Kirby Smart appears ready to move into the next phase of the Georgia dynasty.
Five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola – the top player in the class of 2024 – will make that possible for a program that has won the last two national championships and is ranked No. 1 in Sporting News' Post Spring Top 25.
Smart – like his mentor Nick Saban – is evolving the program. Georgia – which emerged as a national championship contender with ground-and-pound and defense – has now accumulated enough blue-chip talent to run with Alabama every year. With elite quarterback play, the Bulldogs will stay on top. How does Raiola add to that?
Who is Dylan Raiola?
Raiola is a five-star quarterback from Pinnacle High School in Arizona. He is the son of former Detroit Lions center Dominic Raiola, who played at Nebraska. Raiola originally committed to Ohio State, but he reopened his commitment. Nebraska was in the mix, but Raiola chose Georgia instead.
Raiola is the top-ranked recruit in the class of 2024, according to 247Sports.com.
Georgia five-star quarterbacks under Kirby Smart
This isn't the first five-star quarterback Georgia has landed since Smart took over in 2016. Jacob Eason was part of the class Smart inherited after taking over for Mark Richt, and Justin Fields and Brock Vandagriff also were five-star recruits.
A look at Georgia's quarterback recruits under Smart:
| YEAR | QB | STARS | RATING |
| 2018 | Justin Fields | 5 | 0.9998 |
| 2024 | Dylan Raiola | 5 | 0.9988 |
| 2015 | Jacob Eason | 5 | 0.9975 |
| 2021 | Brock Vandagriff | 5 | 0.9908 |
| 2017 | Jake Fromm | 4 | 0.9794 |
| 2022 | Gunner Stockton | 4 | 0.9506 |
| 2020 | Carson Beck | 4 | 0.9095 |
| 2019 | Stetson Bennett | 3 | 0.8837 |
Of course, that is where the intrigue begins. Eason transferred to Washington in 2018, and Fields transferred to Ohio State after one season with the Bulldogs. Neither of those five-star quarterbacks unseated Jake Fromm, a four-star quarterback who led Georgia to the CFP championship game in 2017.
Similarly, the lowest-recruited quarterback on that list - Stetson Bennett – guided the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships the last two seasons.
Carson Beck – a four-star quarterback – appears to have the lead on five-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff heading into the 2023 season. So, it's one thing for Georgia to recruit a five-star quarterback. Vandagriff and Gunner Stockton remain on the Bulldogs' roster, which is somewhat of a surprise in the portal era.
How Kirby Smart is following Nick Saban's model
Alabama coach Nick Saban has won six national championships at Alabama. The early portion of that dynasty featured quarterbacks such as Greg McElroy and A.J. McCarron, who thrived around a power-football offense that featured running backs such as Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson; and a defense flush with NFL talent. The 2015 national championship team featured Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry with Jake Coker at quarterback.
Sound familiar? That philosophy has helped Georgia win back-to-back national championships, but the game continues to rely on offense. Smart - a former defensive coordinator at Alabama – talked about how the game has shifted toward the offense on Jan. 7 – two days before Georgia's 65-7 victory against TCU in the College Football Playoff championship game.
"Football has evolved to where offenses are definitely ahead of defenses," Smart said. "It just seems to expose itself more towards the end of the year. I don't know if anybody can put a fingerprint – I'm not trying to put a fingerprint on it right now, trying to stop the next play, trying to score on the next play on offense.
"But I think it is a thing," he said. "I just don't know what causes it or what allows it. The conditioning levels may have something to do with that. Offenses have been ahead of defenses. We have seen a lot of high-scoring games."
Alabama's last three starting quarterbacks – Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young – were first-round picks in the NFL Draft. Young was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Even Jalen Hurts – who transferred to Oklahoma from Alabama – was a second-round pick. The Crimson Tide have won two of their three national championships in the CFP era with first-round quarterbacks.
Georgia quarterback outlook
With Beck, Vandagriff and Stockton in 2023, the Bulldogs have enough to be in another national championship chase in 2023. Beck finished 13 of 18 for 211 yards and a touchdown in the G-Day spring game and appears to have the lead in the competition. Neither Vandagriff nor Stockton entered the transfer portal.
All three quarterbacks have been redshirted, and Smart has been consistent about bringing in at least one quarterback per class with the exception of 2023.
When Raiola arrives, there is a good chance Georgia can be patient with his development, and it's likely at least one of those three quarterbacks would at least entertain the transfer portal.
If Raiola sticks and develops into a first-round pick, then that should open a quarterback pipeline similar to Alabama at Georgia. That's a scary thought for the rest of the SEC.
Georgia quarterbacks and the NFL Draft
Bennett was a fourth-round pick in 2023, and Fromm was a fifth-round pick in 2020. Aaron Murray was a fourth-round pick in 2014. Matthew Stafford – the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft – is the only Bulldogs' quarterback to be selected in the first round in the Super Bowl era.
If Smart starts producing first-round quarterbacks on a roster that produced 25 NFL Draft picks in the last two years, then the Bulldogs' dynasty will be in line to produce even more national championships.