Georgia football recruiting: Final grades for 2023 class

There has been a lot of buzz about Georgia football recruiting since winning the second consecutive national championship, and the 2023 class shaped up nicely. 

If you’re a Georgia football fan, you know how important recruiting is to head coach Kirby Smart. He knows not only from his days as a player but from his time as a coordinator under Nick Saban that recruiting is the key to sustaining success in college football.

While the world of college sports recruiting has changed with NIL and the transfer portal, one constant remains — win a lot of games, and players will want to come to your school.

This has been true at Georgia since Kirby Smart took over the program in 2016, where the Bulldogs have compiled an 81-15 overall record, going 48-9 in SEC play.

The recruiting wins have been there too for Smart. Here is where Georgia has ended each recruiting cycle ranked according to 247 Sports rankings.

2016: No. 6
2017: No. 3
2018: No. 1
2019: No. 2
2020: No. 1
2021: No. 4
2022: No. 3

And that brings us to the 2023 class which essentially wrapped up on the Feb. 1 National Signing Day. While the Dawgs didn’t add to that class, they didn’t lose any commits either. 247 ranked Georgia with the No. 2 class, behind Alabama, giving Kirby Smart seven consecutive Top 5 recruiting classes.

Not to be ignored, Georgia currently has the No. 1 overall class for 2024.

Grading the Georgia football recruiting class of 2023

Beyond ranking with a national recruiting network, how does the Georgia 2023 class grade out from an inside perspective?

Number of overall commits: 26, this is a nice number as it shows a well-filled-out class with still a couple of possible spots available for any late-comers.

Grade: A

Number of five-star commits: 5 (Alabama was first, with nine five-stars). Not that having five of the top commits in the country is bad, but it would have been nice to see a few of them swiped from the Crimson Tide.

Grade: A-

Number of unsigned commits: The only unsigned commit as of this writing is three-star offensive tackle Jamal Meriweather. There has been no news yet as to why Meriweather has not signed his NLI. Kirby Smart and Geogia strive for perfection, so not a perfect grade on this.

Grade: B

Recruits signed by positions of need: The Bulldogs got five recruits who play defensive line, and five recruits who play offensive line. That’s 10 of 26 recruits fortifying the lines. In the past this had been an area of recruiting weakness for Georgia, but Kirby Smart has turned that ship around. The rest of the class rounds out with five defensive backs, three linebackers, seven offensive skill position players, and one kicker. They also didn’t add anyone to the already crowded QB room.

Grade: A+

Number of transfer commits: A total of three players have committed to Georgia out of the transfer portal, all three filling big needs at the defensive back and wide receiver position. However, one of those commits, WR RaRa Thomas, was arrested recently on charges of false imprisonment and assault.

Grade: B

There’s a good chance you’ll see more than one of these young recruits on the field for the Bulldogs once the 2023 season gets underway, as competition will be high for some of the spots being vacated by outgoing seniors and NFL Draft entrants.