Georgia trending to flip 5-star EDGE Isaiah Gibson from USC after weekend visit to Athens
Warner Robins (Ga.) five-star EDGE Isaiah Gibson shocked the recruiting world when he committed to USC in March on his first visit to Los Angeles.
The Trojans had been a contender in his recruitment — especially since hiring former L.A. Rams defensive line coach Eric Henderson — but the early pledge was unexpected by nearly everyone. Since then, schools have been unrelenting in their efforts to flip him, and one school in particular has only kept turning up the heat: Georgia.
Gibson was in Athens over the weekend for his official visit, and coming out of that trip, On3 VP of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong has logged an expert pick for the Bulldogs to flip Gibson.
“I think Georgia has got a really good chance to flip both of these guys back,” Wiltfong said last week during the Wiltfong Whiparound recruiting show. “Isaiah Gibson, he’s got Tennessee in the mix. Justus Terry is talking to a few other programs as well. I just think when they committed to USC, that only turned things up for Kirby Smart and Georgia. They’ll get them back this weekend [for official visits]. They were in instant communication with those guys, even from the moment they committed to USC. I don’t think anything has changed from the amount of dialogue they’ve had with Georgia, and now they’re back this weekend.”
Georgia flipping top defensive linemen away from USC isn’t exactly new either. The Bulldogs did it twice in the 2022 cycle, and Wiltfong believes a repeat could be in store.
“You know, we’ve seen this story before,” he added. “Mykel Williams was at one point committed to USC. Christen Miller was at one point committed to USC. They’re on Georgia’s team right now. It’s hard to pull these blue-chippers from Georgia’s neck of the wood out west, and USC is going to have their hands full keeping both of them in the fold moving forward.”
Other contenders in the mix for Gibson as well
In addition to the Bulldogs and Trojans, South Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma, and Ohio State are all working to get Gibson into their class. He has official visits scheduled with each of those other five programs this month, while a return visit out to L.A. hasn’t been set up yet.
At the On3 Elite Series in Nashville last week, Gibson said he expecting to take his recruitment through December barring any changes. He wants to give each school and equal chance, but remains locked in with USC.
“If I were to change, it would be location first, I would say,” Gibson said. “And just overall culture and environment of the players and the coaches that are there. So that would probably be the difference-maker. But as I said before, I don’t plan on decommitting or anything like that.”