Georgia football recruiting rewind: The 5 big stories of Auburn week
The past week out on the recruiting trail has been kind to the Georgia Bulldogs. Here’s what the road map looked like:
- Flipped a CB commit from their oldest rival
- Saw the national ranking for the 2027 class creep back into the Top 10
- Watched the 5-star QB of the future throw for 5 TDs in a game
- Scored an elite in-state commit for the 2028 class
- Got some big RSVPs among this weekend’s recruiting visitors for Auburn
We’ll cover each in quick-hit fashion, starting with the big guest list for Saturday.
UGA recruiting: Who’s in town for the Auburn game?
Georgia will host two official visitors Saturday. The first is Newton 3-star safety Braylon Miller. He’s committed to Liberty, but his stock has soared this fall as he’s made plays on both sides of the ball for his Rams.
The Bulldogs have turned up the heat on Miller. The senior has been in town for a couple of games this fall. If both sides mesh well this weekend, the 5-foot-10, 195-pound athlete could soon be the 23rd commitment in the class.
Rivals ranks him as the nation’s No. 177 safety and the No. 1,650 overall prospect for the 2027 class. The 247Sports Composite lists him No. 104 at safety and No. 992 overall for this cycle.
Don’t let those rankings overshadow the talent Miller would bring to Athens. If UGA wants him as a take at this stage, he’s good enough to make an impact anywhere in college football.
The second official visitor will be junior college DL Christian Mays. This visit has been in the works all fall, but he is still committed to Tennessee. The 6-5, 330-pound defensive lineman has been committed to the Vols since June.
Rivals and the 247Sports Composite rank him as the nation’s No. 1 junior college DL. The latter has him listed as the nation’s No. 3 overall JUCO recruit.
UGA is working the JUCO ranks this cycle for the first time in years. That reflects the high-stakes world of recruiting elite high school players these days.
The Bulldogs also got a commitment this month from 4-star California JUCO cornerback Alius Mayo. Mayo is the nation’s No. 1 overall JUCO prospect. The Bulldogs haven’t signed a prospect from that level since OLB Jermaine Johnson in 2019. Johnson was also rated as the No. 1 overall JUCO prospect for his class.
Kameron McGee: The big 5-star visitor for Auburn
A big SEC home game like Auburn always draws a lot of unofficial visitors, too.
The biggest of those will be 2028 5-star EDGE Kameron McGee out of Chicago. The Brother Rice standout stars on defense and makes an impact at receiver for his high school team.
He’s 6-4, 240 pounds; he’s clocked a 4.6-second 40-yard dash via electronic timing and has posted a 37-inch vertical leap.
This will be his fourth trip to check out UGA. He really loves the NFL development and the relationships he’s already built in Athens. Coach Kirby Smart isn’t often deeply involved in recruiting juniors at this stage, but McGee has certainly been worth his time.
“Man, Georgia just has a shot like with the history of Georgia,” McGee said. “You know, just (outside linebackers) Coach (Larry) Knight. Coach Smart. Those are the guys I talk to the most. Just like the history of it, man. They produce NFL guys every single year. Especially on the defensive side of the ball.”
“Then Coach Smart is not going anywhere. He’s got a [young] son. He’s growing up in Athens. He’s not going anywhere, so the stability is there. Then Coach Knight’s coaching background. He coached at Temple. He worked his way up. He played Division I football. So he’s got a good feel for the game, so I trust him to coach me, and I just feel like Georgia is just a great place to be.”
Bulldogs flip Nash Johnson III away from the Tigers
Ahead of this weekend’s game, the Bulldogs scored a big recruiting win by flipping 3-star cornerback Nash Johnson III from Auburn.
He’s the nation’s No. 54 CB and the No. 551 overall prospect for 2027 on the 247Sports Composite. Rivals ranks him No. 59 at CB and No. 550 overall.
The 6-foot, 185-pounder saw a better opportunity in Athens.
“Really just the standard,” Johnson told DawgNation last month. “It’s different. I feel like it’s different from Auburn because the tradition and standard that Kirby (Smart) holds over there, I feel like it is different than Auburn. I feel like they do a great job at pushing their players to be better men.
“I feel like Auburn does the same thing, too. But I feel like Georgia attacks that a lot harder. That’s how I feel personally.”
McEachern coach Kareem Reid says Johnson is the best athlete on his defense. That says something, given he has several Power 5 commits in that unit, including undecided 5-star junior safety Casey Barner.
“He’s the fastest player on our team, and it’s not even close,” Reid said. “He can recover and make up for being overly aggressive at the line sometimes. But again, like a lot of our guys, he’s only scratching the surface of what he can be. He’s really strong. He has good play strength. You can see it, though, because he works hard in the weight room. He only knows one speed. That’s a thousand miles per hour, so that’s kind of how he works out and he plays the same way.”
Johnson’s decision pushed the Bulldogs from No. 12 to No. 10 in the 2027 cycle on the 247Sports Team recruiting rankings.
Bulldogs scored another elite DB commit this week
Toombs County junior Nicholas Carroll is nicknamed “Showtime” for good reason.
The 4-star prospect has 325 receiving yards and five scores as a junior so far this fall. He’s also kept up his busy Friday night schedule on defense, with nine tackles and two passes defensed for a 6-0 team.
Toombs is No. 1 in Class 3A in the weekly GHSF AJC Varsity rankings.
Carroll made a surprise early commitment to UGA this week.
He’s rated as the nation’s No. 4 safety and the No. 54 overall prospect for 2028 on the 247Sports Composite. The Rivals Industry Ranking ranks him No. 5 at safety and No. 64 overall.
The future safety had 783 receiving yards, 11 touchdown catches and seven interceptions as a sophomore. He finished with 42 tackles, broke up nine passes, and tallied 255 yards on kickoff and punt returns.
The 5-10, 175-pound playmaker has the full respect of Toombs coach Buddy Martin.
“The thing I will remember 50 years from now when I am retired and sitting on the back porch is the smile, man,” Martin said. “In the middle of a game, when it’s fourth-and-1 on the goal line and you’ve got to gain a yard or you’ve got to stop them from getting a yard, he’s ready.”
“It doesn’t faze him. He’s not the kid who gets anxious and gets tight; he’s the one that gets better. The tougher, the more intense, the more that’s on the line, that’s what the Lord created him for. For those moments.”
5-star UGA commit Jaxon Dollar is having an incredible senior season
Jaxon Dollar, the 5-star TE commit from East Lincoln High in North Carolina, has already had a season that could win him the Gatorade Player of the Year honor in his home state.
That’s just through eight games. We’re halfway into October. His stat line shows ridiculous production.
- 60 catches, 1,160 yards, 15 touchdowns
- 19.3 yards per reception
- 18 total TDs (includes a pair of pick-6 scores on defense)
- 34 total tackles, 11 TFLs, 8 QB hurries, 7 sacks
That’s after Dollar “only” caught four passes for 77 yards with no scores last week.
Dollar is now the nation’s No. 1 TE and No. 27 overall prospect for his class for Rivals. He’s the No. 2 TE and No. 34 overall recruit on the 247Sports Composite.
An exchange from a game earlier this year stands out. Dollar, lined up at defensive end, came down the line and tackled Bunker Hill’s Datavian Gaither for a slight gain.
“It was a fourth down,” Dollar said. “They were on, I want to say, our 35 or 30. He had an out route and I was playing D-end. I went out and tackled him.”
According to a couple of sources who were at the game, Gaither got up and said the following:
“You just need to go to college already.”
Dollar saw it as a sign of respect from a peer who had 247 rushing yards on 20.6 yards per carry in a game earlier this season.
Big week for 5-star QB commit Jayden Wade
IMG Academy 5-star Jayden Wade is the quarterback of the future in Athens. He’s been committed to UGA for over a year now.
Wade is rated the nation’s No. 1 QB prospect for the 2028 cycle by both Rivals’ Industry Ranking and the 247Sports Composite standard.
He had a week’s worth of milestones. Wade turned 18 Tuesday. That was a few days after one of his all-time best career performances on the road with the IMG National Team in Indiana.
The 6-3, 210-pound junior completed 23 of his 27 attempts for 302 yards and 5 TDs in a 49-7 win. Wade did throw one interception, but he completed 85% of his passes.
Those five TD passes set a new career high.
The junior also had seven carries for 59 yards. He’s now thrown for 21 touchdowns and just one interception in a junior year marked by substantial improvement.
“He doesn’t let the rankings define him,” his IMG Academy teammate Osani Gayles said. “Like he knows who he is, but he stays humble. He stays extremely humble. He doesn’t let the rankings define him. He says all the time he hasn’t proved anything yet. He says he hasn’t done anything yet.”
