Kirby Smart flips the narrative, dominating in-state recruiting
One of the most underated, yet important, aspects of college football recruiting is prioritizing in-state recruits. The last thing any program wants is an outside school coming into their backyard and stealing the best recruits from their state.
This is especially true for Georgia because year in and year out the state of Georgia has just as much talent as any other state in the country.
However, one of the biggest gripes that Georgia football fans have with Kirby Smart is that he does not priortize and successfully win these in-state recruiting battles. And the data actually backs this up.
Here is a breakdown of the previous three recruiting cycles and how many top 10 in-state recruits Smart was able to sign with Georgia.
Year | Number of Top 10 in-state recruits |
|---|---|
2022 | 4 |
2023 | 3 |
2024 | 2 |
Four commits in 2022 is a very solid number, but only bringing in three and two from the last two years in unacceptable. However, this trend of Smart not prioritizing these top recruits from Geoergia appears to be changing.
2025 in-state recruiting
So far this recruiting cycle, Smart has earned commitments from four of the top 10 recruits from Georgia. This includes No. 1 Elijah Griffin, No. 3 Isaiah Gibson, No. 4 Zayden Walker and No. 6 Elyiss Williams. As mentioned, four of the top 10 recruits is an impressive haul. However, it appears that Smart and Georgia are not done just yet.
As it stands today, Georgia are overwhelming favorites to land two more top 10 recruits from Georgia. This includes No. 2 Justus Terry and No. 7 Chase Linton.
So if the four current commits all sign with Georgia and Smart is able to earn commitments from these two in the future, Georgia will end this recruiting class with six of the top secen recruits in the state. Now that is what prioritizing in-state recruiting looks like.
There are still two months remaining until the early singing period begins, so anything is still possible. But if these results hold, this will go down as one of the best in-state recruiting performances in Georgia football recruiting history.
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