Kirby Smart sees recruiting world change, adapting Georgia to the times

The Georgia Bulldogs sit at 26 commits in the Class of 2024 on July 25 after landing the nation’s No. 1 linebacker, five-star plus+ Justin Williams last night. It’s the same number that they signed in the entirety of the Class of 2023, and while that number is all but assured to drop by one on Wednesday, UGA still will be sitting pretty with plenty more players that they’re in the hunt for.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart says the class shaping up earlier than normal is just by happenstance. He and his staff didn’t do anything differently with this class than they did the others, rather it was the recruits who decided they wanted to shut things down and make an announcement before the start of their senior season in higher numbers. That’s one thing you certainly won’t hear Smart complaining about anytime soon.

“I don’t think it’s changed at all. The results have changed because I think you’re referencing the number of commits right now compared to years past. That wasn’t a philosophical difference, that was a result of kids choosing to get on board earlier,” Smart said at SEC Media Days just last week. “I personally enjoy it and like it that way, but we don’t have control over that. They do.”

What has changed over the years is the timeline of the recruiting calendar in general. As opposed to signing in February and arriving on campus in the summer, kids are enrolling early at rapidly rising rates – thus signing their National Letter of Intent in December. And in some cases, the player is actually on campus before they ever sign anything, arriving to help their new team prepare for a bowl game while getting acclimated to what the lifestyle is like.

YOU MIGHT LIKE: Georgia’s on a roll, but who could be the next Bulldog commit? (Jeremy Johnson)

During his appearance at the podium at SEC Media Days, Smart was asked what he thinks needs to be improved about recruiting. He took that topic and ran with it.

“When you say what needs to improve in terms of recruiting, I don’t — recruiting has always been recruiting. It’s changed because the rules and parameters have changed,” Smart said. “We moved up a signing date, moved it to December, which then made us all do official visits in June. I’ve seen this whole transformation from a recruit in 1994 that went on an official visit in late January to you would never even bring a guy in on a visit in January because they are almost all already enrolled. The cycle has flipped in terms of that.”

“But when you talk about improving recruiting, I think so much used to be built on your facility and how can you show them how you can develop them, the education, what’s your major going to be. Like what do you want to do, life after football,” he continued. “So much has now become towards directed towards NIL, and I think that’s some of Commissioner Sankey’s frustration of trying to make that at least somewhat uniform so that we’re not operating under different rules state to state.”

Georgia currently sits with the No. 1 ranked class for both 2024 and just recently slipped to No. 2 for 2025 behind Alabama. For that group, Georgia already has six commits including the nation’s No. 1 tight end Elyiss Williams along with three others ranked in the top-50 (Justus Terry, Micah Debose, Jadon Perlotte).

In classes that Smart has had a full cycle to recruit (2017 and on), the Bulldogs have yet to finish outside of the top three, pulling in the nation’s top-rated class in both 2018 and 2020. Georgia finished 2023 at No. 2.