{"id":777758,"date":"2026-02-26T15:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/777758\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T15:12:20","slug":"nations-no-2-linebacker-projected-to-commit-to-georgia-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/777758\/","title":{"rendered":"Nation&#8217;s No. 2 linebacker projected to commit to Georgia football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ugawire.usatoday.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Georgia Bulldogs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Georgia Bulldogs<\/a> have been predicted to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Rivals\/status\/2026380377577632007?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:land a commitment;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">land a commitment<\/a> from four-star linebacker recruit Joakim Gouda, who is a member of the class of 2027. Gouda is a Peach State recruit that is a priority for the Dawgs.<\/p>\n<p>The Bulldogs have already made <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/georgia-football-makes-top-5-130151271.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gouda&#039;s top five schools;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gouda&#8217;s top five schools<\/a> and are trying to land his commitment. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker plays high school football for South Paulding High School in Douglasville, <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/georgia-bulldogs\/3473\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Georgia;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Georgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Gouda is ranked as the No. 234 recruit in the country, the No. 15 linebacker and the No. 26 recruit in Georgia, per 247Sports. The four-star has seen his recruiting ranking rise significantly in recent weeks and it is easy to see why. Gouda is drawing interest from many of the nation&#8217;s best programs. The elite linebacker is expected to commit to Georgia over Texas, Florida, Alabama and Auburn.<\/p>\n<p>Rivals is particularly confident in Gouda&#8217;s abilities. It ranks Gouda as the second-best linebacker in the country and the No. 30 player overall.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia recently signed four-star offensive tackle Tyreek Jemison, who played at South Paulding too, so Georgia has a connection to Gouda. Georgia coach Kirby Smart recently visited Gouda and appears to be in a good position in his recruitment.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia has five commitments in the 2027 recruiting cycle, but none at linebacker.<\/p>\n<p>Follow UGA Wire on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ugawire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.com\/@ugawire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Threads;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Threads<\/a> for more Georgia football coverage!<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/ugawire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/bulldogs\/recruiting\/2026\/02\/26\/linebacker-recruit-joakim-gouda-projected-commit-georgia-football\/88855959007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Nation&#039;s No. 2 linebacker recruit projected to commit to Georgia;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Nation&#8217;s No. 2 linebacker recruit projected to commit to Georgia<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Georgia Bulldogs have been predicted to land a commitment from four-star linebacker recruit Joakim Gouda, who is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,450,110225,110226,110223,4135,49,48,110224],"class_list":{"0":"post-777758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-georgia-bulldogs","10":"tag-georgia-coach","11":"tag-gouda","12":"tag-joakim-gouda","13":"tag-linebacker","14":"tag-ncaa","15":"tag-ncaa-football","16":"tag-south-paulding-high-school"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116137580694595198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}