​Georgia football coach Kirby Smart pulled out all the stops to sway five-star defensive tackle Marcus Fakatou, even showing off elaborate photo rooms during his official visit. Yet, despite Smart’s efforts and the flashy presentation, Fakatou ultimately chose Ohio State, announcing his commitment to the Buckeyes in late June.
A video blog released on June 21 captured Fakatou’s official visit to Athens, where Smart queried him about the distinctive photo “stations” scattered around the Georgia facilities. In the clip, Smart pressed Fakatou about how many such stations rival programs maintain, joking that Ohio State has only one while Georgia can boast four. He also noted Georgia’s usual practice of hosting a large, bustling group on visits, stating, “Typically, we have 14 kids on a visit.”
During Fakatou’s stay in Georgia, the recruit shared a series of photos on Instagram from June 4, highlighting several of Georgia’s themed stations. Among them, the phone booth and retro desk stood out as favorites for both Smart and Fakatou. The Ohio State visit photos that Fakatou posted on his social media included a classroom-themed station, in addition to images featuring a red backdrop and a black backdrop, underscoring the variety of promotional setups he encountered on the road.
Fakatou publicly announced his college choice on June 29, choosing Ohio State over Georgia and Texas in a Rivals YouTube live reveal. In ranking terms, he sits as the No. 2 defensive lineman in the 2027 class according to the composite rankings compiled by 247Sports. The decision marked a significant recruitment win for Ohio State, signaling that the Buckeyes’ pitch resonated more deeply with the highly sought-after lineman than Georgia’s photo-room strategy.
In terms of his high school trajectory, Fakatou is set to transfer to Sierra Canyon High School from Orange Lutheran in Southern California for the upcoming season, reclassifying from the 2028 cohort to the 2027 group. These moves add an extra layer of intrigue to a recruiting saga that featured high-profile visits, a playful competition over “stations,” and a dramatic commitment that shifted one of the nation’s top defensive linemen away from Georgia to Ohio State.
This narrative originated with The Columbus Dispatch, highlighting how Kirby Smart appeared to lose a premier target despite showcasing a photo room strategy that many programs might have copied as a recruitment gimmick. The broader takeaway remains that, in the volatile world of college football recruiting, even meticulously staged experiences and clever props can be overshadowed by a recruit’s ultimate choice, which in this case favored the Buckeyes over the Bulldogs.