Kirby Smart vs. Lincoln Riley Recruitment War Turns Ugly as Fans Mercilessly Mock Georgia Bulldogs Over Jadon Perlotte’s USC Flip

Another day, another Georgia Bulldogs hoopla. While HC Kirby Smart is gaining the trust of five-star recruits for creating a dynasty in the Georgia hood, he is losing back-to-back fresh talent. All thanks to the faulty culture caused by the series of player arrests over the past year, that robbed the program of its supreme status. Instead, along with the fresh blood, the old talent is going away to the rivals.

Here comes a big blow for Smart and company as the longest-tenured Georgia commit Jadon Perlotte flipped to Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojans. This was enough for fans to rip apart the Bulldogs HC. 

Perlotte’s surprising commitment change, from Dawgs to Trojans

Smart’s program has been on a tear as of late on the recruiting trail. And here came another hit. On July 31, linebacker Perlotte announced his swapping move and commitment to the Trojans. Even though this move has been building for a while now, it finally became real. Perlotte is rated as a four-star prospect and holds the rank of the 165th-best player in the country. However, as far as the LB position is concerned, he is the 20th-best player.  

Perlotte’s commitment to Georgia came shortly after the SEC Championship when he committed in December 2022. But now it seems that his time in Georgia was short-lived. As soon as the 2025 class took center focus, rivals including Auburn, Ohio State, Alabama, Miami, and Florida State started to push for Perlotte. But the Buford High LB’s final decision was to bid goodbye to Smart and join hands with Riley. With this decision, Georgia drops down to 21 public commitments for the 2025 cycle. Even though the reason behind the flip is not clear, fans are launching their doubt darts at one bullseye.     

Fans poke fun of Georgia HC Smart as Perlotte heads to USC

After all, players both old and new are in a dilemma of whether to be a part of Smart’s program. At present, the Bulldogs are in a great soup. Not one, not two but at least 24 players of the Georgia tribe have been arrested since February last year, with three cases in this July. On the contrary, Riley’s track record is squeaky clean, and based on this a fan commented how the Trojans’ HC submerged the Georgia HC, “Lincoln Riley just stuffed Kirby Smart in a locker.”

And here a fan landed a speculation of what might have propelled Perlotte to switch programs. “He probably just doesn’t want to go to jail and really wants to get his degree,” wrote the fan. Smart is witnessing some of the best and the worst. While he lands some, he loses some that made one fan comment, “This flip-flop from Georgia to USC is pretty interesting.”

For a die-hard USC fan, all that he garners for the Bulldogs is pure hate, “F*ck Georgia, all my homies hate Georgia.” Losing out on old talent would definitely cost Smart hard. On top of that, the Bulldogs’ turbulent situation gifted Riley with another fresh talent, potential linebacker recruit Xavier Griffin.