This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 4-star DL prospect Earnest Rankins. He ranks as the nation’s No. 13 DL and the No. 121 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 10 DL and at No. 108 overall.
We’ve written in a few places on DawgNation.com about how this won’t be a bumper year in the Peach State for blue-chips in the Class of 2026.
Talent is quite scarce in the trenches. There are only four Georgia OL/DL prospects in this cycle that rank among the nation’s top 200 recruits this year.
A converted TE is one of those. Brunswick’s Heze Kent is the lone OL in that group. There are three DL prospects, but there’s only one of those that weight more than 270 pounds.
That’s Southwest Dekalb DL Earnest Rankins.
That felt like a Rickey Henderson way to lead off a story, but meeting him showed there was a lot more to him than strong recruiting rankings.
Rankins, if we’re being honest, fits the archetype of the players who have screamed Georgia Bulldog over the years. The kind that Kirby Smart and Travion Scott have built their championship defensive lines with. It has not just been about the talent but a fit within the program.
It starts with the work ethic handed down by his father, Earnest Rankins Sr. He owns his own automotive shop.
“My motivation?” Rankins started off as he answered that question. “My Dad. He gets up every day. Every day. No matter what. He’d be hurting or aching. He’s going to get up and work on a car. Get up and work so I can have what I need.”
“He probably works from 8:30 to six or seven at night. Six days a week. The only day he is off is Sunday.”
Rankins used to weigh well over 300 pounds, but wanted to cut weight to move better. He went to a UGA camp his freshman year weighing over 300 pounds.
When Rankins said he wanted to major in criminal justice and pursue a career in crime scene investigations after football, that said a lot about the type of life he wants to build away from the game.
When Scott and Smart visited Rankins in January, they said they “needed” him in this class. Scott calls him “Big Rank.”
Nobody else really calls him that. Just Scott.
Rankins said that Georgia would not only get an official visit (June 13-15) this summer, but the program would likely get both a spring practice visit. He was also already strongly considering a G-Day visit, too.
Why do the Bulldogs have his attention? There is a connection with rising senior DL Christen Miller. Miller, who played at Cedar Grove, knew Rankins coming up.
“Yes, sir,” Rankins said. “That’s my guy.”
The 6-foot-5, 280-pound Rankins transferred to SW Dekalb from Cedar Grove prior to his junior year last fall. He plays football for a simple reason.
“I love the game,” he said. “Ever since I was young, I had a football in my hand.”
“I love contact. I want all the contact I can take.”
He learned a lot growing up in his father’s machine shop. He can build an engine.
“A hobby of mine is I used to build cars,” he said. “I’ve been working on cars since I was eight.”
Brakes? Radiator? Alternation? Oil line? Alternator replacement? AC work?
“No problem,” he said.
The one thing he can’t do with cars is work on electric vehicles.
“I’d say I am a 4-star mechanic,” he said. “My dad is a 5-star.”
Marion Bell, the head coach at Southwest Dekalb, made it clear that Rankins is one very focused dude.
“What stands out is his hunger to learn,” Bell said. “He wants to get better, and most kids don’t want to get better. They think they are already there. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to get better. The classroom. Weight room. Field. Whatever it is, he’s willing to do it.”
There’s a story he tells every college coach.
“We have a time frame that we have to leave for school to be in the building to get ready for practice,” Bell said. “He’s never been late. Not one time. I tell every coach that, and to me, that’s more important to me than what he can do on the football field. To me, long term, that means he’s going to be alright.”
“That’s a kid who understands life. There are 20 kids in this gym with us right now. If you asked them what their ‘why’ was, they wouldn’t know what you been by that. They don’t think like that. He sees what is going on with his father, and he knows that one day, he can help him. He wants to help him.”
There’s another example of when he goes on visits. He takes his teammates and friends with him.
“Most guys don’t do that,” Bell said. “He wants his friends to see what he sees. To experience what he experiences so they can draw their own motivation off of it. I think that’s big. Most people don’t get to go to Georgia games, and he wants his friends to experience all of that.”
What does Georgia see in Earnest Rankins?
Check out some of his junior film below.
Most schools see Rankins as a “3″ tech and a “4″ tech. He can bump out to a “5″ technique.
“All the coaches I talk to they say that I am versatile,” Rankins said. “They like that I can move well at my size.”
(Quick 10-second memory jog: What’s the No. 1 thing that Georgia’s Tray Scott said he liked to see in a DL prospect for the Dawgs? Yep, you guessed it. V-E-R-S-A-T-I-L-I-T-Y)
“All the coaches talk about how he can move so well,” Bell III said. “He’s a little guy in a big guy’s body.”
He’s a better run defender on the film right now. Even though he’s not really lived in the weight room yet. He’d barely lifted weights prior to his junior year.
“When I first got here, we couldn’t stop the run,” Bell III said. “When he transferred in, we could stop the run.”
Rankins looks like a future “3″ tech in the SEC.
“If you meet me in the hole, you’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Rankins went to check out UGA for a “Junior Day” back in January. The Dawgs were his first scheduled OV because that was the last visit he went on.
“When I got the Georgia offer, it brought a smile to my face,” he said. “I’m from Georgia, so I grew up watching Georgia football.”
He did pull for the red and black.
“I cheered for them,” he said. “They were one of my favorite teams growing up.”
LSU and Tennessee were the other two schools he liked.
Scott offered him a scholarship in the coach’s office at SW Dekalb.
“Coach Tray was like ‘Big Rank’ and he calls me ‘Big Rank’ and he said ‘Big Rank I need you’ and he’s kept talking to me. I’ve built a relationship with them over the years.”
Scott has made an impression.
“The relationship is good,” he said. “He’s a very down-to-earth guy. Great coach.”
Georgia is making him feel like a priority. How does he feel about the Dawgs? Do they have a shot?
“Yes, sir,” he said. “I just like the camaraderie up there. I like the togetherness and I like the program. The program it runs smooth. You’ve got to be a Dawg for sure. You can’t come in and not be ready to compete. You have to compete. There’s competition everywhere you look. That’s one thing I like.”
Freshman RB Bo Walker, another former Cedar Grove teammate, is also at UGA. But Miller has already told him the deal.
“He was like ‘Get your head down and work’ about it there,” Rankins said. “That’s what he told me.
The other schools in the mix for Earnest Rankins
There is a group of schools that have his attention.
“Auburn, UGA, Alabama and Texas,” he said. “Those four right now.”
There’s one other school that is pretty much on his bumper right now. That’s Mississippi State.
He said he’s visited Alabama and Georgia the most.
Why is Alabama in the picture?
“That’s my Pop’s hometown,” Rankins said. “He’s from Birmingham. He’s from Florida and Alabama. Back and forth. Every time I go down there, it is like I’m at home from when I walk in. I’m at home.”
Does Georgia feel that way?
“Georgia is always going to feel like home because it is down the street,” Rankins said. “But just going to a different state and seeing how it is. It could be the same from where I am. But different people. Different experiences.”
How does he feel about Auburn?
“Auburn, I liked Auburn,” he said. “Their coaching staff is, how can I put this, very down to earth. I don’t think I’ve ever met a coaching staff like their coaching staff. They have a young coaching staff. Their coaches are very relatable. I can talk to them easily. Coach Vontrell (King-Williams), the D-line coach. He’s a great guy. I’m looking forward to building a strong relationship with him.”
He said Texas has “stuck” with him since the day they offered him on January 28 of this year.
“When they came, I think they brought four coaches when they came to see me,” Rankins said.
Georgia also brought a big group.
“Kirby came,” he said. “Of course. Coach Scott and I think it was one more coach. .. That wasn’t even my first time meeting Kirby. I met his once at Cedar Grove and he was like ‘we are going to be watching you’ and they’ve been watching me. He’s seen a transition from me back then and now. Now, he’s like ‘we love you and what you are doing’ and he came in here. Soon as he walked in, he was smiling. As soon as he walked in.”
Auburn’s Hugh Freeze and Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer also paid him a visit in January.
What is he looking for in the perfect school?
“To feel like a family,” he said. “Good coaching staff that’s together. A team that is together and I’ll say a community. The community has to be into it as well.”
Look for “Big Rank” to make his college decision sometime this summer, prior to his senior season. He does plan to enroll early in January of 2026.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
