Georgia Tech Recruiting: Elite 2026 CB Dorian Barney Includes Yellow Jackets in List of Top 12 Schools

Recruiting is going to be heating up as we head into the spring and then the summer and one of the most coveted cornerback prospects of the 2026 cycle trimmed his list of schools to 12 yesterday. Dorian Barney, who plays at Carrolton High School (GA), dropped his top 12 yesterday and Georgia Tech was able to make the cut. While there is still plenty of time to go in this recruitment, this does signal that the Yellow Jackets are in the thick of it. The other schools that made Barney's top 12 included Florida State, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State, Ole Miss, Miami, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Colorado.

NEWS: Elite 4-star cornerback Dorian Barney has trimmed his list of contenders down to 12, he tells me for @Rivals

With a commitment on the horizon, a few contenders are trending at the top with the touted DB target. The latest: https://t.co/Xn9shDS2x8 pic.twitter.com/ZPhs72E8nf
— Sam Spiegelman (@samspiegs) February 22, 2025

According to the 24Sports Composite, Barney is the No. 76 player in the country, the No. 8 Cornerback, and the No. 9 player in the state of Georgia. The Yellow Jackets are going to have to fight a lot of big-time programs to land such a talented in-state player, but Georgia Tech is coming off one of the best recruiting classes in program history, one where they did a really good job at landing some of the top prospects in the state of Georgia. Keep an eye on this recruitment going forward.

According to 247Sports, there were 55 blue-chip prospects (four or five-star players) in the state of Georgia alone and Georgia Tech landed six of them. In his signing day press conference, Key talked about the importance of recruiting in the state of Georgia:

"Yeah, I think the exposure we've been able to receive this year in a lot of ways is big, but it really goes back to the relationships with the high schools. Just because you're signing off from a to the relationships with the high schools. Just because you're signing off from a high school doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna be reflective years down the road. I mean, the coaching staff and the staff have done an outstanding job of cultivating and building those relationships. I think it's something that really needed to be done here, you know, we're in one of not the greatest state of high school talent in the entire country. And you know, to jump over 20 guys to go get one makes no sense. So we've been, you know, working really hard to make sure we get in the schools, to get in all the high schools, build relationships. I got to give you know a huge credit to Tim McFarlin and the job that he's done as well in the director of high school relations and building these relationships, maintaining these relationships, being able to keep us informed, keep myself informed of different things and to take place in the events, the clinics, the camps that are running the summer, all those go into it."

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