Five-star prospects are few and far between.
There are 32 in 247sports.com’s Class of 2026, and that’s about par for the course. It’s the third consecutive year with 32 five-star recruits after there were 33 in the Classes of 2021 and 2022.
With approximately 14,000 high schools playing football and more than a million athletes on those teams, a player with a fifth star is rare, indeed, representing roughly one three-thousandth of a percent in any one given class. Five of those 32 prospects this year hail from the Peach State, and two of them are linebackers – Gainesville’s Xavier Griffin (6-3, 200 lbs) and Grayson (Loganville)’s Tyler Atkinson (6-2, 210 lbs).
It’s splitting hairs to differentiate between the two, but thankfully, we have recruiting sites to do that for us. 247sports.com has Griffin rated as the No. 8 prospect overall in the Class of 2026, regardless of position, and Atkinson checks in at No. 20 overall. Surprisingly, neither of them had Georgia on their mind when it came to choosing a college destination with Griffin pledging to the Alabama Crimson Tide and Atkinson hitching his wagon to the Texas Longhorns.
This is Gainesville’s last ride with Griffin patrolling behind the defensive line, and they’d like to make the most of it. Last year’s finish was underwhelming; a 7-3 regular season ended quickly in the first round of the playoffs as the Red Elephants stumbled down the stretch after a 6-1 start.
Playing in Georgia’s brutal Class 5A Region 7, they ended up losing three of their final four games, including two regional games to finish third in the division. That included losses to the eventual state champion Milton Eagles and the Roswell Hornets who beat the Elephants in a 48-45 shootout in the regular-season finale to determine second place in the region. That forced…
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Publish date : 2025-08-14 00:39:00
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