Maturity allows KJ Bolden to impress early in time at Georgia

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia freshman KJ Bolden is a bit of a household name in Athens, and that’s before he’s even played his first game.

He was a five-star that made headlines during his recruitment, flipping from Florida State on National Signing Day after a surprising commitment in August. At SEC Media Days last month in Dallas, Kirby Smart compared the incoming freshman to All-American safety Malaki Starks, who made an instant impact upon his arrival at the collegiate level. It’s a lot of pressure to throw upon an 18-year-old, but based on the word of other Georgia coaches, he should handle it just fine.

“I think in terms of how he approaches his business, he’s had a maturity about himself since he’s been here,” Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann said about Bolden. “If you match that up with ability and continue to grow, you have a chance to be a good player. His maturity has impressed me from the moment he’s been here. He’s been very serious and that’s going to focus on the task at hand, which is what you need to do on a day in and day out basis.”

Schumann sees Bolden’s work from a higher level as the oversight of the entire defense. His position coach, Travaris Robinson, sees it up close and personal more frequently.

“KJ is really doing a good job with the rep he’s getting. Obviously he was here earlier, he was a mid-year, so that helps, it helps a lot,” Robinson said. “He kind of understands exactly what we expect from him, the drills that we’re introducing to him, he’s done them before so nothing is new to him. It gives him a little confidence that he can go out there and get it done.”

Whether or not Bolden plays early in his career like Starks did is still to be determined. Georgia opens its 2024 campaign on August 31st against No. 14 Clemson and will play a total of five teams in the preseason top-15 over the course of the season. It’s not the easiest of schedules for anybody, especially somebody in their first go around at this level, and with that, there are likely lessons to be learned the hard way.

“The margin of error is very small back there. When you make a mistake, it’s seven points. When you’re a defensive line and you jump out of your gap, a linebacker has a chance to tackle him. When you’re a linebacker and you miss the tackle, well, the safety has a chance to tackle him. If the safety is a guy who hasn’t played a lot of ball or doesn’t feel like he can get it done or makes a mistake or something like that, it’s seven points,” Robinson said when asked why it’s so hard to play defensive back and why it’s considered risky to have a youngster starting on the back end of the defense.

“We’re on the back level. It’s kind of like being a quarterback. We have to do a lot of different things from the communication standpoint. We’ve got to be on the same page,” he added. “Everything that we practice, it doesn’t necessarily show up in the game. There’s going to be some new stuff show up in the ball game where you have to have experience, where you have to have guys who have been in the fire and has done it. So that’s why it’s a little harder to play at that position. But we have guys do it every place I’ve been. So if a guy is mature enough to do it, if a guy is capable enough to do it, handle it, from a mental stand point, from a talent standpoint, then he’ll be just fine.”

Smart’s intention in comparing Bolden to Starks isn’t to apply pressure on him. He understands the difficulties of being a freshman. As Schumann stated, transitioning to college is hard on the “normal student.” Now add in thousands of eyes on you every Saturday and imagine what that’s like. So, instead of applying even more stress on the 18-year-old, Smart and his staff are trying to help him through the growing pains and position him for success.

“I don’t think there’s any pressure in terms of hype as a recruit. He may put that on himself, but we don’t because we don’t pick kids and say this guy’s got pressure and this guy doesn’t,” Smart said. “I think we’ve got to prepare him day to day with intensity. Each day is an opportunity for him to grow and get better.”

“Sometimes freshmen, they can’t rise to the occasion that number of times. They have these off days because they’ve never had this intensity,” he continued. “He’s going to be able to handle that well, number one because of where he came from, the program he played in, but he’s also a conscientious kid. We’re going to push him and we’re going to challenge him and we’re going to test him because he’ll certainly get tested in this schedule we’ve got.”

Bolden very well could end up starting when things kick off later this month. His combination of talent and confidence makes it such that seeing No. 4 out there wouldn’t surprise anybody. However, as Georgia’s coaches know and say, experience is important too. That’s something that can only come with time.

So, if it’s walk-on Dan Jackson out there as the starter when Georgia takes the field against Clemson, it’s not an indictment on Bolden and his ability, rather a reminder to be patient. Starks didn’t start his first game, and Bolden might not either. Either way, it certainly sounds like he’s got the right recipe to be successful early in his collegiate career.