Morning, y’all!

Did anyone watch the World Cup game last night? Such a bummer that the U.S. is now out of it, but for me, one of the coolest parts of hosting the tournament has been watching folks from around the world get to know the States and the American people.

Let’s talk a little American football, though. Particularly the state of Georgia recruiting.

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dive in:

What’s left for this Georgia football recruiting class?

Several names made their college decisions over the last week. Their college choices were streamed live by two national networks.

Not a single one of them put on the Georgia cap.

• 4-star LB Sean Fox, Kentucky over Clemson and UGA (June 25)
• 4-star S Jayden Aparicio-Bailey, Clemson over Georgia, (June 27)
• 5-star WR Eric McFarland III, Texas A&M over Georgia and Florida (June 28)
• 5-star DL Marcus Fakatou, Ohio State over UGA and Texas (June 29)
• 4-star ATH Tae Walden, Oregon over a host of schools, including UGA (July 1)
• 4-star S Davion Jones, South Carolina over Auburn, LSU, Indiana and UGA (Thursday)
• 4-star OL Nate Carson, South Carolina over UGA (Friday)

Seeing “over Georgia” on social media graphics has been overused this cycle. There have been numerous instances where we’ve seen edits of players that the Dawgs never really recruited.

Each of those prospects took an official visit to UGA. They were wanted by the program to various degrees and at certain price points. The Dawgs likely finished second in the chase for Aparicio-Bailey, Fakatou and McFarland III.

They led at some point over the last 45 days for Aparicio-Bailey and Cole. Georgia also had a very strong financial offer for Fakatou.

Ouch.

This will not be twilight’s last gleaming for a juggernaut roster. Georgia surgically spent and added elite talent where it will need elite players for its 2027 team. Its 2027 roster will still be chock-full of elite players.

This class includes the nation’s No. 1 RB recruit in 5-star Kemon Spell. He should be seen as one of the five biggest instant-impact recruits the Dawgs have signed in the Kirby Smart era.

Yeah, he’s that good.

The 2027 Dawgs are currently ranked 16th and 17th nationally by Rivals and the 247Sports team rankings, respectively. There doesn’t look like much of a chance this class reaches Top 10 status this year.

If that happens, it will be the lowest-rated class of the Smart era, too.

Running back Kemon Spell, a 5-star prospect committed to Georgia, was at Sanford Stadium for G-Day in April. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)

Running back Kemon Spell competes for the CashCow Elite team at the Prep RedZone Dig 7-on-7 tournament at Gainesville High in February. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)

Kemon Spell is the nation's No. 1 RB prospect in the 2027 class. He has made an early verbal commitment to play for the Georgia Bulldogs. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)

Georgia started out the month of June with five commits over a seven-day span. The Bulldogs then revved up the class with four more commits across another three-day span in the middle of the month. They’ve gone cold since. Georgia hasn’t added a commitment since 3-star North Carolina DL Antwan McKoy back on June 16.

The timelines have all moved up for the Class of 2027, with 189 of the nation’s Top 200 overall prospects having already committed.

What’s basically left, aside fromsix or seven storylines, is to place those ramparts around the current class. To make sure the current commits stick.

We haven’t reached MLB’s All-Star break yet, but there are really just those six decisions left to monitor this summer for this UGA class.

• 4-star Brayton Feister: Massillon, Ohio, No. 8 ATH/No. 138 overall per 247 Composite Rankings, decision date of Saturday
• 4-star Adryan Cole: Douglasville, No. 13 S/No. 168, July 18
• 4-star Karlos May: Birmingham, Alabama, No. 15 DL/No. 132, July 18
• 4-star Kadin Fife: Centre, Alabama, No. 40 DL/No. 360, TBD
• 4-star Miller Westerfield: Roswell, No. 40 OT/No. 391, TBD
• 3-star Seth Williams: Atlanta, No. 39 S/No. 450, TBD

Advertisement

The Dawgs won’t win all of those.

May would be the missing true instant-impact DL for this class. Ohio State looms as the team to beat there.

Feister has been going back and forth between UGA and Oregon over the last month. Both schools told him after his official visits that they won’t take another commitment at LB until he makes his decision known. He’s “the guy” for both right now.

Cole seems to be the most likely Dawg in that group. He grew up thinking of playing for Georgia as a true dream school. He’s down to LSU, Ole Miss and UGA.

Cole and Williams seem more like they are needed and wanted above and beyond their talent level for one main reason: Georgia doesn’t have a single DB commit in this class. Not yet.

Fife, who recently decommitted from Tennessee, has been the subject of a lot of UGA buzz since he gave the Dawgs a vital official visit last month.

Westerfield grew up bleeding red and black and is basically down to LSU and UGA. He’s got a lot to think about over the next week. Sources indicate he should have his mind made up within the next 7-10 days.

Trivia Question

Golden Spikes Award winner Daniel Jackson hit .379 to win the SEC batting title this past season. Georgia joins which SEC schools as the only ones to provide the SEC batting title winner three years in a row? Bonus: What two players won it for Georgia before Jackson?

And now let’s wrap up our recruiting story for the day:

The Dawgs will also continue to recruit in-state 3-star CB Preston Glasco (UConn commit) and 3-star ATH Jacobi Pasley (West Virginia commit) as other names come off the board for this class, too. Both took official visits. Strong early senior year tape will also elevate their stock.

There’s also one other name to monitor. That’s 4-star Langston Hughes OT prospect Kelsey Adams. He’s been committed to UGA since September. While he did take official visits to Georgia Tech, LSU and North Carolina, it now seems more likely that he will remain in the UGA class rather than depart.

We also expect the Dawgs to find one or two senior-year specials with strong on-field evals from the 2026 high school season. Georgia has made a habit of finding a handful of 11th-hour offers and signees over the last few recruiting cycles.

Advertisement

Georgia Football Podcast: Smart could be set to face his toughest challenge at UGA

If you missed DawgNation Daily yesterday, Brandon Adams gave his take on how the skyrocketing cost of NIL spending is impacting Georgia’s recruiting efforts and offers thoughts on what Smart might be able to do about that.

Trivia answer

Tennessee (1974-76) and Auburn (1988-90). Bonus: Charlie Condon, .433 in 2024 and Ryland Zaborowski, .370 in 2025