Kirby Smart: Recruiting dynamics have changed between Georgia and Alabama

ATHENS — Kirby Smart will see several familiar faces on the Alabama football team when Georgia takes the field to play the Crimson Tide on Saturday night.

The game between the Tide (2-1, 0-0 SEC) and the Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0) has an official kickoff time of 7:44 p.m., per UGA, and will be played in a sold-out Sanford Stadium.

Smart said on his “Bulldogs Live” Coaches’ Show on Thursday that Alabama might be the SEC team that has the most players Georgia attempted to sign out of high school.

“Yeah, it would probably be them, maybe Florida,” Smart said. “We go head-to-head with Florida, Auburn and Alabama a lot. The new staff of theirs (at Alabama) has a lot of connections to the West Coast, so it seems like with them we have not hit heads with them as much as we used to.”

Smart noted the Tide does have “a couple guys that recruit of Georgia hard”, and that Georgia and Alabama “still recruit the same national guys.”

Among the SEC teams, Smart said UGA goes head-to-head more with Florida than Alabama, “and Tennessee sometimes.”

SEC rosters are loaded with NFL talent; the league has produced the most NFL draft picks each of the past 19 drafts.

This was even true last year, when the 16 SEC teams combined to have 79 players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft while the 18-member Big Ten produced 71 picks.

More talent appears on the way to the SEC, as Georgia is ranked No. 2 behind USC in the 247Sports Team (Composite) Recruiting Rankings for the 2026 class.

Notre Dame is at No. 3, but SEC teams hold the next three spots after the Irish, with Alabama No. 4, followed by Texas A&M and Texas.

Smart said national recruits like the competition level and attention generated by the SEC programs.

“They’ve got the opportunity to travel, so whether that’s them traveling, or their parents traveling, they want to go play on the larger stage,” Smart said. “A lot of the best players in the country attract to the SEC, they want to come to the SEC.

“There was 12 million viewers watching the Tennessee-Georgia game, that attracts people from all walks of life that want to play in our conference.

“They want to play against the best of the best, who can blame them, and that allows you to attract the best players in the nation.”

Jeff Sentell, the recruiting analyst for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and DawgNation, compiled a list of prominent players on the Alabama and Georgia teams that were recruited by the other school:

Key Alabama players UGA wanted/recruited:

(Players in bold from state of Alabama)

DT Tim Keenan III

WR Ryan Williams

DL James Smith (former 5-star)

Edge Qua Russaw

Former Safety Caleb Downs (now at Ohio State)

Former RB Justice Haynes (now at Michigan)

WR Jalen Hale

RB Richard Young

OL Casey Poe

DL Jeremiah Beaman

CB Dijon Lee Jr.

RB AK Dear

OL Micah Debose (former UGA commit)

Key Georgia players Alabama wanted/recruited

PK Peyton Woodring (fierce battle to end)

TE Lawson Luckie

OL Daniel Calhoun

DL Jordan Hall

RB Nate Frazier

CB Ellis Robinson IV