Is Georgia’s newest football commit really related to Dwight Eisenhower?

The 3-star offensive lineman initially laughed at the question. He’s likely heard about “Ike” as many times as he heard “hike” growing up playing football. The topic probably came up on the first day of every school year.

But he happily obliged.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yes, there is. There is.”

Seriously?

“Yes, sir.”

Is it a cousin? A great uncle? Maybe four or five times once removed?

“It is something like that,” Eisenhower told DawgNation back in January. “I know it is a couple of or a few times removed. I think it might be six removed or something. Somewhere in there.”

He went back and did some research.

“I found out my relation with the president,” he said this week. “Fourth cousin. Five times removed.”

Georgia football commitments with an American president in their bloodline are rare. While there are no records about that sort of thing, it is highly unusual, even with a last name like Eisenhower.

His commitment journey was also a snapshot of a simpler time.

While speaking to him in January, he made it clear how big it was to be recruited by the Dawgs. While anything can happen in this era of high-stakes recruiting, the commitment he made on Saturday night was the most likely outcome.

The phrase “inevitable” is too strong a term, but there was a lot of inertia behind a potential future with the red and black.

“While we were talking in January, you said you could feel that I was going to commit and I had it in my mind, too,” he told DawgNation on Saturday night. “But I wanted to make sure everything was good. Visited practice. Then I realized this was the place for me.”

Eisenhower visited UGA last week for that practice. He made his commitment to Kirby Smart on Saturday evening, then announced it to the world about 20 minutes later.

He was at that spring practice last Thursday and absorbed a lot. When he was traveling back to South Georgia, it all hit him.

“Just thinking about it the whole ride home,” he said. “I slept on it. I prayed about it and the next morning I woke up and told myself it was time.”

He boiled it down succinctly.

“The main part is I want to win, I want to develop and I want to be the best,” Eisenhower said.

When he called Smart Saturday night to share the news, they talked about hunting at first. But then he told him he was ready to be a Dawg.

Eisenhower said he told his father, Adam, about his commitment first. He’d also been a Georgia fan all his life in their generational Bulldog family.

“I had that Nick Chubb jersey back then,” Eisenhower said of his own childhood.

It was a moment that Eisenhower said his 10-year-old self would have been jumping up and down about.

“He probably wouldn’t have been able to believe it,” Abram Eisenhower said.

For the record, the Dawgs beat out South Carolina for Eisenhower. That’s the second straight commitment the Dawgs have earned from a player who grew up loving the Dawgs. 3-star legacy OT Ty Johnson also recently chose UGA over South Carolina in his process.

Georgia views the 6-foot-5, 290-pound rising senior as a hybrid offensive lineman. He’s best suited for the interior of the line at the college level, but could also flex out to tackle in a pinch. He’s rated as the nation’s No. 47 OT prospect for the 2027 class by the 247Sports Composite.

The Dawgs love to sign versatile players like that as much as players like Eisenhower and Johnson, who grew up dreaming of playing for the red and black.