This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star DL Carter Luckie. He’s the nation’s No. 33 DL and No. 252 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 32 DL and No. 286 overall.
Carter Luckie is a priority target for the Bulldogs in 2026.
Yes, we are talking about the same Luckie family that has sent four players to wear red and black. Carter could very well be the fifth.
He’s the brother of current UGA tight end Lawson. Son of former linebacker Mike. Nephew to former center Miles and former linebacker Dustin.
He’s also a brother to Cannon. Still the strongest and toughest of all the male Luckies in the family.
There are legacies in Athens, but there’s a chance here to associate something else with the 6-foot-5 and 275-pound rising senior.
This guy just gets football.
Carter is mending from labrum surgery. An accelerated rehab schedule might have him back on the field by mid-August.
The look in his eyes when he talks about when he can play again, leads one to believe that his Norcross coaches will have to pry him from the field in July. Pretty much the same way Scott Sinclair does with Kirby Smart every fall.
Norcross High’s Corey Richardson, in his first year as the head coach, shared what folks need to know about the latest Luckie.
“He’s just that teammate,” Richardson said. “That guy. That leader.”
He cites an example from the last month. Luckie is in the weight room. He can’t lift with his bum shoulder, but he’s still there because his team is there. That’s the pure-football-guy-team-first in his DNA.
“He’s just out of surgery,” Richardson said, “He’s not going to school. He comes up to get his assignments and work. But he’s in a lot of pain. Like, the things after surgery and he came up here while his teammates were lifting. Just to be in the weight room with his teammates.”
“Just to be there through that class. He couldn’t lift. He couldn’t do anything. He was in the weight room. Encouraging his teammates. Walking through the weight room. He comes up here in the morning. Got all his work from his teachers. Then he went home to do the work to get caught up from his surgery. Then just came up there to be with his teammates lifting.”
Like a lot of things in this great game, it is always when a star player does things he doesn’t have to do for his team that garners the most respect in the locker room.
And from his coaching staff.
“Even though I’ve been here 24 years, this is my first year in this role,” the first-year head coach said. “I need guys like Carter to stand up with the other rising seniors in his class to believe in me and let’s just go to work and lead the team.”
“We started lifting in January. He has his surgery in January and the effort he makes while he is in pain, he’s not feeling good. But he wanted to be up here for his teammates and help call out lifts and reps and encourage the guys. That’s what, with me stepping into this role, what I wanted to see. He’s communicating and really making an effort to make sure he keeps me up on things like his surgery and his recovery. He might have done that with coach [Keith] Maloof last year, but for me, I didn’t see that side of him.”
Richardson, a career assistant coach up to now, coached the defensive tackles at Norcross. Luckie was mainly a defensive end. He didn’t really know him that well.
“Even though he’s getting all this attention, his focus is on his team at Norcross High School,” Richardson said. “That’s what I’m looking for out of a guy like him. That really speaks volumes to me with what I need being in this role my first year as head coach. This is not about me. It is about us. I’m going to have to lean on all of our coaches and our players here.”
Carter Luckie: One more story about his makeup
Luckie is one of those guys that can be leaned on.
“I don’t have anything really special about him story-wise,” Richardson said. “He’s just a great kid.”
There was still a moment worth rewinding. It was a time when he was playing JV and had to be thrown into the fire. The DT depth had been depleted against a tough Mill Creek team.
Luckie, who was a DE, was called on to help at DT.
“He had no idea what he was doing because he hadn’t been coached there,” Richardson said. “But we needed him and he said, ‘Coach, I will do whatever you need me to do. I just want to help the team’ and that was kind of an inkling that we first had of the person he was.”
Luckie didn’t come off the field talking about his career. Or wishing to go back to DE.
“He just came off the field and this joker is laughing,” Richardson said. “Saying ‘Coach, I have no idea what I’m doing out there, but this is awesome. I’m having fun’ and if you’re going to make football your career, that’s the approach. There are guys that are talented, and they go out on that field, and they dread it. I think he really thoroughly enjoys playing the game, learning about the game and just getting better.”
We can tell you a lot of things about Luckie. The legacy stuff. The 4-star ranking. The fact he’s the fifth-highest-ranked DL in the state this year. We want folks to remember that mindset when his name keeps coming up as a potential piece of the 2026 class, too.
How does Carter Luckie feel about the Dawgs?
Let’s be honest. There are a lot of reasons why Luckie might choose UGA. But he’s going to go through his process.
Georgia will get an OV during the last weekend of May. He also has officials booked to Ohio State and FSU. He’ll visit Columbus on June 6-8. FSU will be from June 13-15.
He went to camp with the Buckeyes last summer. Luckie was offered that same day. That feeling with Ohio State starts with the defensive line coach.
“Coach [Larry] Johnson, that’s what I see,” Luckie said. “I mean, Coach Johnson is one of the best there is.”
He hasn’t checked out the Seminoles yet. He will go for an unofficial in March and return in June for that OV.
“I’m definitely locked in on those three,” he said. “If anything else comes up, I may schedule another one but I don’t know for sure.”
He said he’ll commit in the summer after those OVs.
Luckie said he hears from recruiters often about his ties to Georgia, but they are still going to shoot their shot.
“I definitely get a ton of that,” he said. “I always give the same message: I am going to go where I feel like I’m wanted the most, where I feel a close relationship with the coaching staff, and where I think is setting me up the best to go where I want to go. That is the NFL.”
When Carter takes his OV to UGA, his older brother Lawson will be one of his hosts. That’s something we’re not used to seeing and a cool part of their family story.
He came up for a “Junior Day” event last month. Luckie was with his father and they spent a lot of time talking to UGA defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, too.
There was also an extended meeting with defensive line coach Tray Scott. That was different.
“Pulled up some clips of the first time I ever camped there,” Luckie said. “He also pulled up some of my films from this past year. Just some stuff I could work on. Some stuff I improved on. Just getting to learn from him, you know he definitely knows what he is talking about.”
The film session was 500 (!!!) clips. 500. Carter Luckie. Clips.
“Not necessarily stuff from my highlight tape,” Carter Luckie said. “Even some lowlights. Stuff that I could work on and stuff that I could take home from that day. And also some stuff from the first time I camped at Georgia. That was one of the things that was definitely special.”
Nobody does that.
“That was definitely special,” he said. “I haven’t got that before. No school has done that.”
That session was the best part of his “Junior Day” visit. The biggest reason he would choose UGA is the relationship with his potential college D-line coach.
“That was definitely the highlight,” Luckie said. “Got some good knowledge from him. Go to pick at his brain a little bit.”
Check out his junior film. Look for the size, speed and athleticism.
What does he want folks to pick up about his game?
“I hope they see my versatility,” Carter Luckie said. “That I can play pretty much anywhere on the defensive line. I think that’s one of my strong suits. Just being able to do pretty much anything on the line.”
Carter Luckie wants to be his own guy
Luckie loves his brother. He knows Lawson is a great player and it would be cool to play with him again. They played together at Norcross in some spots when he was a freshman and his All-American brother was a senior.
But there’s a but.
“That doesn’t really play much of a factor in where I’m going to college,” he said. “I’m going to go with the best relationship I’ve got with the program with the coaches and where I think I am wanted the most honestly.”
“Lawson and I, even if I ended up going somewhere else, that wouldn’t affect our relationship. He supports me going wherever I decide to go. He tells me to ‘Check everything out and go where you feel like God is taking you’ and just ‘Follow your heart’ honestly.”
There is a part of it that would be great to play one, maybe two seasons of college football in Athens with his brother.
“It would definitely be a cool thing,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that plays much of a factor in going to a school, but that is definitely a plus that Georgia has.”
What are his non-negotiables?
“I want to be developed,” he said. “The end goal is to play in the league. That’s how I want to make my living. I want to go to a place that’s hard-working and just ‘Dawgs’ honestly. Just working. I like hard-nosed football programs that are really known for the trenches.”
How does UGA check those boxes for him?
“Well, I mean, with Tray Scott’s resume, he gets them guys drafted,” Luckie said. “The proof is in the pudding. You can’t deny it.”
What will make this decision?
“I mean, honestly, just wherever I feel is right,” Carter Luckie said. “I don’t know any other way to answer that question. I’m coming down on a couple of schools and I’m going to go where I feel is right and whatever is best for my future.”
Does he feel like he is wanted by the Dawgs?
“Definitely,” Luckie said. “Georgia recruits the hell out of me.”
Given his family ties, he’s been to Athens a ton. He’s been there as a kid with his brother and been there to see his brother. There might not be a prospect in the 2026 class who knows more internal and integral details about UGA than Luckie.
“I think that’s fair to say,” Carter Luckie said.
How does Georgia see him in its defensive front?
“They see me as a combo [defensive end] like Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins,” he said. “[Coach Scott] compares me to him pretty often. I see me and him playing pretty much the same position. Switching from inside to out just depending on the formation.”
Luckie will also play some tight end at Norcross. He says, matter of fact, he’s the most athletic Luckie in the family.
“Oh, definitely,” he said. “Pound for pound. For sure.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
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