The college football season is pretty much over for every Power Four program except four. While most head coaches are busy stacking bodies left and right through the transfer portal for next season, Kirby Smart decided to look beyond the present. He traveled 885 miles to secure the Bulldogs’ long-term future by locking in on a former Georgia alum’s son.

On January 4, two days into the portal, while the whole college football world was running behind the portal, Kirby Smart and his staff took an 885-mile trip to Bridgeport, West Virginia, to check in on a quarterback prospect some folks are already daring to compare to Josh Allen or Ben Roethlisberger.

What makes the trip stand out even more is the recruit’s age. Eli Knight isn’t a high schooler yet. He’s an eighth-grader in the class of 2030. Kirby Smart taking this caliber of trip in the midst of the Bulldogs’ massive receiver exodus pretty much sums up how important this recruiting is to him.

What’s even more astonishing is that Georgia is offering a scholarship to a barely eighth-grader, basically an unofficial letter of intent. The last time the Bulldogs pulled this caliber of scholarship was to Jashwan Sheffield back in 2015, when he was just in 9th grade.

It’s safe to say that his parents, especially his dad, a former Bulldog, did a good job raising him.

Ian Knight was a standout center for the Georgia Bulldogs from 1998 to 2002. He was a three-year letterman and a key part of the 2002 squad that won the SEC Championship, even starting at center for every single game that season. He ended his Bulldogs career with the Sugar Bowl dub over Florida State in 2003.

While Eli’s stats are not available, his talent hasn’t gone unnoticed in the youth football world. He was named the Offensive Player of the Year at a major banquet and was the MVP of a prominent all-star game. He’s also helped his team, the Jackson County Panthers, win their league championship twice.

Of course, he’s still light-years away from actually picking a college, as he’s only in middle school. If he sticks with the Bulldogs, he won’t be able to officially sign his name on the dotted line until December 2029, which is the early signing period for his high school senior year. After that, he’d finally head off to campus to start his college career in 2030.

This situation explains the increasingly competitive nature of college football recruiting, where coaches are identifying and pursuing talented athletes at younger ages, just like they do in Formula 1. Though his college decision is still years away, Eli Knight is a name worth circling for the future.

Meanwhile, Kirby Smart is clearly playing the long game when it comes to his quarterback recruiting. He’s got plenty of names in his mind whom he’d love to recruit.

Kirby Smart’s QB target list

Since the dust settled on the 2026 class, the Bulldogs have remained laser-focused on locking in some big names for the years ahead.

Let’s start with whom they’ve already secured.

For the class of 2028, Georgia has already secured a token of loyalty from Jayden Wade.

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He is ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit for his class and chose the Bulldogs over powerhouses like Texas and Ohio State. Wade is essentially a leaner version of Eli Knight, standing around 6’5″ and weighing 185 pounds. He plays for IMG, throwing for over 1,300 yards and 20 touchdowns at IMG Academy.

Looking at the class of 2027, the Bulldogs have no commitments yet, but they are aggressively pursuing top talent.

They are battling LSU and Alabama for Elijah Haven. Haven stands around 6’5″ and has already racked 4K yards and 56 TDs. They are also chasing the highly rated southpaw Colton Nussmeier, the younger brother of Garrett Nussmeier.

You can bet that Kirby Smart will lock either of them in December.