I think it's probably more to do with the perfect storm they've found themselves in. To his credit, Smart was a staple at Alabama, where McElwain was simply a part of things(the weaker part at that) for a few years that never really fit. So he carried a lot of that with him in terms of name recognition. Add that to Jones flailing yet again in 2016, and then being a dead man walking by end of September last year, plus the disaster we'd become, and suddenly uga looks like a great option in comparison, especially with the year they had.
I do think it's fair to speculate that he may be pushing the envelope more so than others. And I think law is correct that he likely knows too much for Saban to do anything. But I think it's more about momentum and a place becoming the trendy place to be. The instability at fsu probably pushed Fields to uga as much as anything, and then other pieces started to fall into place, just like Tebow in 2006, or to a lesser extent Grier in 2013 before we imploded.
Think of guys like Fayson, who could've started at fsu or miami, but chose to be a part of what UF was building on the promise that Meyer would give him a shot(probably about 3 reps) at QB. Or Demps and the Pounceys putting their childhood favorite aside and signing with their archival. There are numerous other examples. We were that school for a while. Unfortunately, they're it right now.
I still think the other shoe will drop for them, quite possibly this season. I don't completely buy KS being that great. I think he walked into a great situation and rode that wave to a second pace finish. I wouldn't be shocked if they never reach that height again, talented roster or not. In their only games against teams with a pulse, they went 3-2.
But I'll continue to state that we've NEVER worried about uga recruiting. Spurrier himself used to joke about their talent level, and wonder why it didn't translate to the field. Richt had some great classes as well and some very successful seasons. Yet, outside of maybe 2007, find a year that you'd say they got a "leg-up" on us. If UF takes care of its own recruiting, UF will win this battle way more often than we lose it. That's entirely on us.