{"id":1042,"date":"2026-09-17T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/dawg-sports-report-2026-09-17\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T07:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:00:06","slug":"dawg-sports-report-2026-09-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/dawg-sports-report-2026-09-17\/","title":{"rendered":"The Porch Light Is On for Ohio State’s Best Recruit"},"content":{"rendered":"

GEORGIA MONEYBALL \u2014 Thursday, September 17, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The nation's No. 3 prospect \u2014 a Georgia legacy committed to the Buckeyes \u2014 watched the Dawgs hang seventy the same weekend Ohio State handed away No. 1 down in Austin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ALBANY, GA \u2014 \u00b7 By the RFA Sports Desk<\/small><\/p>\n

The best high-school football player in the state of Georgia \u2014 the No. 3 prospect in the whole country, if you believe the fellows who rank such things \u2014 was in the stands at Sanford Stadium for the 70-to-20 handling of Western Kentucky. His name is David Jacobs Jr., he rushes the passer for Blessed Trinity, and his family tree runs straight through Athens. There is just one complication, and it is a considerable one: the young man is committed, for the moment, to Ohio State.<\/p>\n

Now, about the timing. That same weekend, while young Mr. Jacobs was watching Georgia score seventy, his chosen program was down in Austin sitting on a 20-point fourth-quarter lead the way a man sits on a porch rail \u2014 confidently, right up until he doesn't. Texas came all the way back and won it 24 to 23 on a one-yard plunge by a fellow named Hollywood Smothers with 25 seconds left, in front of 105,044 witnesses. Per the school and ESPN, nobody had erased a 20-point hole against the AP No. 1 in 22 seasons. Ohio State is no longer the AP No. 1.<\/p>\n

\n

Sometimes the best recruiting pitch is just leaving the porch light on and letting a boy find his own way up the driveway.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The folks at UGASports report that flipping him would be a tough pull, and I take them at their word \u2014 a commitment is a commitment, right up until National Signing Day says otherwise. But Kirby Smart did not get where he is by leaving a legacy unrecruited, and Jacobs was hardly alone in those stands. Five-star quarterback commit Jayden Wade was on hand, along with in-state safety Casey Barner and five-star tight end commit Jaxon Dollar. That is not a guest list. That is a showroom.<\/p>\n

And the sales pitch mostly takes care of itself. Georgia sits at No. 2 in the AP poll, two and oh, having outscored the opposition by 110 points \u2014 the kind of arithmetic that does not require a brochure. The Bulldogs open SEC play Saturday at Arkansas, a noon kickoff on ABC in Fayetteville, where the folks at Whole Hog Sports report Georgia opened as a favorite of some twenty-four and a half points. A young man deciding where to spend his college Saturdays could do worse than watch all that and think it over.<\/p>\n

I make no predictions about teenagers. A man who predicts teenagers will take up predicting the weather next and be wrong at both. But consider what the young man has seen lately: the school of his people scoring seventy at home while the school of his commitment was giving away twenty in Austin. Athens didn't have to say a word. Sometimes the best recruiting pitch is just leaving the porch light on and letting a boy find his own way up the driveway.<\/p>\n

The Notebook<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • ELSEWHERE IN THE WRECKAGE:<\/strong> Oklahoma State, a 23-and-a-half-point underdog carrying a 21-game losing streak against FBS company, beat No. 6 Oregon 39 to 31 behind Drew Mestemaker, and the home folks stormed the field in Stillwater. ESPN notes no team had ever ended a skid that long against a top-ten opponent.<\/li>\n
  • CIRCLE SEPTEMBER 26:<\/strong> No. 24 Oklahoma comes to Athens at 3:30, network still to be named \u2014 the first meeting since the Sooners joined the SEC, and the first since Georgia's 54-48 double-overtime Rose Bowl win. Michigan just handled those same Sooners 17 to 10 in Ann Arbor, so the shine needs some polishing.<\/li>\n
  • NEXT UP:<\/strong> Georgia opens SEC play Saturday at Arkansas, noon Eastern on ABC at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Whole Hog Sports reports the Razorbacks are sticking with KJ Jackson at quarterback.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946\u20131994.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    GEORGIA MONEYBALL \u2014 Thursday, September 17, 2026 The nation's No. 3 prospect \u2014 a Georgia legacy committed to the Buckeyes \u2014 watched the Dawgs hang seventy the same weekend Ohio State handed away No. 1 down in Austin. ALBANY, GA \u2014 \u00b7 By the RFA Sports Desk The best high-school football player in the state […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dawg-sports-report","category-georgia-moneyball","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pretoriafieldsradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}