Georgia earned a commitment from transfer running back Josh McCray during the 2025 offseason. After dominating at Illinois, McCray wanted to move on to a school who presented more of a challenge for him, and that ultimately led him to Georgia.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema however has always felt like something fishy happened during his recruitment, and on Monday he didn't hold anything back as he accused Kirby Smart of tampering to earn his commitment.
Wish they had succeeded… because they came and got ours #famILLy https://t.co/CoCw6aJ25h
— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) April 28, 2026
Bret Bielema accuses Kirby Smart of tampering with Josh McCray
Bielema reacted to a post from the father of Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love Monday night where he claimed that Smart and Georgia tampered with McCray to earn his recruitment. There is only one problem, Love's father never said that Georgia ever tampered with his son.
If he took the time to watch the 90 second video he would see that the caption of the video is inaccurate. Love's father never even mentioned Georgia by name and he is talking about his son's high school recruitment. It is impossible to tamper with someone when they are still in high school, so even if Georgia did offer him an NIL deal back then they didn't do anything illegal.
But Bielema still decided to call out Smart and Georgia for tampering, which funnily enough isn't the first time he's done so. Last summer he also claimed that Georgia tampered with McCray, but he is yet to make a formal accusation.
Iowa football just had to vacate four wins from the 2023 season because they were found guilty of tampering for transfer quarterback Cade McNamara. So if Bielema believes Georgia tampered then he should take it up with the NCAA who is willing to take action against schools that tampered.
He more than likely will not take it up with the NCAA though because this is just a baseless claim. Sometimes players just want to play for the best schools in the country, so if Bielema wants to hold onto players like McCray in the future then he should try to build a stronger program.
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