Make no mistake about it, Georgia has a fantastic recruiting class and it could get even better.

That’s amazing considering the Bulldogs fired a head coach who had been in place for 15 seasons, but it also speaks volumes about who they hired to replace him and the general attractiveness of the UGA program.

With that, here are three important questions and answers on Georgia’s 2016 recruiting efforts.

How has the transition been managed from a recruiting standpoint by Kirby Smart and his staff?

They’ve handled it well and surpassed expectations. It’s tough on recruiting when a coaching change is made and even tougher when the new head coach is balancing responsibilities with his previous job, yet we still see that UGA has the No. 9 class in the country, suffered very little significant attrition and still is in the thick of things for many of the top prospects that remain.

From a recruiting standpoint, things could not have gone any better to this point.

Can Georgia have a big finish?

Yes. The Bulldogs have a pair of five stars right in their back yard in athlete Mecole Hardman Jr. (Elberton, Ga./Elbert County) and defensive tackle Derrick Brown (Buford, Ga./Lanier). They are trying to keep both from crossing the western border and heading to Alabama and Auburn, respectively.

Right now, Georgia is in better shape for Brown than for Hardman, but in the end I predict they will get both.

Add those two and some others and the Bulldogs are looking at close to a top five class nationally, which is almost unheard of when it comes to a coaching transition.

Nick Saban’s first class at Alabama didn’t rank that high. Urban Meyer’s first class at Florida didn’t rank that high. Both of those coaches won national titles in their first three seasons and Meyer did it in his second.

Is this class capable of raising the level of play at Georgia?

Absolutely. Georgia has been undergoing a two, three-cycle build on the defensive line and in the secondary as Mark Richt was building it back on the recruiting trail. It was not as if the Bulldogs didn’t have or recruit any good defensive linemen or defensive backs, it’s that a lot didn’t pan out and UGA was very light on the interior of the defensive front.

They were very un-Georgia the past few years with regards to those two spots, but with the players the Dawgs signed in the 2015 class, combined with an excellent haul in this class, Georgia is about to cycle up in those two areas that have been a bit average from a talent standpoint.

Furthermore, the Bulldogs landed the quarterback of the future (and perhaps the present) in five-star Jacob Eason from Lake Stevens, Wash. The 6-foot-5 Eason has already enrolled and could compete for the starting job this season. He’s on par skill-set wise with a David Greene, Matt Stafford or Aaron Murray, the three best quarterbacks of the Mark Richt era and the three that got Georgia at least close to playing for all the marbles.