HOOVER, Ala. — A day after losing five-star offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell in the last hour to Miami, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart decried the current uncertainty surrounding college football recruiting.
Smart was deep in the heart of Alabama on Wednesday for the annual Regions Tradition Pro-Am less than 24 hours after Cantwell, a top-10 player in 247Sports’ 2026 rankings, picked the Hurricanes over his Bulldogs. The 6-foot-7.5, 325-pound offensive tackle made six trips to Georgia, including just last weekend, and was widely expected to pick Georgia before ultimately opting for Mario Cristobal’s Miami program on Tuesday.
Cantwell, who hired hired super agent (and Miami grad and resident) Drew Rosenhaus to handle his NIL negotiations last fall, had not visited Miami since March. Rosenhaus reportedly wanted to secure a three-year deal for Cantwell with an annual average value of more than $2 million though Cantwell said it was a “false narrative” that he chose Miami over Georgia because of NIL.
In a small group of reporters, CBS Sports asked Smart what it was like to recruit right now in this limbo period of unregulated name, image and likeness (NIL) money and impending revenue share money once the House settlement is approved.
“A lot of misleading information out there,” Smart said. “Nobody really knows what’s accurate. A lot of schools are approaching it in different ways. We hear something different from every school. So I don’t think anybody really knows.”
Smart is not permitted to talk about specific recruits.
Like his mentor Nick Saban at Alabama, Smart has benefitted from a Georgia discount in the NIL recruiting era. Georgia sells the long-term value of what being developed and coached in Athens can mean for a player’s NFL dreams and later compensation. It’s been a very successful approach — the Bulldogs signed the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class in 2025 — but it has its limits.
Just last recruiting cycle Georgia lost five-star defensive lineman Justus Terry, a Georgia native, to Texas in a stunner. Georgia had been recruiting Terry for years and was the heavy favorite to land him — he had even been committed to the Bulldogs at one point — before he opted for the Longhorns. On the day of his announcement, he called it a “business decision” multiple times and sources told CBS Sports that Texas made a more competitive NIL offer to the top 10 recruit.
There have been similar stories in recent years with players expected to go to Georgia only to end up elsewhere, from five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola (Nebraska) to star Alabama defensive back transfer Caleb Downs (another Georgia native) who opted for Ohio State and helped win a national championship for the Buckeyes last season.
Georgia, like other recent powerhouses, doesn’t (and may never again) have the overwhelming talent advantage it once possessed but has still been remarkably successful and consistent under Smart. The Bulldogs won national championships in 2021 and 2022 and were a No. 2 seed in the first year of the 12-team playoff after winning the SEC Championship. Georgia, which lost starting quarterback Carson Beck to a season-ending injury in the SEC title game, ultimately lost in the CFP quarterfinals to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame.
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On Tuesday, Smart credited his program’s consistency in performance and natural recruiting base for why it has stayed atop the sport. His answer, a day after losing a huge recruiting battle, felt like a recruiting pitch.
“We’ve had some really good football teams, and we got a good state to recruit from,” the Georgia coach said. “We got a great university to recruit to, academically and football-wise. It’s been a pleasure to be there.”
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