Tennessee’s recruiting win on David Gabriel Georges already looks like the kind that can reshape a class.
The Volunteers beat out Ohio State and Ole Miss for the elite running back this summer, landing a commitment from a player plenty of people viewed as a difference-maker from the start. Tennessee had the edge of Georges playing high school football in the state, but the conversation around his recruitment also centered on NIL, with Tennessee reportedly offering the 5-star recruit a three-year deal worth an annual average of $2 million per season.
That price tag drew plenty of reaction when it surfaced. Some saw it as a steep investment, especially with the NFL’s recent reluctance to pay running backs big money. But Tennessee’s bet looked a lot more justified Thursday night.
In the first game of Georges’ senior season, with ESPN carrying the action, he showed off exactly why he was such a coveted prospect. His contact balance was on full display on a run that had people buzzing online, with one post calling it, “Once again, David Gabriel Georges is ridiculous. The contact balance is elite. pic.twitter.com/IcHmLVN9ur”
Another clip of the same sequence made the rounds too, with the reaction, “HOW DID DAVID GABRIEL GEORGES STAY ON HIS FEET?!? pic.twitter.com/xaMaalpVCF”
Georges finished with 28 carries for 151 yards and two touchdowns, according to MaxPreps, and his team held off Brentwood Academy for a 28-24 win.
The performance was a reminder of why he drew so much attention in the first place. Rivals’ Industry Recruiting Rankings list Georges as the No. 8 player in the country, the No. 2 running back in the class, and the top-ranked player in Tennessee.
If he keeps producing like this, the conversation around his place in the class is only going to get louder. Tennessee appears to have landed a superstar, and now the only question is whether it can keep Ohio State or another program from making a run at a flip.
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The jersey reveal also prompted a familiar question for longtime followers of the program, since the Pat Summitt Foundation has long had a visible place on Lady Vols gear. Early mock-ups created some uncertainty on that front, but the expectation around the program is that Summitts presence will remain part of the uniforms even as the new sponsorship era begins. For a team whose identity is so closely tied to its past, that detail matters almost as much as the new commercial one. [Read more 🡒]