Georgia football's 2026 recruiting class is not where anyone wants it to be at right now. Currently Kirby Smart has this class sitting at No. 13 in the country, but with only five commits that isn't so bad all things considered.
But it goes without saying that UGA needs to add plenty more players before the end of the cycle gets here, and Smart and his staff thankfully are honing in on some of the best players in the country.
Georgia insider Brooks Austin with Georgia Bulldogs on SI recently shared his "must have" prospects in the 2026 class, and it goes without saying how special this class would be if Georgia finds a way to land them all.
1. QB Jared Curtis - No. 2 overall, No. 1 QB
2. LB Tyler Atkinson - No. 10 overall, No. 1 LB
3. ATH Derrek Cooper - No. 24 overall, No. 3 ATH
4. TE Mark Bowman - No. 20 overall, No. 2 TE
5. TE Kaiden Prothro - No. 22 overall, No. 3 TE
Can Georgia land all five recruits?
It is rather interesting that Austin listed these five recruits as "must have" players because it is extremely unlikely that Georgia lands all five. Also, if UGA does miss on any of these players then that would not be the end of the world either.
However, it would be upsetting if Georgia missed on all five of these recruits, thankfully that is also very unlikely to happen. As it stands today, UGA is in a good spot with all five of these recruits. Some, like Curtis, might be trending towards other schools, but the Bulldogs are still in the running for them all. Then there are players like Atkinson who is the top ranked linebacker in the country who feels like he is heaviliy leaning towards Georgia right now.
So while these five players might not be recruits Georgia absolutely needs, they all clearly would be huge additions. It might be unrealistic to expect UGA to land all five players, but three out of five would be very good. And there is probably a good chance of that occurring.