgs heavily, along with schools like LSU and Ole Miss. The 4-star has a public commitment date set for July 18. His commitment should go private long before it goes public if it hasn’t already.
How much could he help UGA? A lot. The things that stand out about Cole are described best by Douglas County coach Johnny White.
When he thinks of Cole, he thinks of SEC legend Eric Berry. White coached Berry in high school 20 years ago when he was at Creekside.
Use the link below to read the rest of the story.
And with that, enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!
See y’all tomorrow!
Trivia answer
7-1
