Touted Georgia freshmen Ellis Robinson, KJ Bolden as advertised per Kirby smart

ATHENS, Ga. — Two of the crown jewels of Georgia’s No. 1-ranked 2024 class are in the defensive backfield, Ellis Robinson and KJ Bolden. Both were rated as five-star prospects and they were ranked as the top players at their positions, cornerback and safety, respectively.

Robinson and Bolden enrolled early at Georgia and Kirby Smart has had the past three months and several practices to see what they have to offer. The Bulldogs had to work hard to get each player in the fold and so far the UGA head coach seems to be happy that they did what it took.

“They’re first-spring players,” Smart said when asked about Robinson and Bolden. “They’re talented players, everything they were advertised to be in terms of being good football players, instinctive. They both learn well. They both have toughness. I think they both of them will contribute on special teams because they can run, hit, tackle. I’m excited about those guys. The expectation of the outside world is they’re going to set the place on fire. We have good football players here. They’re going to compete with those guys and hopefully earn the ability to play and some playing time.

…In a day and age of College Football where you better have depth and you better have players when guys leave, these guys are going to get opportunities to play.”

There’s an opening for each of those guys to make an impact in 2024 at their respective positions. Daylen Everette is a returning starter for Georgia at cornerback but Robinson has a chance to find a spot on the other side. Julian Humphrey and Daniel Harris have been on campus longer and have more playing time under their belts, but neither has earned the starting job at this point.

At safety, Malaki Starks is back and is considered one of the top players in the country at that position. Bolden, however, finds himself in a competition for the other safety spot, one that opened up when Javon Bullard forewent his final year of eligibility to enter the 2024 NFL Draft.

As Smart noted, it won’t be easy for either freshman. Georgia recruits plenty of good players and there are more experienced contenders standing in the way of both Bolden and Robinson.

Georgia refused to give up on Bolden…

Robinson was pursued heavily by multiple schools, notably Miami, which made multiple strong pushes to get the elite cornerback away from the Bulldogs. Bolden, however, wasn’t on the Georgia commitment list until the final hour. He initially committed to Florida State in August of 2023, calling it his dream school.

But things shifted over the next few months. Georgia continued to work on the Buford High School prospect. Smart recruited him just as hard as it would have had Bolden remained uncommitted. In the end, with Auburn also making a push, the Bulldogs pried him away from the Seminoles.

Georgia finds itself in a similar scenario in the 2025 class with five-star defensive lineman Justus Terry. After being committed to the Bulldogs for over a year, Terry flipped to USC on Sunday and Smart will follow the same process that allowed him to reel Bolden in this past December.

“I don’t see kids as committed to other places because they’re not,” Smart said. “They’re not signed. There’s no… You recruit good football players. We evaluate every player the same whether their committed or not. If there’s interest from them and there’s conversation from them, and there’s visits or they come to your campus, you just be very consistent. We were very consistent with KJ. The recruitment never stopped. I told him that from the day he committed to the day that he came to us. We were not going to stop recruiting him because we think he’s a great kid from a great family and a really, really good football player.”