Elite WR unexpectedly turned his back on Kirby Smart, Georgia

Elias Pearl is one of the top wide receivers in the country. Georgia and Kirby Smart discovered him very early in his recruitment, and they made sure to let him know how much of a priority he was to them.

Pearl however has kept a lot of his cards close to his chest, but Georgia has started feeling confident that they were in a good position in his recruitment. Unfortunately Rivals quickly ended the good momentum Smart thought Georgia was earning.

Elias Pearl predicted to commit to Georgia's biggest rival

Georgia isn't going to win every recruitment. Everyone knows that by now, but some are more important to win than others.

Five-star recruitments are always the most important, but any recruitment where Georgia battles one of their rivals is extremely critical to win. The last thing anyone wants is for Georgia to lose a recruit to a rival, but that is unfortunately where Pearl's recruitment is headed as Rivals just predicted him to commit to Florida.

Georgia just hosted Pearl on a visit at the end of January, and by all acounts that visit went extremely well. He even took what was one of the most legendary photos with Smart that anyone has seen in quite some time. But that apparently didn't swing this recruitment in Georgia's favor as Florida is the clear team to beat.

Pearl is from Florida, so his recruitment was always going to be an uphill battle. Georgia however has won plenty of recruitments with players from the Sunshine State before, so there was still hope they could do it again. But as of now it doesn’t look like that will happen with Pearl.

There is still plenty of time for things to change, but as of now one of Georgia’s top targets is on the verge of becoming a Gator.