Kirby Smart made his mark as not only an excellent defensive coordinator at Alabama, but as one of the best recruiters in the country. And Smart has proven his recruiting skills time and time again at Georgia: Top 5 classes are the rule. No. 1 classes are real.

At no other time was that more evident than during the 2018 recruiting cycle, when Smart led Georgia to its first No. 1 recruiting ranking. And as long as the Bulldogs keep winning, the 5-star recruits will keep coming.

But, with National Signing Day upon us, who ranks as Smart’s top-rated recruits over his 4 full recruiting cycles in Athens? A couple of disclaimers:

  • We’re only counting players who committed to Georgia while Smart was the head coach. Jacob Eason, for example, is a member of the class of 2016, but committed in 2014 long before Smart arrived (though give Smart an assist for keeping him in the fold after Mark Richt’s departure).
  • We’re basing this list on the player’s high school performance and recruiting ranking, not necessarily on their college performance.

10. Jamaree Salyer, OT

Jamaree Salyer’s big break could come in 2020, where he’ll be the presumptive starter at right tackle. But he made his mark in high school in Atlanta as one of the top offensive guards in the country, ranked at the top of his class at that position and as the No. 10 recruit in the country overall. After a recruiting battle with Florida that went down to the Early Signing Period in December 2017, it was the Bulldogs that ended up winning his services.

9. Isaiah Wilson, OT

Isaiah Wilson’s 2-year career will go down as one of the best for an offensive lineman in Georgia history. Smart’s prized offensive line recruit from Brooklyn, N.Y, the No. 5 tackle in the country in the class of 2017 redshirted his freshman season but was a mainstay at the right tackle slot during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. And while Wilson once declared Michigan as the favorite, Smart and the Bulldogs showed that the ground they had to make up wasn’t much in the end as Wilson pledged a week after an official visit in December 2016. The rest is history.

8. Jalen Carter, DT

Carter, the No. 4 defensive tackle in the country in the class of 2020, registered 64 tackles and 12.0 sacks for an Apopka (Fla.) team that fell just shy of a state championship in his senior season. Florida, Florida State and Miami were among the schools he had his eye on before selecting Georgia in May 2019. Smart has built a little bit of a pipeline to Florida: 12 players on the Dawgs’ preseason roster hail from the Sunshine State.

7. Darnell Washington, TE

Any time a recruit is called the “Zion Williamson of high school football,” you know that he deserves a look. And Washington, at 6-7 and 261 pounds, is hard for anyone to miss. The Las Vegas product, listed as the No. 2 athlete and No. 23 player in the class of 2020, is an elite tight end prospect who was coveted by major programs. After an official visit to Georgia was followed by stops at Florida, Alabama, Miami and Tennessee, Washington signed for his school of choice on Dec. 18. On Jan. 2, he announced at the U.S. Army All-American Game that the school in question was Georgia, giving the Dawgs a massive target on offense to pair with a promising set of wide receivers.

6. Nakobe Dean, ILB

Dean’s numbers in high school were eye-popping: 274 tackles, 45.0 tackles for a loss and 15.0 sacks combined in his junior and senior seasons as he ended his career with Horn Lake (Miss.) as a centerpiece of a stingy defensive unit that lifted the Eagles to a perfect 15-0 mark and a state title. The No. 2 inside linebacker and No. 19 player in the country, Dean took his time with his recruitment, eventually spurning heavy overtures from Ole Miss to focus on Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M. The Dawgs eventually received his signature to open the December 2018 Early Signing Period, and one of the top players in the state of Mississippi was theirs.

5. George Pickens, WR

Naturally, one of the big-time schools in George Pickens’ home state of Alabama would be high on his final list. In this case, it was Auburn, along with Georgia, LSU, Miami and Tennessee, and whoever landed him would be hauling in the country’s No. 4 wideout and a player who registered 1,368 yards and 16 touchdowns on 69 catches as a senior.

And it was, in fact, the Tigers who received his pledge in July 2017, but after Georgia extended an offer to him in January 2018, it upped its pursuit and eventually got its man on National Signing Day 2019 as Pickens flipped from Auburn to the Bulldogs.

With an up-and-down season behind him that ended with an outstanding showing in the Sugar Bowl against Baylor, Pickens, Georgia’s leading returning receiver, is a player to keep an eye on in 2020.

4. Kelee Ringo, CB

Ringo’s main draw to college recruiters was his speed, which he leveraged during his senior year at Saguaro High School in Arizona to score 13 rushing touchdowns to go along with his 32 tackles. He also used it in track to win multiple state titles in a number of events and posted one of the fastest 100-meter dash times in Arizona history.

But would the country’s No. 4 overall 2020 recruit, and its No. 1 cornerback, stay close to home or look elsewhere? He made the call at the Under Armour All-American Bowl on Jan. 4, picking Georgia over Oregon. And it’s his previously mentioned speed that could make Ringo one of the top cover corners in the SEC, a player who might push for some playing time in the secondary immediately.

3. Nolan Smith, DE

The 5-star recruit was ranked Class of 2019’s No. 1 prospect in the country following a junior campaign that saw him post 41 tackles, 10.0 tackles for a loss and 4.5 sacks for the nationally-acclaimed IMG Academy. He upped the ante as a senior, bumping his totals to 47 tackles, 14.5 TFLs and 6.5 sacks.

Smith had been committed to Georgia since January 2017, but despite official visits to Alabama, Penn State and Tennessee, it was Georgia who received his final official, and ultimately his signature, in December 2018, making him only the 2nd Bulldog signee ranked No. 1 on the 247Sports composite rankings.

His mix of pass- and run-rushing ability led the Bulldogs to switch him from defensive end to linebacker, where he tallied 2.5 sacks as a freshman. If that, plus the hype during his high school career, is any indication, he has the opportunity to really make his mark on the Dawgs’ vaunted defense.

2. Zamir White, RB

White’s name was all over the recruiting boards from his freshman season in 2014, when he burst onto the scene by rushing for over 1,230 yards and 18 touchdowns. All he did for an encore was add 41 more touchdowns and 2,159 yards to his total as a sophomore, eventually ending his career at Scotland County (N.C.) with 7,169 yards and 199 touchdowns on 738 carries, an incredible 9.7 yards per attempt.

While Mark Richt and the previous staff offered White March 2015, Smart and his staff made sure a potentially explosive high school player didn’t escape their grasp. On June 27, 2017, his mother’s birthday — months before a senior season where he ran for 2,086 yards and 34 touchdowns on just 148 carries — White pledged to the Bulldogs and became a part of what then stood as Georgia’s first No. 1 recruiting class.

White’s faced a bit of adversity: He had to fight back from an ACL tear in high school, only to sustain another one in preseason camp that sidelined him for his true freshman season. With that behind him, and after giving Dawgs fans a taste of what he could do throughout 2019, he may be ready to join the greats at the position for Georgia.

1. Justin Fields, QB

Yep, we had to go there.

Fields was the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2018 class, trailing only Trevor Lawrence.

It wasn’t just what he could do while passing the ball that was a draw for schools in the hunt for Justin Fields — it was what he could do while running the ball. His junior season ended with him throwing for 23 touchdowns and over 2,700 yards while running it 191 times for 1,176 yards and 15 touchdowns, so it was no wonder that he was in such high demand with 42 offers to his name. He committed to Penn State following that junior campaign in December 2016 and then decommitted the following June. Georgia eventually held off Alabama and LSU to help Smart polish off the country’s No. 1 recruiting class in 2018.

We won’t get into the rest of the story because Georgia fans already know how it ends. But while Fields exchanged his red jersey for another shade of red at Ohio State, he’s easily the biggest recruiting win thus far in the Kirby Smart era.