Georgia football set for seven official visits on scavenger hunt weekend

The biggest official visit weekend of the 2027 recruiting cycle so far is underway for Georgia football.

DawgNation has learned 4-star WR Amare Patterson, fresh off a pair of second-place finishes at the South Carolina state track meet, was en route to Athens on Friday morning.

Although the Bulldogs hosted two official visitors at G-Day last month, the program gets serious with its 2027 high-value targets this weekend. That will happen at the same time as the annual Kirby Smart scavenger hunt, with some unofficial visitors in town.

Finding Smart on campus and taking a selfie with the head coach for social media are central to the scavenger hunt weekend. That’s the main event, but the annual affair combines a lot of fun, mixing a campus tour with everything from pet snakes to library archive visits to fountain diving to walkie-talkie work to some gamesmanship involving one another’s golf carts over the years.

The scavenger hunt teams are usually divided by position groups.

The only difference with this year’s event is that the number of official visitors has grown over the past few years. DawgNation is tracking eight prospects expected to take their official visit to UGA this weekend.

It is best to present them in two groups:

• The wide receiver group
• The defensive group

SCAVENGER HUNT WIDE RECEIVER OVs

What’s the quick-as-a-hiccup rundown?

• McFarland is a textbook example of the Zachariah Branch prototype for a future UGA offense. He’s built the same way and was an “alpha” standout for IMG Academy last year as a sophomore. He reclassified from 2028 to 2027 and was still ranked as a 5-star. The Bulldogs have a chance, but not as strong as Texas A&M and perhaps Ohio State. They will need to swing big this weekend.
• Patterson has long been linked to either Florida or Georgia. That’s gone back and forth since he took a big multiday “Junior Day” visit to UGA in January. LSU has entered the fold, however. The yards-after-catch specialist showed he also has blistering speed this spring by clocking a 10.5 in the 100 and a 21.5 in the 200 during track season. He recently named LSU his leader after a visit, but he’s since taken all his contenders back to the starting line in the race for his commitment.
• Thompson is a dynamite playmaker. That was made clear when he hurdled a defender on his way to a touchdown in the state championship last season. Offensive players can’t do that in Georgia, but they can in North Carolina. Thompson told DawgNation this week it would be accurate to frame his recruitment as a battle at the top between Alabama and Georgia. He’s ranked as a 3-star recruit, but those two schools show he’s better than that. He had 53 catches for 865 yards (16.3 ypc) and 13 touchdown catches as a junior.

Optimal scenario: McFarland signs with UGA. Everything else at the position would be gravy for this cycle.

Likely scenario: Georgia eventually wins the battle for one of these guys.

What needs to happen: The Bulldogs sign one of these three WRs in town this week.

North Carolina 3-star WR Namajay Thompson will take his official visit to Georgia this weekend. (Courtesy)

Amare Patterson (third from left), the 4-star WR from Bluffton High School in South Carolina, is one of the top targets for Georgia football. (Courtesy)

SCAVENGER HUNT DEFENSIVE OVs

What’s the quick-as-a-hiccup rundown here look like?

• It has been an on-again/off-again thing for the Bulldogs with Green. He no doubt felt some hot-and-cold from Georgia over the past three years in state, with 5-stars LaDamion Guyton and DJ Jacobs also in the state at his position. Guyton reclassified to 2027, but that remains the case. Georgia has increased its chance over the past few months, but Alabama, Oregon and South Carolina seem to be Green’s favored schools. When chatting at the Future 50 last summer, Green spoke for more than 12 minutes about his top schools and did not mention Georgia until the program was brought up. That said, the Bulldogs would love to add him to the class.
• Garror is the first of two Vigor High ( Prichard, Alabama) teammates here. He is a dude by anyone’s eval. “Chicken,” as he’s called, plays for one of the top programs in that state and has tallied 42.5 sacks and 88.5 TFLs over his past two seasons. Miami is involved here. That staff sent NFL Hall of Famer Jason Taylor to his spring scrimmage. Garror decommitted from Alabama in March. This was an eval from first-year edge coach Larry Knight. The Bulldogs weren’t seriously involved with Garror until he came on board.
• McNeil is a true inside-the-box thumper that’s becoming harder to find in the modern era. Most elite LBs these days are more coverage and sideline-to-sideline ball hawkers than downhill “A” and “B” gap fillers. He’s earned the “football player” tag. He had 92 tackles, 16 TFLs, and nine sacks as a junior. He also added four rushing touchdowns and served as the team’s kicker and punter. He also returned kickoffs. Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Georgia seem like the real contenders here.

• Fox was a later addition to this weekend. He’s got to put on some weight, but he had 91 tackles and 9.5 TFLs as a junior. He’s got officials set with UGA this weekend, Clemson (May 29), Notre Dame (June 12) and Kentucky (June 19) coming up. The Bulldogs offered Fox on April 2.

Optimal scenario: Sign Garror. That would empower Knight on his mission to get more quarterbacks on the ground in Athens. The best-case scenario would be finding a way to add both Vigor guys to the class.

Likely scenario: Georgia eventually wins the battle for one of the targets listed here.

What needs to happen: The Bulldogs sign at least one of the two Vigor guys in town.