Georgia battling in-state rival for high-rising recruit

Georgia football and Georgia Tech have had some legendary matchups on the field over the years. Arguably the greatest matchup between these two teams was this past season when Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs stormed back late in the game to force overtime and win after a wild eight overtime game.

This game alone is creating a lot of hype surrounding this in-state rivalry as Georgia Tech is a program on the rise and more than ready to knock off the Bulldogs next season. But while we wait for their next meeting on the field next season, these two teams will once again battle it out on the recruiting trail for many of top recruits from Georgia.

There is however an unranked recruit from Georgia who is garnering a lot of attention from a lot of the southern schools, including UGA and the Yellow Jackets.

2026 Safety Kealan Jones

Kealan Jones is a safety from Marietta, GA in the 2026 recruiting class. Georgia fans typically are used to seeing Smart and his staff go after the highest ranked players in the country, but that is not the case with Jones. In fact, Jones has zero stars and is not even ranked on 247Sports. That however is likely to change in a hurry.

Jones received his first offer from Arizona State on Jan. 8, and ever since then the offers have come flying in. This includes Georgia who offered Jones on Jan. 22, but teams like Georgia Tech, Michigan, Ole Miss, Florida, Missouri and Arkansas have also offered him as well. So his offer sheet clearly shows that he does not deserve to be an unranked recruit.

It's likely just a matter of time until 247Sports ranks Jones, but at the end of the day his ranking doesn't really matter. According to the above post from On3's Chad Simmons, Georgia and Georgia Tech are the two teams that have impressed Jones the most so far, so if Smart and his staff want Jones in UGA's class then that should be good enough to make Georgia fans very excited about him.