Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin is going toe-to-toe with his former school and his successor, Matt Campbell, for four-star quarterback Peter Bourque. After things went south at Michigan with Sherrone Moore, the Massachusetts standout reopened his recruitment in the third week of February. Now, both of these coaches have history, and both are rolling out the red carpet for him.

“Georgia was one of his finalists when he committed to Michigan during the fall. Now that his process has reopened, he has rejuvenated the old magic with Coach Smart or Coach Bobo and the Georgia Bulldogs,” Steve Wilftong said on the On3 podcast. “He played in a 7-on-7 tournament in Atlanta over the weekend. And now he is in Athens. He talked about the best-of-the-best competition playing in the SEC, the super-rich football history. The fact that they’re always competing for national championships.

A lot of the reasons why he committed to Michigan are reasons why he is excited about Georgia. The Bulldogs are in the top three right now with Virginia Tech and Penn State, and they have a chance to grab control this week with Peter Bourque.”

Although Georgia is a new candidate in this market for Peter Bourque, Penn State Nittany Lions and Virginia Tech have been adamant about him for some months now. The funniest part of Peter Bourque’s whole recruiting triangle is that it’s a grudge match between James Franklin and Matt Campbell.

Just as Franklin landed in Blacksburg, the very first thing he did was circle back to Bourque. Franklin has been recruiting him since middle school. But it’s anything but easy.

Matt Campbell isn’t about to let his predecessor walk away with the prize without a fight. He’s been hell-bent on locking in Bourque and even made a trip out to Massachusetts in the dead of winter to visit Bourque’s high school back in January to make sure the Nittany Lions stayed at the top of the list.

Peter is one of the most exciting young gunslingers in the class of 2027 right now. He’s about 6’4 and arguably the best QB prospect to come out of Massachusetts over the last 2–3 years. Surprisingly, he’s very mobile, too. This past year, he was even named the Gatorade Massachusetts Player of the Year after leading his team to a perfect 9-0 season with 33 total touchdowns.

In terms of the national rankings, scouts are really high on him. He’s generally ranked as a top 10 quarterback in his class and a top 100 player overall. 247Sports has him as the No. 5 quarterback in the country. And Rivals has him at seventh.

While those two are duking it out, poor Michigan is basically watching its lunch money get taken on the playground. At this point, Kyle Whittingham is paying the price for Sherrone Moore’s sins. With that said, don’t think for a second this is just a way-way dance. It would be a bit foolish to count the Georgia Bulldogs out.

Kirby Smart crashes the party at the Eleventh hour

Right after he decommitted, Athens was one of the first places he visited on March 2nd. He even labeled and certified them as a “premier program.” During the visit, Bourque got to sit down for a serious one-on-one with Kirby Smart and offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.

They had a sit-down and dove into the playbook to show him exactly how Georgia’s offense would prepare him for the NFL. He even got to watch a team walkthrough. He was reportedly blown away by how even the fifth-string guys were getting coached up.

Needless to say, when the Bulldogs start sharking around a recruitment, everyone else usually gets nervous. Peter loved his time in Athens so much that he’s already planning to come back for a spring practice. And also has locked in an official visit for later. Now, Franklin and Campbell have their work cut out for them. End of the day, it comes down to Bourque to see who’s actually going to offer him the best path to the NFL.