No.1 Prospect Has 3 College Football Playoff Teams Run Circles Around Him as Kirby Smart’s Georgia Learns Major Intel

The Georgia Bulldogs must not still be over their Sugar Bowl trauma. But it’s college football, folks! You can’t afford to sit back and replay the misses. And Kirby Smart knows it best. Well, he definitely landed on the hot seat for missing out on that Natty. Remember what Paul Finebaum said about Smart? “So Nick Saban’s gone, Kirby was supposed to take the sport over. He didn’t…we probably won’t see dominance like that again [in] the Nick Saban era in college football.” But the Bulldogs’ head coach turned a deaf ear to all the negative jabs. Instead, something is keeping Smart up at night. A blue-chip prospect of the 2026 class. There is no room for trial and error as Smart will have to hit the bull’s eye with darts flying in from three college football playoff teams. Going by the buzz, things are sliding towards Athens.

Smart has some unfinished business on the recruiting trail. As per On3’s 2026 Industry Ranking football Team Recruiting Rankings, Georgia holds the fifth position. They right now have reeled in one 5-star, six 4-star, and one 3-star player. The Bulldogs are now gunning for the top linebacker in 2026, Tyler Atkinson. In that race, Smart will have to fight the race against Auburn, Ohio State, and Oregon. But they must run the race carefully, as another race might need Smart’s energy battery to be 100% fully charged. So, who is that hot target? That’s none other than Savion Hiter. The five-star running back from Louisa County made two visits to Smart’s squad, and the Georgia insider can’t keep calm.

On the UGA Football on Dawg Post podcast, host Brandon Adams shared his take. And here comes the good news for Smart. “He is the number one running back in the country, he got an in-home visit from Georgia running backs coach Josh Crawford on Wednesday night (May 21). Crawford also saw Savion Hiter on uh May 2nd.”

The analyst then turned the light to the force that Smart is going to face off in the recruiting trail. “The Dawgs are in his final four. It’s Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan in no particular order.” Wondering what the craze is all about? Well, Hiter’s stats do all the talking. He ran for 1,900 yards last year, 29 touchdowns on just 156 carries. These numbers are the result of his elusiveness, having a power-packed running talent.  

So where does Smart and Bulldogs stand in the Hiter race? Adams shared, “I thought Michigan was the leader for a while, they still might be. I know people up in Columbus at Ohio State, they feel really good about their chances, and I think Tennessee is probably number four in that final four. This is going to come down to Georgia, Michigan, or Ohio State.”

Whoever finally gets lucky to bring Hiter home will be a lucky one. After all, the young chap also proved himself as a linebacker, having racked up 56 tackles, seven sacks, one interception, and three kick return touchdowns. While Smart dives into the race, he will take care of blowing down the tensions for his quarterback.

ESPN dropped a bomb for Kirby Smart’s Georgia as pressure builds for Gunner Stockton

The 2025 season landed Smart with the ugliest surprise when it came to the quarterback room. Carson Beck chose to steer the Miami Hurricanes’ ship. Just when the Georgia head coach must have thought that things can’t get any worse, here came an ESPN article. Their prediction? The Dawgs are listed as a team that is expected to miss this year’s playoffs. “For the better part of three seasons, the Bulldogs seemed invincible. Only an injury-plagued one-score loss to Alabama in the 2023 SEC title game might have prevented Georgia from winning three straight national championships.”

While Beck is often blamed for all the troubles that the Bulldogs faced last season, nobody talked about how Smart’s boys failed to protect the quarterback. The Bulldogs were without two monumental pieces of the offense that finished top five nationally in 2023. That’s two-time Mackey Award-winning tight end Brock Bowers and All-SEC wide receiver Ladd McConkey. So, what’s the moral of the story? Things might stoop further down for Smart with Gunner Stockton on the steering wheel.

As Josh Pate raised an alarm, “That’s not a slide against Gunner Stockton. What I’m saying is it’s less proven that they can just blanketly lean on being able to do that.” Gunner Stockton is yet to leave his mark on the gridiron and push himself into the upper crust of SEC quarterbacking. For now, Kirby Smart will have to tone down his expectations and, at the same time, build a fortress for himself. Multitasking isn’t optional anymore—Georgia’s head coach better bring his A-game.