Georgia fans are convinced 5-star setbacks for Kirby Smart are all NIL related

In the blink of an eye, Tuesday ended up being a downright disaster for Kirby Smart. First, 5-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson, a Georgia product, spurned the Dawgs and he ended up committing to Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns. Brutal.

Then, not long after, more breaking news came in for Texas, but it was once again a major disaster for UGA. We're of course talking about 5-star defensive lineman JJ Johnson flipping his verbal from the Bulldogs to UT. What in the world?

While at SEC Media Days, Smart talked about recruiting and he said that the process for his staff when going after top targets is all about building relationships and not having things be transactional. Georgia fans are convinced he knew Johnson was going to flip. On top of that, the UGA faithful are also pretty confident that Texas broke the bank to get him to change his mind. This is the new NIL world we live in:

Kirby Smart is clearly frustrated with how NIL money is impacting Georgia recruiting

Yup, Smart seems pretty darn ticked off and we can't blame him for that. The Johnson news really felt like it came out of nowhere. With Atkinson, it's a huge bummer because not only is he a 5-star playmaker, but he's also an uber-talented in-state recruit.

Kirby and Co. are always going to want to keep the top guys home. However, in back-to-back recruiting cycles, the No. 1 ranked player from Georgia has decided to play elsewhere. This is something that can't continue for UGA moving forward.

At the end of the day, though, if other programs are putting millions of dollars on the table and Georgia can't match things, what's Smart supposed to do? Texas can put all the dough in front of recruits that they want and that's exactly what's gone on this spring and summer.

Georgia continues to recruit its own way and Smart isn't going to change his philosophy. With that said, he's got to be pretty frustrated with how things have gone down this week, but he can sleep well knowing that UGA still has the No. 2 2026 class in the country per 247Sports. That alone should shut up plenty of the Georgia haters.