One of Georgia’s biggest rivals is Auburn. Recently it hasn’t felt like much of a rivalry though because of how dominant Georgia has been.
There are a lot of reasons why Georgia has controlled their rivalry with Auburn under Kirby Smart, but recruiting is one of the biggest reasons. Former Tiger Cam Newton put it best when explained how Smart is able to use the elite high school talent in the Peach State to give Georgia an advantage over Auburn and the rest of the country.
GEORGIA VS EVERYBODY!!! Cam believes GA has the best athletes in the country! Name a better “All-State Team!” Full episode out now on YouTube! pic.twitter.com/qJfWLSIWM6
— 4th&1 with Cam Newton (@4thand1show) April 15, 2026
Cam Newton makes the case for why Georgia is much better than Auburn
There are a few states who have a lot of high school talent. Texas, California and Florida are three that really stand out, but Newton believes Georgia is the state with the most high school talent out of any state.
That is definitely up for debate, but let’s assume that it’s true.
Recruiting talent from across the country can be extremely difficult because some recruits want to play close to home. So even if Georgia is the far better program, some recruits will choose to stay out west just to be close to home.
So if Georgia has the most in-state talent that means they have to deal with this problem less often. They instead can focus a lot of their recruiting efforts on these players much closer to them, and typically that means they’ll have a higher hit rate of earning commitments.
Georgia however has had a little bit of a problem landing some in-state recruits. The No. 1 recruit from Georgia in the past few classes have all opted to go to an out of state school, but there is so much talent in the area that it really hasn’t mattered.
But Newton is right. Georgia has so much talent in their state, so if Smart can continue recruiting it at a high level then teams like Auburn might never beat them again.
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