Kirby Smart sends Shane Beamer back to the kids' table with latest recruiting update

It is a border war of sorts down in SEC country, but there is a reason why the Georgia Bulldogs usually have the upper hand over the South Carolina Gamecocks: They just recruit better players. While recruiting is one of Shane Beamer's greatest strengths as a head coach, it is also Kirby Smart's bag, baby. Just look at Smart being able to take what is his and then some in this latest recruiting update.

Over Fourth of July Weekend, Georgia was able to get four-star cornerback Shamari Earls to flip his South Carolina commitment over to UGA. Earls had been committed to South Carolina since April 20. He made his official visit to Georgia on June 21 before committing a few weeks later. According to the 247Sports Composite, he is the No. 4 player from Virginia and the No. 11 cornerback in the country.

The four-star from Chester, Virginia is also the No. 105 player nationally in the 2025 recruiting class. He had 30 official offers and took five official visits to South Carolina (May 31), Virginia (June 7), Michigan (June 14), Duke (June 14) and Georgia (June 21). While Beamer should absolutely try to get players that Georgia wants, he needs to do a better job of winning more consistently on the gridiron.

Here is the sweet graphic On3's Hayes Fawcett put out on Sunday afternoon to announce the flip.

Georgia has the No. 3 class in 2025 with 18 commits (two five-stars, 14 four stars, two three-stars).

Kirby Smart gets one of Shane Beamer's top commits to flip to Georgia

While it did seem as though Earls was at least interested to see what his home state's flagship institution could offer him, he was bound to leave Virginia in his recruitment. Having been committed to South Carolina for nearly three months isn't something to sneeze at. He was probably going to go there if not for Georgia rolling out the Red and Black carpet for him during his visit late last month.

To me, the border war between Georgia and South Carolina has devolved into a hammer vs. nail rivalry ever since Beamer took over for Will Muschamp. While Muschamp and Smart are boys dating back to their playing days at UGA in the 1990s, Beamer too had worked for the Dawgs in his coaching career. That was two jobs ago for him before he went to Oklahoma before taking over in Columbia.

Right now, South Carolina needs as many wins as possible this fall to give Beamer another season at the helm. Even if Georgia were to go something like 10-2, the Dawgs are still making the expanded College Football Playoff. If Beamer is lucky, South Carolina goes something like 7-5 after a trying season. In all honesty, the schedule is brutal enough to where going 4-8 is a very real possibility.

Recruitment is how the rich get richer, and Georgia does about as good of a job of that as anyone.