Georgia falls short for nation's No. 1 OL they desperately needed

One position Georgia football has been somewhat struggling with in the 2026 recruiting class is the offensive line. That is what made the recruitment for five-star offensive lineman Darius Gray so important for Kirby Smart and his staff.

Gray announced his final five schools on Sunday, and Georgia unfortunately did not make the cut.

Georgia falls short in recruitment for 5-star OL Darius Gray

According to Rivals' Steve Wiltfong, Clemson, LSU, Ohio State, South Carolina and Tennessee were the five schools to make the final cut for Gray.

According to 247Sports, Gray is the top ranked interior offensive lineman in the country and the No. 16 overall player. This alone shows that any school would be lucky to have him in their recruiting class, but that is especially the case for Georgia who hasn't found a ton of success recruiting offensive linemen in the 2026 class.

The Bulldogs so far have four offensive linemen committed to their 2026 recruiting class. The headliner of that group is offensive tackle Ekene Ogboko, who is Georgia's second highest ranked commit according to 247Sports. UGA's three other offensive linemen are all three-star recruits which doesn't mean they are bad, but that's not really the standard Georgia has on the recruiting trail.

The Bulldogs did host Gray on an official visit on May 16, so that makes being excluded from Gray's final group even more difficult to overcome.

Georgia does have a prediction in their favor from 247Sports for top 300 offensive lineman Breck Kolojay. Kolojay has not scheduled a commitment date yet, but his recruitment now becomes even more important after missing on Gray.

The good news for Georgia is that Smart is still their head coach, and as long as that is the case UGA fans should never worry too much about the state of the program at any position.