Losing recruitments are never fun. The pain felt after seeing a recruit commit to another school increases even more when that recruit is one of the best players in the country. But it arguably can't get any worse when that player chooses one of Georgia's rivals over the Bulldogs.
Unfortunately for Georgia football, that is exactly what happened Thursday night.
Florida lands one of the best linebackers in the 2026 class pic.twitter.com/yzjz0Ec5wI
— Adam Gorney (@adamgorney) March 7, 2025
4-Star LB chooses Florida over Georgia
Late Thursday night, four-star linebacker Izayia Williams announced his commitment to the Florida Gators. Williams is the No. 1 linebacker in the 2026 recruiting class according to On3, so it goes without saying how tough of a loss this is.
There was a time not that long ago when Georgia actually felt pretty good about where they stood with Williams. Last November Williams made the decision to decommit from Florida State, and Georgia immediately became one of the teams showing the most interest in him. Kirby Smart even went out of his way to visit Williams in person towards the end of January.
Not only was Georgia showing interest in Williams, but he seemed very interested in UGA as well because he ended up scheduling an official visit to Georgia for later this summer. However, none of that matters anymore as Williams has made his commitment to Florida official.
It's unclear at this time if his official visit this summer to Georgia will still take place or not. If it does then Georgia will still have a chance to flip Williams from the Gators. Williams is also on his fourth commitment in his recruitment as he was once committed to Louisville, Syracuse and the already mentioned Florida State Seminoles, so maybe he will change his mind again in the future.
But until that happens, this is a recruitment that will go down as a loss for Georgia to one of their biggest rivals.