Kirby Smart understands importance of excellence on Georgia defensive line

Today is the final day of the month of June, putting an end to what has been an outstanding stretch for Georgia on the recruiting trail. During the calendar month alone, the Bulldogs added five commits to its already-No. 1-ranked recruiting class for 2024. Of those, four have come on the defensive line.

Justin Greene became the first to hop on board on June 6th. He’s the highest rated of the quartet coming in at No. 117 overall according to the On3 Industry Ranking and the closest to campus – less than an hour away at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville, Ga.

Then, not even a week later, Georgia reached to New Jersey for Jordan Thomas. A 6-foot-5, 325-pound prospect out of powerhouse Don Bosco Prep, his commitment on June 13th was followed by Quintavious Johnson on June 21st and Nnamdi Ogboko on June 25th. All four made it to the Classic City for official visits during the month of June, and all four come out of the month committed to the G.

“This is Kirby Smart saying, ‘Hey, I still know how this works. I still know the rules of this game.’ The rules of this game are: if you can’t move me and I can move you, I win,” On3’s J.D. PicKell said on his podcast, The Hard Count. “I’ll say this, I went to the media day for the national title game last year, you’ve got TCU and you’ve got Georgia, got to see both these teams walking around in street clothes and when Georgia walked into the building, it was a very, very different eye test than when TCU walked into the building. That’s no shame on TCU. They earned the right to be there, but Georgia, you could just tell. It was like, ‘Okay, they’ve been eating their Wheaties down there in Athens. Those are some big human beings. Those dudes are going to be tough to move on 4th and 1.'”

“So for Georgia, they’re understanding, it’s still a size game. It’s still a depth game. They’re adding more size, and they’re adding more depth,” PicKell continued. “I’ll say this too, they added a three-star defensive lineman, Nnamdi Ogboko, and if Kirby takes a three-star, everybody else should be nervous. Because that tells you that Kirby Smart sees something that a lot of people aren’t seeing, and from looking at the resume of Kirby Smart, looking at the jewelry box of Kirby Smart, I think he’s got a good feel for the way this kid is going to trend. Big body, hasn’t been playing football all that long — I’ll just say this, they feel good about him. They feel very, very good about him. They feel just fine about taking a three-star kid and adding him to the 2024 class.”

But wait, there’s more!

Georgia might not be done on the defensive line either. The Dawgs have a top target announcing his decision on July 12th with Oak Ridge (Conroe, Texas) product Joseph Jonah-Ajonye.

Ranked the No. 44 overall player and No. 8 defensive lineman according to the On3 Industry Ranking – and even higher according to the On300 – Jonah-Ajonye received an offer from Georgia earlier this year and has taken two visits to Athens since the middle of May.

Georgia holds a 96.3% chance to land Jonah-Ajonye according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine.

On top of him, Georgia is pushing hard for the pledge of the nation’s No. 1 defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri, who DawgsHQ confirmed was in Athens for an unofficial visit just last weekend. That trip came just a matter of weeks after his official visit in early June.

Justin Scott, Eddrick Houston, Aydin Breland and LJ McCray are other top-10 defensive linemen that have taken official visits to Athens already and remain uncommitted.