This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with IMG Academy 5-star Jayden Wade. He ranks as the nation’s No. 1 QB and the No. 4 overall prospect for 2028 on the 247Sports Composite. The Rivals Industry Ranking has him as the No. 1 and No. 1 overall.
Jayden Wade, the nation’s top sophomore QB prospect, just committed to Georgia.
He announced his decision on a social media livestream the day after he was in Athens for the Texas game for an up-close look at the dominating Georgia victory.
The 6-foot-3, 195-pound sophomore visited two games this year. That was to see Georgia face Alabama and Texas.
He enjoyed the visit.
“Experience was very fun,” Wade told DawgNation. “I loved the energy that Georgia plays with and great coaches.”
With the timing of scheduling his decision date for the day after that visit, it seemed like it was going to go a certain way with everything he had said about Georgia up to that point.
It went a certain way. Wade now becomes the second commitment for the 2028 recruiting class in Athens.
“I just loved the program,” Wade said during his livestream on Rivals. “They are a winning program. They are a big cultural tradition team and I just feel like it is home.”
Truth be told, he was already acting the part of a UGA commitment at the Texas game on Saturday night.
He went out early to the field for pregame with Georgia’s elite recruits and 2026 and 2027 commits. He hung around the commits, including his IMG Academy teammate Zech Fort. Fort is a strong verbal commitment to Georgia for the 2026 class.
Wade was also sitting right in the first few rows of the west end zone recruiting bleachers at Sanford Stadium for the game. His news today just made what was already taking place a matter of formality.
That’s because it had already been determined months ago.
“We planned this at the beginning of the season,” Wade shared on the livestream. “This was planned at the beginning of the season. I just wanted to keep in contact with them.”
He completed 73 of his 119 passes for 1376 yards for 20 TDs. He threw just two interceptions and also ran for three scores. While those might not be the jaw-dropping stats expected of a 5-star QB, bear in mind that Wade averaged just 13 pass attempts per game for a very balanced IMG Academy offense.
This was his first year starting at IMG, but he completed 62 percent of his passes playing against a national schedule. Wade had also waited his turn since his eighth-grade season to start for IMG.
Jayden Wade to Georgia: What it means
Wade chose the Dawgs over a finalist pool that included Florida, Michigan, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Washington.
This is a significant moment for Georgia football recruiting on a few levels. First, one would expect a specific skill set for a prospect ranked as the nation’s No. 1 overall QB prospect.
Wade does not disappoint on that front. DawgNation has seen the film and has seen him live. At this stage of his sophomore year, he presents as a prospect as talented as any that Georgia has recruited in the Kirby Smart era outside of Jared Curtis.
He might not have that type of arm that Curtis has yet, but few 5-stars ever do. He’s also an excellent open-field runner. That will continue the trend of mobile UGA quarterbacks well into the future.
DawgNation saw Wade live earlier this year. There was nothing he could not do. Wade torched a previously unbeaten Central-Phenix City (Ala.) team. He finished 11-of-11 for 350 yards and four touchdowns.
The 5-star sophomore from South Central Los Angeles added another electrifying touchdown score on the ground where he rolled right and then stepped up into a collapsing pocket and weaved to the left sideline and sprinted for a 47-yard score.
Those impressive game highlights are a part of this game highlight reel below.
This is a timestamp moment for Georgia recruiting to land the nation’s No. 1 QB prospect in a class. Rivals even has him as the No. 1 overall prospect for 2028. There’s a chance that Wade, given that he’s an older sophomore prospect, could reclassify to the 2027 class.
That would be interesting for Georgia. But that’s a story for another day. Not this day.
What this commitment really says is a raise-the-roof statement about the Georgia brand. Wade has a strong relationship with Fort and Georgia redshirt freshman cornerback Ellis Robinson IV. He also grew up in the same part of California that Georgia star tailback Nate Frazier did.
Those are the typical ties that lead to recruiting wins, but this is also a ringing endorsement for the Georgia offense under Kirby Smart. It is another powerful endorsement for Mike Bobo’s offense and the program’s ability to attract elite offensive talent.
Not just the defensive stalwarts that Kirby Smart has stocked the Butts-Mehre cupboards with over the years.
This decision gives Georgia the strongest future of its quarterback room that anyone can ever imagine for any school anywhere. Check it out:
- Current starter Gunner Stockton (2022 signee) - Playing at an ALL-SEC level right now (one year of eligibility remaining)
- Redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi (2024 signee) - Talented backup QB who has made great strides over his last year.
- True freshman Ryan Montgomery (2025 signee) - Montgomery has turned heads at Georgia so far this fall. He’s good enough to start for Georgia one day.
- True freshman Hezekiah Millender-Hale (2025 signee) - The Dawgs flipped him late in the 2025 cycle from Boise State. We’ve heard that he’s been giving the defense fits working on the scout team this fall.
- 2026 commitment Jared Curtis - Curtis has all the tools to be a top 5 NFL Draft pick one day. He’s the No. 1-ranked QB across all services.
- 2028 commitment Jayden Wade - The savvy dual-threat is also the No. 1 QB prospect for all services for his class.
That’s a “greed is good” QB room if we’ve ever seen one. It appears that Mike Bobo and Kirby Smart have an elite quarterback plan in place for the program through the 2030 season, if not longer.
Fort broke down what Georgia would be getting in Wade earlier this year with DawgNation.
“I see the work he puts in every day,” Fort said. “How he prepares. You don’t really get that preparation coming into a game like this anywhere. I’m definitely going to say that’s the main reason I want him to come join the Dawgs.”
Fort gave a detailed scouting snapshot and started by pointing at his head.
“It’s from top down,” Fort said. “It’s from his head. His cerebral. His football IQ and then to his arms and to his legs. He can do it all. He doesn’t have any weaknesses as a quarterback and that’s special.”
How happy would he be if Wade signs with the Dawgs?
“On a scale of 1 to 10, an 11,” Fort said. “That’s my guy. We’re both from California, so I’ve known him pretty much over half his life. That’s my guy. Just having him be a part of that culture at Georgia would be amazing.”
Have you seen this week’s “Before the Hedges” weekly recruiting special on YouTube yet? Check it out below
SENTELL’S INTEL
(Check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
