Just like with every other recruiting cycle, Georgia football and Kirby Smart are targeting some of the highest ranked players in the 2026 recruiting class. That means Georgia will be battling with some of the top programs in the country for these players, but that isn't anything new for UGA.
However, there is a newer program who has burst onto the recruiting scene in recent years who so far has been getting in Georgia's way with these top recruits.
Oregon is getting on Georgia's nerves
Georgia is aggressively targeting the No. 2 and No. 3 overall player in the country this cycle. Those players are quarterback Jared Curtis and offensive tackle Immanuel Iheanacho.
These are two players that Smart and his staff really want in their recruiting class, and so far their recruitment of both players are going pretty well. Georgia is one of three schools that Curtis will be visiting this summer, and the Bulldogs also found out that they are one of Iheanacho's top three schools right now as well.
While this obviously is great news for Georgia, there is one school who is reportedly at the top of both player's lists right now, and that is the Oregon Ducks.
Where is this momentum for Oregon coming from?
Oregon has been one of the better programs in the country for quite some time now, but they have yet to reach the top of the college football world by winning a National Chanpionship. This past season was their best chance at accomplishing that as they won the Big Ten and were the only 13-0 team heading into the College Football Playoff, but the eventual National Champion Ohio State buckeyes knocked them out of the CFP in the quarterfinals.
This however is not hurting Oregon's recruiting momentum as they continue to be named as the team to beat in many of the recruitments Georgia is involved in. This likely has a lot to do with the fact that the Ducks boast what is arguably the best NIL program in the country. That is something that is hard to compete with, even for Georgia who finds a lot of success on the field and has a lot of NIL money themselves.
Both of these recruitments will be an uphill battle for Georgia, but they will have their chance to pass Oregon as both players will visit Georgia in the summer. But as things stand right now, these recruitments are not going Georgia's way which is extremely frustrating.