Gunner Stockton, CJ Allen and Daylen Everette were asked Tuesday if Texas was viewed as a Georgia rival.
The two teams played twice last season, with Georgia winning both times.
As the saying goes, both sides have to win for it to be a rivalry.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a rival,” Allen said. “I think any team that we play against, we have to be ready and prepared for it.”
Of course, those comments by Georgia players were made before the big recruiting wins Texas picked up Tuesday afternoon at the expense of Georgia.
The Longhorns beat out Georgia for five-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson. That Texas was able to land Atkinson despite Georgia recruiting him since the eighth grade made the loss sting. Especially given the success Georgia has had at developing elite linebackers.
Later in the afternoon, Texas flipped four-star defensive lineman James Johnson.
It would be naive to think that money — whether it now be through revenue sharing of name, image and likeness deals — didn’t factor into either of these decisions.
With that in mind, coach Kirby Smart’s comments about recruiting and pursuing certain types of players stand out even more.
“We sell relationships over transactions,” Smart said. “We think the relationship still wins out because the relationship allows you to push people and demand excellence, and we’re going to continue to do that at Georgia. We don’t believe in just being transactional because when you’re transactional, you cannot accomplish whatever your ultimate goal is, whatever your greatest reach is.
“Whatever the ceiling is for every player and every team we have, you don’t reach that without relationships. So we’re going to try to win 24-hour increments each and every day to make sure we still attain that.”
Johnson, the No. 69 overall prospect in the country according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, flipped his commitment after 18 days. Either the relationship was not as strong as it seemed, or a very large transaction took place with Texas.
Georgia knows it won’t win every recruiting battle. Even though Smart has signed a top-four recruiting class in every cycle dating to 2017, there are misses that sting. Just a year ago, five-star defensive lineman Justus Terry of Manchester picked Texas over Georgia.
At the time, Terry told DawgNation’s Jeff Sentell it was a “business decision” in selecting the Longhorns. It certainly seems that Texas’ transactional recruiting tactics work with some of Georgia’s top recruiting targets. Atkinson and Terry were in-state five-star prospects.
Steve Sarkisian, Texas’ head coach, shared his thoughts on recruiting during his time at SEC Media Days. His comments were not as pointed as Smart’s.
But he did offer a reason Texas can go into longtime SEC states and land elite recruits.
“I think, when we moved into the SEC, it was a lot more natural for players from Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia to be willing to come play at the University of Texas,” Sarkisian said. “They were already kind of going to (Texas) A&M because they were in the SEC, but now that we’ve joined the conference, it’s a lot more palatable for those families and for those kids to want to come play at Texas knowing that we’re playing in the Southeastern Conference. So we’ve tried to take advantage of that.”
Georgia and Texas have gone head-to-head for multiple recruits in recent cycles. While it seems Georgia has been on the losing end recently, the Bulldogs did beat out Texas for five-star tight end Kaiden Prothro and four-star defensive back Chace Calicut in this cycle.
In the 2024 recruiting cycle, Georgia landed two five-star prospects from the state of Texas in Justin Williams and Joseph Jonah-Ajonye.
Georgia and Texas won’t have to wait long for their next recruiting matchup, as five-star athlete Derrek Cooper of the Miami area is set to announce Sunday night. Georgia and Texas are battling Miami and Ohio State for the services of the No. 30 prospect in the country.
All of these recruiting contests craft the idea that Georgia-Texas is turning into something of a rivalry. When Smart started beating Alabama for recruits when he arrived at Georgia, the intensity of that matchup went to another level.
The same can at least be said for these two programs, even if they don’t meet on an annual basis. The next trip Texas takes to Sanford Stadium, set for Nov. 15, will be the first in program in history.
Given the uncertainty of the SEC scheduling model, it’s hard to know beyond this year how often the two schools will meet. We do not yet know whether the 2026 SEC schedule will have eight or nine games, much less who Georgia will play.
With the recruits both schools battle for, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see these two teams matchup in the SEC Championship game and the College Football Playoff.
The former happened a season ago, with Everette and Stockton both emerging as heroes in that game.
Stockton, likely Georgia’s starting quarterback this season, makes for an interesting juxtaposition with Texas quarterback Arch Manning. The latter has two career starts — against Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State — and is viewed as one of the better quarterbacks in the sport. His last name has a significant impact on that fact.
Stockton, conversely, has one career start in addition to taking over for Carson Beck in the SEC Championship game. Yet despite the difference in competition, Stockton is viewed as a significant question mark entering the season.
Manning is viewed as sizzling steak, while Stockton is treated as more of a mystery meat. Even if his personality and demeanor point to the fact that he probably is going to be a reliable quarterback option.
As for Everette, his two best games last season came against Texas. He earned MVP honors in the SEC Championship game after intercepting Quinn Ewers twice. Something about that burnt orange brought out the best in Everette.
One reporter asked him if he specifically had a vendetta against the Longhorns. The senior Georgia cornerback was amused by the accusation.
“I don’t really have a personal vendetta,” Everette said. “Really, I just wanted to go out there and just try to lock in and just play, like, the best I can. I try to do that every game, and I guess those were just the two games where it just happened. I wouldn’t say it was anything against them, it was just something, like, that I wanted to do personally.”
Based on the recent recruiting results between the two schools, it’s safe to say that some Georgia fans now have a vendetta against the Longhorns.
Which makes the massive game against Texas this season improbably bigger.
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