This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting shares a quick look at the recruiting scene on Saturday night inside Sanford Stadium.
Georgia’s 33-game home win streak ended on Saturday. Its home game win streak for scoring on the recruiting trail didn’t suffer the same fate.
That’s now up to 54 games.
That’s one for every home game in Athens since Kirby Smart has been the head coach. Except for the 2020 COVID season. That’s when recruits were not hosted by the staff on campus for game visits due to safety protocols.
It was a big day, highlighted by two “booms” on the recruiting trail. When the UGA recruiting staff announced on Tuesday that the West End Zone bleachers were sold out, it was a sign of what was to come.
It used to be (as little as two years ago) that big-time senior recruits would come to the game, feel the excitement, meet with the coaches, and commit on a big gameday.
Seniors don’t do that anymore. They are largely all done.
The 2026 recruits, with only a couple of exceptions on Saturday, were there to get cozy by spending another Saturday night in their new home stadium. For the first time this season, the Dawgs had their 12 highest-rated commitments in town for the same gameday visit.
There were at least 25 of the program’s 31 senior commitments at the game on Saturday. For those guys, it was an occasion to meet their new teammates and be dazzled by the light show.
It became a day for juniors to drop big recruiting news. Gameday news. That’s a trend we are expecting to continue moving forward.
Kyson “Big Kuntry” Mallard was the first gameday visitor to pull the trigger. The 6-foot-5, 317-pound junior from Westover High in Albany became the third commitment of the 2027 class.
“I committed because it was time to stop playing and come home,” Mallard told DawgNation on Saturday night. “They know what it is and how I love them.”
Mallard ranks as the nation’s No. 27 IOL and the No. 388 overall prospect for 2027 for the Rivals Industry Ranking. He’s the No. 24 IOL and the No. 402 overall prospect for the 247Sports Composite.
The 3-star is currently not playing. He’s sidelined with what DawgNation was told was an ACL injury. Mallard used a crutch to get around Dooley Field on his commitment day. The Dawgs have never wavered in their pursuit of his talents despite that injury.
He told DawgNation that he committed to play tackle for the Dawgs. When he made that move, Mallard became the first offensive line commitment for the 2027 class.
He wasn’t alone in that regard for long.
It was less than an hour later that 4-star OT Kelsey Adams of Langston Hughes joined him. Adams even showed some of the recruits on hand his commitment edit at the game when they didn’t believe his news.
That was right around the time the Bulldogs announced two Langston Hughes alums as starters against Alabama that night. Transfer DL Joshua Horton also played for the Panthers during his high school days.
Adams gave his school another Dawg to brag about.
The 6-foot-5, 285-pound junior is rated as the No. 9 OT and No. 65 overall prospect for 2027 for the Rivals Industry Ranking. The 247Sports Composite has an even higher opinion of him. That service lists him as the nation’s No. 7 OT and No. 60 overall recruit.
He immediately became the highest-rated of Georgia’s four 2027 commitments.
Adamis is not as polished as Glover was at the same stage of their careers, but he’s a little ahead of where Hughley was in their junior seasons of high school. Given how well both Glover and Hughley are playing right now for the Dawgs, that’s a very good sign for the future with Adams.
It was a big pull. An easy case can be made that Adams was one of the top three tackles on the board for UGA in the 2027 cycle. He’s right up there with South Florida 5-star Mark Matthews and Douglas County 4-star Joshua Sam-Epelle.
Adams will see a rankings boost after his junior season. He’ll be an excellent anchor tackle for the 2027 class in Athens.
DawgNaton is still gathering all the intel from the sold-out section of recruiting visitors, but we’ll start with a load of what we saw on Saturday night and what we’ve learned from dozens of interviews since.
Georgia football recruiting: What was the scene for the Bama game?
Commits also took the stage first before the game on Dooley Field. There was a smattering of committed UGA recruits on the field well in advance of the main bulk of the recruiting guests on Sunday.
When the rest of the recruiting visitors were allowed to come down to Dooley Field, the sidelines really got thick. The home sideline was as thick with recruits on hand as this reporter can recall, flush with recruits watching the Dawgs warm up prior to the Alabama game.
There was a lot to take in. Some of the highlights included:
- Georgia couldn’t keep Alabama from snapping its NCAA-best 33-game home win streak, but it looks to have hunkered down in one current recruiting battle with Alabama. Corey Howard, a 3-star DL from Valdosta, committed to UGA back in June. That hasn’t prevented the Crimson Tide from coming after him. Bama hosted him for an unofficial visit earlier this month. They also plan to see him on an official visit for the Tennessee game in October.
- What did Howard say afterward? “The game was crazy,” he told DawgNation on Sunday. I loved everything about the game. To the people and how they played."
- Howard was asked if UGA showed him enough to keep his commitment solid. Did Athens still feel like home, the way it had throughout his recruitment? “Yes, 100 percent,” was his reply.
- We had to place that note pretty close to the top here. So folks would believe that Georgia got off to a fast start playing some type of defense against Alabama on Saturday.
- 2026 Georgia EDGE commit Khamari Brooks was hanging around pretty close to 5-star 2027 EDGE target DJ Jacobs of Blessed Trinity High School. It was either a case of Brooks sticking close to him or Jacobs staying on the 50-yard line on the home sideline among a thick group of UGA commits. Whatever the case, the more Georgia has Jacobs around Brooks, the better their chances will be to sign the 5-star UGA legacy. Brooks already bleeds all things red and black.
- Future UGA tight ends Brayden Fogle and Kaiden Prothro were hanging pretty close to one another. Those two are having excellent senior seasons and will continue the standard of Athens being the home of the best TE room in the country. Fogle wore a Kirby Smart T-shirt that had the two-time national championship coach sporting a highly demonstrative facial expression. Smart is probably the only coach in America who makes a face like that on gamedays.
- 5-star QB commit Jared Curtis was chopping it up and getting a hug from country music star Luke Bryan during pregame right around the 20-yard line on the home side.
- The first few rows of the West End Zone bleachers were packed with commitments. Sometimes the Dawgs place a priority target like Jacobs in the first two rows when they host a marquee opponent. That wasn’t the case on Saturday as the front rows were flush with committed recruits and their families. Seating was at a premium. Jacobs and his 4-star sophomore brother found their spots in the sixth row. Their father, David, was a terrific DL for Mark Richt a generation ago, but he saw a promising future NFL career cut short due to a stroke he suffered in 2001. He was sitting with his boys on Saturday. It is always a full-circle moment to see David sitting with his two sons in Sanford Stadium now that they are recruits. DJ and Dawson Jacobs already have offers from UGA and some of the biggest programs in America.
- Fogle, making his first game visit of the year, made the front row on one side of the UGA locker room tunnel with his guests. Brooks and 4-star Houston County safety commitment Jordan Smith were the big names on the second row. 5-star OT Ekene Ogboko was hard to miss on the third row. The 6-foot-6 athlete was flanked in all directions by members of his family. Georgia legacy DL Carter Luckie was at the end of the third row. The fourth row started with another UGA legacy, Anthony Lonon Jr., and his father in the house. 4-star DL commit Valdin Sone and 3-star IOL pledge Zach Lewis were also squeezed into that same row.
- 4-star RB Jae Lamar and 4-star CB commit Justice Fitzpatrick were behind that group. Those two are both significantly better players than their current recruiting rankings suggest. Fitzpatrick, the younger brother of NFL veteran Minkah Fitzpatrick, committed to UGA in June, but that hasn’t stopped Miami from working hard for the flip. It was good for Georgia to get him back inside Sanford Stadium on Saturday. Fitzpatrick had already been to a Miami game this season.
- Curtis and his guests took up most of the front row of the other side of the tunnel, save for two seats. Those two priority seatbacks went to 4-star WR commit Ryan Mosley and his 3-star IOL commit Zykie Helton. Those two high school teammates already plan to be roommates when they report to the team in late December and enroll in January.
- Cartersville WR commit Brady Marchese was in the second row. He’s having a sensational senior season. 3-star Buford IOL commit Graham Houston and his family were sitting down the row from him. Maryland 4-star LB commitment Nick Abrams II and his father were sitting just above Marchese in the third row on that same side.
- Prothro, the 5-star TE commit, was posted up on the rail closest to the tunnel. He also had his family and guests with him in that section. Georgia legacy defensive end PJ Dean was stationed two rows up from Prothro on that same side.
- There were also numerous moments when recruits took pictures with the UGA celebrities on hand. 5-star sophomore QB Jayden Wade took a picture with all-time Georgia WR great A.J. Green before the game. There were also several photo moments with former UGA basketball player and 3-time All-NBA pick Anthony Edwards, Jr., including him grabbing a pic with 4-star senior safety commit Tyriq Green and Sam-Epelle, among others. That sort of star power following the Dawgs had to impress the recruits on hand.
- When Wade walked to his seat prior to the game, he passed Curtis in the front row. That was something. If there was ever a moment that said no school in the country was hosting more elite recruits than Georgia on Saturday, that was it. Curtis is the top-ranked senior QB in America for all the national services. Wade holds that same distinction for all the 2028 prospects. He’s also the No. 1 sophomore recruit in America right now. Wade was fresh off a Friday night 5-TD performance against a previously unbeaten Central-Phenix City (Ala.) team. The IMG Academy playmaker was 11 of 11 for 350 yards and reached the end zone with his arm and his legs. We’ll have more on him to come soon.
Have you seen this week’s “Before the Hedges” weekly recruiting special on YouTube yet? Check it out below.
SENTELL’S INTEL
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