This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest on 5-star DJ Jacobs at Blessed Trinity. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 1 EDGE and the No. 3 overall prospect for 2027 for both the 247Sports Composite and the Rivals Industry Ranking.
When a 5-star shows up anywhere for a game other than the school they are committed to, it attracts attention. Especially when both of his parents graduated from that school and he grew up going to games there.
So was it news when 5-star DJ Jacobs showed up in Athens Saturday for the Western Kentucky game?
Yes, according to both of those prior statements.
It was news, but it doesn’t seem like a story to monitor. According to well-placed sources, Georgia football fans shouldn’t emotionally invest in it any more than that right now.
The story was that his Blessed Trinity teammate and younger brother Dawson Jacobs was in town. Jacobs, a 4-star in his own right, is the nation’s No. 19 DL and the nation’s No. 176 overall prospect for 2028 on the 247Sports Composite.
He’s an ascending prospect in his own right. Jacobs has been nigh-unblockable at times this year. That’s because he explodes off the ball as if it runs in the family.
That’s because it does. That’s why the Bulldogs have begun to ratchet up their recruiting intensity for Dawson.
“In most cases with brothers, you cut a nice deal with the older brother to get the younger brother that you really want,” said former Georgia DL David Jacobs, their father. “Or you cut a nice deal with the younger brother to make sure you get the older brother, too.”
“In this case, Dawson is holding his own ground. He had a great time up there.”
That’s why the trip happened. Not because the Dawgs are cooking up a late NIL push to steal DJ away from the Buckeyes in December.
“This was Dawson’s visit,” their father said.
There are a few reasons not to get too worked up here. Even despite the amount of time Andrew Smart was spotted hanging around the two brothers on Saturday.
DawgNation was told weeks in advance that DJ would be in Athens for the Western Kentucky game. He will be traveling with the Jacobs family for his brother’s visit. That’s the same situation that will repeat itself over and over this fall with trips planned to schools like Miami and Oregon, among others.
As it stands right now, the Bulldogs are also not in the ballpark financially with the biggest NIL offers on the table for the No. 3 prospect in America.
When asked whether Dawson and DJ could return later this fall, their father had a clear answer.
“It isn’t about DJ there with that,” he said. “It would mostly be about Dawson. There’s not any really serious talk about DJ. I think they are just really kind of feeling him out.”
“They were targeting Dawson, but they also weren’t disrespecting DJ. They treated him with respect.”
It wasn’t Andrew Smart on a mission to flip DJ back home to his father’s team. David Jacobs had a good chuckle when asked about all the attention that got from Georgia fans online.
“He’s been friends with Andrew since DJ was in the seventh grade,” David Jacobs said. “That’s when DJ was in the seventh grade, and Andrew was like a little baby; he was so much younger than he is now.”
Jacobs also provided great clarity on DJ’s future recruiting visits for the season.
“The only visits that DJ has set up are to Ohio State,” his father said. “He went up for the first game. He’s going back to Ohio State for the Oregon game. He’s also going back to Ohio State for the Michigan game. The only visits he’s got set up are for those three games.”
“Everything else is a visit for Dawson.”
If anyone thinks that those schools will not also try to shoot their shot with the 5-star older brother, they’re being naive. Subtle or not. They will make sure DJ knows he’s wanted there, too.
We’ve learned by now to never say never when it comes to recruiting. It’s just that the likelihood of him winding up anywhere other than Ohio State at this time seems quite low.
