Tuesday was a brutal day for the Georgia Bulldogs on the recruiting trail as Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns bested Kirby Smart. Not only did Texas pull off a massive flip landing the top defensive tackle in the class James JJ Johnson but, they also were able to land 5-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson who's ranked as the best player in Georgia.
Typically a player like Tyler Atkinson is a lock for Georgia especially when he's from the Bulldogs backyard. Atkinson is an elite do-it-all linebacker who has elite potential as an inside linebacker or rushing the quarterback off the edge. Georgia just sent Jalon Walker into the NFL Draft in the first round playing the same role.
After losing out on a 5-star recruit in their own backyard who seemed built in a lab to play for Kirby Smart, the Georgia Bulldogs fanbase was looking for answers as to why they missed out on a perfect fit. In a world of internet trolls and people pretending to be credible reporters, one Twitter/X user made a fake Hayes Fawcett graphic claiming Atkinson told him he was more concerned about building his brand.
Tyler Atkinson opened up with me with a 1-on-1 interview shortly after he committed to Texas and here's what he said: pic.twitter.com/IfUadKQTnq
— Jenna Talia ESPN Recruiting Analyst (@JennaTaliaESPN) July 15, 2025
Georgia fans saw this fake graphic and ran with it claiming that Tyler Atkinson was no longer a fit if building a brand was more important. All it took was one fake graphic and Atkinson to commit to another program for Georgia fans to believe that Tyler Atkinson was a bust, except they were judging Atkinson off of a fake quote.
One Texas fan even pointed out that all the Georgia fans needed to do was look at the name of the so called reporter and they would've known it was a troll account.
The responses here from UGA fans to this very legitimate report from “Jenna Talia” 😂😂😂😂😂 https://t.co/6QD0z9bHGe
— Alex Dunlap (@AlexDunlapNFL) July 16, 2025
The current era of College Football recruiting is wild which is part of the problem as it makes a ton of crazy stories believable. The lesson here is to find the best recruiting analysts and to double check the usernames of each account as the ability to buy a blue checkmark has made it far easier to get duped.