You scroll down that ESPN top 25 for the 2027 class and see us sitting at No. 11 with zero five-stars and I just have to shake my head. Not because I think the sky is falling, no, I remember the 1994 season when we brought in a class that nobody outside of Athens had ever heard of and turned those boys into the group that gave us that 1997 Outback Bowl win over Wisconsin. That was a team built on players who wanted to be Bulldogs, not on some ranking a recruiting analyst put together in June.
The difference now is these kids are getting their heads turned by NIL before they even put on a practice jersey. You see Oregon with five five-stars in their 2026 class and Texas stacking Dia Bell and Richard Wesley and I wonder how many of those kids actually end up staying four years. Back when Coach Dooley was running things, you committed to Georgia and you understood what that meant. You were going to grind through August two-a-days on that old grass field and you were going to earn every single snap. Now a kid commits and six months later he is in the portal because somebody offered him a better deal.
What I do see in this 2027 class that gives me hope is the type of player we are pulling. We have not chased the five-star flash. We are getting kids who fit the culture, kids who want to play between the hedges and not just cash a check. I think about the 2002 season when we finally broke through and won the SEC. That team did not have a roster full of five-stars. It had a bunch of juniors and seniors who had been in the system for three years and knew what it took to win in this league. That is what I miss. That is what this staff is trying to build again while everyone else is playing the portal game.
I am not saying we do not need talent. You cannot win in this league without it. But I would rather be No. 11 with a class full of kids who want to be here than No. 1 with a group that is going to scatter the second something shinier comes along. Give me the kid who grew up watching us on Saturdays and who bleeds red and black over the mercenary who is just passing through. That is how you win championships the right way.