Georgia finishes out SEC honors week with four All-Freshmen

The SEC’s season-end recognitions came to a close on Thursday with the announcement of the league coaches’ All-Freshman team. As was the case with the AP and Coaches All-SEC teams on Monday and Tuesday as well as the individual awards on Wednesday, the Georgia Bulldogs were well represented with four players to lead all SEC teams.

Freshman safety Malaki Starks earned a spot on the team after a first year on campus that saw him total 63 tackles, one shy of the team high set by both starting inside linebackers Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Smael Mondon. Starks does have a share of the team-high however for interceptions with two, tied with Christopher Smith and Kelee Ringo both of whom are likely to go pro after the season is over, and holds a solo lead on pass breakups with seven.

Starks’ season got off to a hot start against Oregon as he led the team with eight tackles and had a highlight-reel interception. He followed that up with another interception two weeks later on the road at South Carolina before making one of the biggest plays of the season at Missouri when he chased down the Tigers running back from behind to stop him from scoring. Instead of a touchdown, Missouri settled for a field goal in a game that Georgia had to come from behind to win. He later led the team in tackles once again with 10 stops against Tennessee, his only double-digit tackle showing so far. Starks, who was a five-star and the No. 10 player in the country coming out of Jefferson High School is a finalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award, an honor that Georgia’s Brock Bowers took him last season.

Joining Starks on the All-Freshman defense was fellow five-star freshman Mykel Williams. While Williams hasn’t been quite as impactful on the stat sheet as Starks, he’s still been noticeable to anybody who watches the Bulldogs on Saturdays. Starting two of the 13 games, Williams has 21 total tackles including a pair of quarterback sacks. His 27 quarterback hurries is tops among all players.

Three times this season (Vanderbilt, Florida, Kentucky) has Williams posted three tackles, his highest number to date. One of those tackles against Florida was a tackle for loss and a sack. His other sack came against Samford while his third tackle for loss came in the SEC Championship Game against LSU. In the regular season-finale, Williams had four quarterback pressures in Georgia’s win over Georgia Tech.

Starks and Williams both earned On3 All-True Freshman status but they weren’t the only two Georgia freshmen to make the SEC All-Freshman Team, a group that includes redshirt freshmen too. Linebacker Jalon Walker and punter Brett Thorson round out the Bulldogs to be recognized.

Walker saw reserve action and played an important role on several special teams units. His season highlight was a blocked punt in the first quarter of the Kent State game that went out of the back of the end zone for a safety. Walker had four tackles in a win versus Vanderbilt before starting to see a bigger and bigger role. In the absence of Nolan Smith, Walker has gotten reps at both inside and outside linebacker, helping rush the passer on passing situations. He had two quarterback hurries against Florida before back to back games with a tackle for loss against Kentucky and Georgia Tech.

As for the Melbourne, Australia native Thorson, he has punted 33 times this season for an average of 44.9 yards per kick. Of those, 16 have been fair caught while 18 have been downed inside the 20. It’s not often that a punter creates a highlight but Thorson did exactly that with a season-long 75-yard punt that rolled out of bounds at the 1-yard-line in Georgia’s win over Tennessee. It was the longest punt by a Bulldog in 13 years and tenth longest in program history.