Georgia's Malaki Starks named Paycom Jim Thorpe DB of the week
Malaki Starks entered the 2024 season as a favorite to carry home some hardware of some sort at season’s end. After week one and his showing in Georgia’s 34-3 clubbing of Clemson, it’s safe to say that his odds are better. The Paycom Jim Thorpe Award recently acknowledge Starks as week one’s defensive back of the week.
Starks was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award at the end of the 2023 season. It went to Air Force safety Tray Taylor and is awarded annually to the top defensive back in College Football each season. The only Georgia player to ever win the award was Deandre Baker after the 2018 season.
The Jefferson High School product helped Georgia’s defense hold Clemson to just 188 yards of total offense while playing an unfamiliar position. With Joenel Aguero out due to a muscle pull, Georgia shifted it’s defense around and had Starks, who normally lines up at free safety, play the STAR/nickel position. It’s the first time he has played that position at UGA and he handled himself well, racking up two total tackles and an interception.
That interception was one of the top plays of the week around College Football. It was similar, “eerily similar” according to Smart, to the first interception of his career. That one came in the first game of his career at the same venue, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That remains the only game of Starks’ Georgia career where he wasn’t in the starting lineup.
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Few who follow the Bulldogs are surprised by the versatility. Kirby Smart has said on numerous occasions that Starks is a special talent and wears a lot of hats for the Georgia defense.
“He did a nice job when he played the STAR, especially for a guy that didn’t rep there but last week a few times. I mean, he didn’t get any reps in camp there. He did a good job of jumping in and filling that role,” Smart said earlier this week.
“…Malaki can be our best player at five positions, so it’s more a matter of what’s around him and what’s healthy working and what are we going to do defensively, you know? He plays a role at safety, he plays a role at strong safety, he plays a role at STAR. He does a tremendous job.”
