Coaches Corner: How Georgia has become a destination for top quarterbacks

With Stetson Bennett off to the NFL, Georgia will be replacing him with one of the many quarterbacks Kirby Smart recruited. And while the Bulldogs have plenty of good quarterbacks with potential, they have a heralded signal caller lined up as a recruit.

No. 1 overall 2024 prospect Dylan Raiola, who had previously been committed to Ohio State, announced his commitment to Georgia earlier this month. On3’s Jesse Simonton and Josh Newberg dove into why Georgia is an attractive spot now for QBs, find the answer is that it never stopped — but there were some big recruiting misses.

“Well in the past, again, I think when you’re talking about the [Justin] Fields and the [Brock] Vandagriffs, some of those were the fact that these were in-state guys. Mark Richt and that previous staff made the mistake, famously, of not recruiting Trevor Lawrence the way they should have, by prioritizing some other quarterbacks in that class. And that ended up being a huge mistake, obviously. Kirby was able to rectify it, somewhat, because he landed Justin Fields in that same cycle. But Justin Fields was an Atlanta kid. This was a local guy,” Simonton said.

Fields transferred to Ohio State where he went on to star before being drafted No. 11 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. The same draft Lawrence went No. 1 overall.

Now, though, Georgia is doing more than locking down strong local talent. Smart and Co. went to Arizona and plucked Raiola — a Nebraska legacy — out from under nearby USC and head coach Lincoln Riley.

Beating out Riley, who has a penchant for producing Heisman-winning quarterbacks, is a strong sign to Simonton that Georgia has set itself up as a standard for elite players who want to come compete at the very highest level, no matter where they’re from.

“Georgia was the first program to offer Dylan Raiola. I think that’s important. Obviously they have the connections with Matthew Stafford. But this is a huge recruiting win. And what it also shows is the confidence that this Georgia is going to continue to modernize, continue to be one of the best in the country,” Simonton said.

He continued, lauding the offensive modernization taking place in Athens.

“Last year Georgia was Top 10 in explosiveness, passing efficiency, touchdowns. This is an offense that Todd Monken to Mike Bobo, there’s optimism there that it will only continue,” Simonton said. “Especially when you’re surrounded by the five-star wide receivers and running backs that I think Dylan Raiola is going to recruit to Athens with him as the Pied Piper of that ’24 class.”