David Gabriel-Georges was once in Georgia’s mix, but the path never stayed open for long.
The five-star running back, ranked No. 2 at his position in the country, is expected to announce his commitment sometime in July. Georgia had been in the hunt and even had him lined up for an official visit to Athens a few weeks ago. That trip never happened, though, because Gabriel-Georges canceled it and effectively ended things with the Bulldogs.
At the time, the breakup didn’t have a clean explanation. Some people pointed to the fact that fellow five-star back Kemon Spell was already committed to Georgia, but that theory doesn’t fully hold up. If Spell’s pledge was the real issue, Gabriel-Georges likely would have moved on the moment Spell picked Georgia.
The more likely answer is money, and a lot of it.
On3 reported July 1, 2026 that Gabriel-Georges is in line to become the first running back prospect with a $1 million deal. The exact number hasn’t been shared yet, but the expectation is that his agreement will be massive - big enough to rank as the largest NIL deal ever for a running back recruit. That kind of number changes the whole recruiting conversation.
Georgia, under Kirby Smart, has been willing to invest in NIL. But the Bulldogs are not built around throwing huge stacks of cash at every elite recruit just to win a battle.
Smart has made that clear, and he has not shown any interest in shifting that approach for one player, no matter how talented he is. If Gabriel-Georges is headed for one of the biggest NIL packages in recruiting history, Georgia probably never had a real shot.
Even so, this isn’t the kind of miss that should send Georgia fans into panic mode.
The Bulldogs already have Spell, who is the No. 1 running back in the country. With both backs projected to want lead roles at the next level, it never made much sense for them to land in the same backfield anyway.
And from Georgia’s perspective, the NIL angle also says something about fit. Smart has won three SEC titles and two National Championships in the NIL era without chasing the type of recruit who is driven most by that market. Whatever else happens with Gabriel-Georges, Georgia has already shown it knows how to operate in this landscape.
Sure, landing the top two running backs in the country would have been a huge recruiting win. But this one doesn’t really land as a loss for Georgia. With Spell already in the fold, the Bulldogs will be fine.
In Other News...
Georgia Fans Are Missing The Real Kirby Smart Recruiting Debate
The hand-wringing around Georgias 2027 recruiting standing misses a bigger point about how college football actually works now. Elite classes still matter, but the sport has shifted enough that rankings alone no longer tell you much about who will end up in the CFP picture. In the NIL and transfer portal era, the path to sustained success has become more complicated, with coaching, player development, culture and roster management carrying far more weight than they used to.
Kirby Smarts program is the clearest example of that change, because Georgia has continued to stack top-end talent while also proving it can turn that talent into results. The Bulldogs 2025 class finished second and the team landed third in the CFP rankings, which says plenty about the programs broader formula. It also explains why a transfer like Zachariah Branch could matter so much, and why the real debate around Georgia is less about one recruiting ranking than how Smart keeps the whole machine moving. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia Fans Have Seen This Recruiting Panic Before
A quick glance at Georgias 2027 recruiting class is enough to make the fan base uneasy, with the group sitting 17th in the 247Sports composite and seventh among SEC schools. But the Bulldogs have lived through enough recruiting cycles to know that the early winter mood around a class rarely tells the whole story, especially when the class still includes two five-star commitments and the kind of headline talent that can change fast once the calendar turns.
Georgia fans also have a built-in reminder that rankings and commitments are only part of the picture. The 2018 class looked one way on paper and ended up producing a far different mix of outcomes, with some elite recruits taking divergent paths while lower-rated signees grew into the backbone of the 2021 national championship team. In an era shaped by NIL and the transfer portal, the Bulldogs are managing more moving parts than ever, and the real story usually takes longer to reveal itself than the recruiting table suggests. [Read more 🡒]