2026 Recruiting Thread

[Thiefery]

Lol this is a good one that shows how lost "insiders" are now a days, some of them were reporting this morning that Dean's offer from UGA wasn't even committable and he was going to South Carolina because of that

Wiltfong included, guy's taken a beating on being dead wrong lately. "Fong Bombs" currently mean next to nothing.

tbh none of these guys really have a beat for recruiting this cycle.. they all pump sunshine hoping some legit come through.. if not..blame NIL lol

I still expect movement as far as flipping this fall

 

[osubuckeye89]

tbh none of these guys really have a beat for recruiting this cycle.. they all pump sunshine hoping some legit come through.. if not..blame NIL lol

I still expect movement as far as flipping this fall

I notice a lot of them holding back until the last minute now to see what NIL check came in the highest before making a "prediction" which isn't really much of a prediction it's more of already a fact at the point they call it.

I think this fall is going to be a flip massacre never seen before, seems like a lot of crazy NIL flinging that's not going to be able to hold up.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

Lol this is a good one that shows how lost "insiders" are now a days, some of them were reporting this morning that Dean's offer from UGA wasn't even committable and he was going to South Carolina because of that

Wiltfong included, guy's taken a beating on being dead wrong lately. "Fong Bombs" currently mean next to nothing.

I can tell you that the UGA $$$ insiders had him going to USCjr as of this morning. We weren't expecting to get him.

It's an impossible task to try to figure all this out. All I know is that Kirby is still hitting on all cylinders, and I don't see him slowing down anytime soon.

 

[osubuckeye89]

I can tell you that the UGA $$$ insiders had him going to USCjr as of this morning. We weren't expecting to get him.

It's an impossible task to try to figure all this out. All I know is that Kirby is still hitting on all cylinders, and I don't see him slowing down anytime soon.

I think most insider shit was bullshit sunshine pumping to begin with but now I REALLY stay away from it, they definitely have way less of a clue about what's actually going on than they ever have.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

ehhh still disappointed with James Johnson.. i liked him too

Yeah, very glad to get him. We are killing the DL recruiting. We have a 3* JUCO, the No. 1 JUCO recruit named Seven Cloud (not kidding), who is really, really good. So, he doesn't show up in any of the rankings because he is JUCO, but that dude may be the best DL we are getting.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

I think most insider shit was bullshit sunshine pumping to begin with but now I REALLY stay away from it, they definitely have way less of a clue about what's actually going on than they ever have.

We have a couple guys who are clearly on staff, and it's clear they've been told to be on Rivals to keep things under control. They do post-game wrap-ups, and a couple of them are dead on with the recruiting. We also have half dozen guys who played at UGA and are very well connected. But, these days, you have to take everything with a grain of $$$. USCjr thought they had Dean until they didn't.

 

[Across The Field]

Lol this is a good one that shows how lost "insiders" are now a days, some of them were reporting this morning that Dean's offer from UGA wasn't even committable and he was going to South Carolina because of that

Wiltfong included, guy's taken a beating on being dead wrong lately. "Fong Bombs" currently mean next to nothing.

LOL I saw his "expert prediction" this afternoon about him going to SCar and my very first thought was "Well, sorry Gamecocks. Back to the drawing board"

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

LOL I saw his "expert prediction" this afternoon about him going to SCar and my very first thought was "Well, sorry Gamecocks. Back to the drawing board"

Far be it from me to defend these guys, but the main Rivals UGA guy spoke to Dean this morning, who told him he was going to USCjr, and he wrote an entire article as to why he went to USCjr and not UGA. Same thing for the main Rivals guy at USCjr site. So that came out of the blue.

 

[osubuckeye89]

Far be it from me to defend these guys, but the main Rivals UGA guy spoke to Dean this morning, who told him he was going to USCjr, and he wrote an entire article as to why he went to USCjr and not UGA. Same thing for the main Rivals guy at USCjr site. So that came out of the blue.

These guys are a joke. Being a "Recruiting insider" is a big time grifting game to begin with and it's gotten even more shameless than ever now. These guys will say anything to keep/get subscribers. Some are much worse than others but they are all pretty bad.

I think there was a time in the earlier stages of the internet recruiting sites era where they were more genuine, but that is a long gone era.

I keep up and pay attention to what's going on with recruiting enough but I've never cared enough to pay money to get sunshine pumped by some dope from Rivals/Scout/247/Whatever. Especially now, it's way too easy to just get the same information second hand.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

These guys are a joke. Being a "Recruiting insider" is a big time grifting game to begin with and it's gotten even more shameless than ever now. These guys will say anything to keep/get subscribers. Some are much worse than others but they are all pretty bad.

I think there was a time in the earlier stages of the internet recruiting sites era where they were more genuine, but that is a long gone era.

I keep up and pay attention to what's going on with recruiting enough but I've never cared enough to pay money to get sunshine pumped by some dope from Rivals/Scout/247/Whatever. Especially now, it's way too easy to just get the same information second hand.

Are you on a pay site? I can tell you the good sites where they don't feel that they have to suck up to their subs are pretty good. The main guy at UGASports is about 75% hit on his 1st Mock every year. And, some sites, have true insiders like I mentioned before. UGASports has Coach Donnan on staff, and while he plays things close to his chest, you know he has inside info - he does nothing with recruiting, FWIW.

The Miami guy is getting crucified right now because he said they were going to get everybody, and they aren't getting everybody. @Thiefery will tell you that Ketchum and a few guys at some of their pay sites are connected.

If someone is changing their pick an hour before the announcement, they suck. But there are some good guys, at least with the UGA sites, who are damn accurate.

And, you can't hold it against them when a player gives them an interview at 9am about why he is going to USCjr, and then at 3pm announces he is going to UGA. He was either playing everyone, or UGA dropped a big bag, or the UGA coaches did something to get them to change their mind in about 6 hours.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

A twofer for UGA today ... both DL:

 

[Innermind]

4 star OT Claude Mpouma out of Illinois has committed to Nebraska.

 

[Deep Creek]

Got into a discussion with one of the local Okie Lite Cowboy alum. (He's definitely on the fire Gundy train.) My take is the Big 12 is the most interesting conference but only because every team has a chance to beat the other making the race interesting. He says it only looks that way because some coaches aren't maximizing talent. Talent is better than performance. I say the talent level isn't that high.

Soooooooooo, I showed him recruiting rankings. Right now the Big 12 only has two 5* (BYU, Houston), and twenty 4* (KU-3, BYU-2, ASU-2, TCU-3, Baylor-4, Zona-1, Okie Lite-3, UCF-1 and Colo-1) That ain't many for 16 teams. Hell, Utah, WVU, Cincy, K-State, ISU and Texas Tech don't have ANY!

@WhosYourDawggy - I'm not sure NIL is really leveling out talent to the point that was anticipated. Granted, this doesn't take into account the transfer portal, but.............

 

[osubuckeye89]

Are you on a pay site? I can tell you the good sites where they don't feel that they have to suck up to their subs are pretty good. The main guy at UGASports is about 75% hit on his 1st Mock every year. And, some sites, have true insiders like I mentioned before. UGASports has Coach Donnan on staff, and while he plays things close to his chest, you know he has inside info - he does nothing with recruiting, FWIW.

The Miami guy is getting crucified right now because he said they were going to get everybody, and they aren't getting everybody. @Thiefery will tell you that Ketchum and a few guys at some of their pay sites are connected.

If someone is changing their pick an hour before the announcement, they suck. But there are some good guys, at least with the UGA sites, who are damn accurate.

And, you can't hold it against them when a player gives them an interview at 9am about why he is going to USCjr, and then at 3pm announces he is going to UGA. He was either playing everyone, or UGA dropped a big bag, or the UGA coaches did something to get them to change their mind in about 6 hours.

No, no pay sites for me. The info from the pay sites usually ends up trickling over to 11 warriors for free so there's not point.

 

[occupant]

HS recruiting rankings will mean less and less the further we travel into PortalLand.

There is no greater motivation than being shunned, and a whole bunch of these lower-tiered kids are gonna go elsewhere and do their best to prove folks wrong.

Pay for recruiting info?

 

[Innermind]

4 star EDGE Julian Walker out of South Carolina has committed to Michigan.

 

[fordman84]

Got into a discussion with one of the local Okie Lite Cowboy alum. (He's definitely on the fire Gundy train.) My take is the Big 12 is the most interesting conference but only because every team has a chance to beat the other making the race interesting. He says it only looks that way because some coaches aren't maximizing talent. Talent is better than performance. I say the talent level isn't that high.

Soooooooooo, I showed him recruiting rankings. Right now the Big 12 only has two 5* (BYU, Houston), and twenty 4* (KU-3, BYU-2, ASU-2, TCU-3, Baylor-4, Zona-1, Okie Lite-3, UCF-1 and Colo-1) That ain't many for 16 teams. Hell, Utah, WVU, Cincy, K-State, ISU and Texas Tech don't have ANY!

@WhosYourDawggy - I'm not sure NIL is really leveling out talent to the point that was anticipated. Granted, this doesn't take into account the transfer portal, but.............

lol, thought about that the other day...Colorado. Not doing so hot on the recruiting trail is Prime?

 

[fordman84]

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

Got into a discussion with one of the local Okie Lite Cowboy alum. (He's definitely on the fire Gundy train.) My take is the Big 12 is the most interesting conference but only because every team has a chance to beat the other making the race interesting. He says it only looks that way because some coaches aren't maximizing talent. Talent is better than performance. I say the talent level isn't that high.

Soooooooooo, I showed him recruiting rankings. Right now the Big 12 only has two 5* (BYU, Houston), and twenty 4* (KU-3, BYU-2, ASU-2, TCU-3, Baylor-4, Zona-1, Okie Lite-3, UCF-1 and Colo-1) That ain't many for 16 teams. Hell, Utah, WVU, Cincy, K-State, ISU and Texas Tech don't have ANY!

@WhosYourDawggy - I'm not sure NIL is really leveling out talent to the point that was anticipated. Granted, this doesn't take into account the transfer portal, but.............

I'll try to find the article, but last year, if you compared the number of top 100 that Bama, UGA, and tOSU landed in 2022 and compared to last year, it's way different. There is still a lot of time to go in recruiting, but I am already seeing lower top 100 rankings for UGA. And, it looks like this is going to be a killer year for UGA.

I do an article for Rivals every year. Here are the last 3 years compared:

As of today, Top 100 - Class of 2026 - 5; 2025 - 4; 2024 - 8 - this changes rapidly ... UGA added a couple since I wrote that article. However, the days of UGA, Bama, and tOSU accounting for 30-35% of the top 100 are gone.

Recruiting has undergone several indirect changes. Some players are committing earlier now. NSD is totally irrelevant, and even ESD is a nothingburger. Most teams are entirely wrapped up by October or November.

I just did some quick napkin comparisons. I used 2025 and 2020, which was right before COVID.

2020 - Top 100 players:
UGA - 11
Bama - 10
tOSU - 7
Clemson - 10
LSU - 9

That's 47 of the top 100 going to the top 5 teams.

Then look at the point totals for the top 5, then the 10th:
313
310
309
299
295
10th - 263

Now, forward to 2025.

Top 100 players:
Bama - 8
UGA - 8
tOSU - 7
Texas - 10
Oregon - 6

That's 39 (compared to 47 in 2020) in the top 5 teams in 2025.

Now look at the point distribution of the top 5 teams and the 10th (2020 numbers are in parens):
312 (313)
304 (310)
298 (309)
297 (299)
292 (295)
10th - 281 (263)

Notice that the top teams are far lower in 2025 than 2020, meaning that they aren't getting as many high-end players.

Comparing the 1st and 10th is always interesting:
2020 - 313 - 263 - 50 points
2025 - 312 - 281 - 31 points

So, the gap between the top 10 teams has shrunk considerably. To me that says that some players are getting spread out. I never expected the top teams to lose their recruiting juju. Just that they wouldn't get all the top players.

 

[WhosYourDawggy]

HS recruiting rankings will mean less and less the further we travel into PortalLand.

There is no greater motivation than being shunned, and a whole bunch of these lower-tiered kids are gonna go elsewhere and do their best to prove folks wrong.

Pay for recruiting info?

Couldn't disagree more. Here is the formula, IMO:

- Top 3 high school recruiting, year in and year out.
- Supplement with a half dozen or so transfers at positions of need, but only if they are culture fits.
- Convince late 2nd round NFL draftees - UFAs to stay one more year to improve their stock, and reward with great RevShare.
- Maintain the culture at all costs.