Second-year surge: Georgia safety Malaki Starks
The summer is here and Kirby Smart’s eighth Georgia football team is putting in a lot of work behind closed doors. The entire 2023 class has arrived on campus and the Bulldogs are marching toward history.
A third consecutive National Championship, in the modern era, is unprecedented. But so was a back-to-back titles in the playoff era. In order for Georgia to stay on top of the mountain, it’ll have to rely on some players heading into their second season.
With that in mind, DawgsHQ is rolling out a series where we look at every scholarship player who is entering year two. Next up is a guy who played a massive role for Georgia as a freshman.
S Malaki Starks
Size: 6-foot-1 205 pounds
On3 Industry Ranking: No. 10 overall, No. 1 safety, No. 3 in Georgia
2022 Stats: Starks didn’t start in the 2022 season opener against Oregon but he started all 14 games after that, tallying 68 total tackles. He had a pair of interceptions, each coming in the first month of the season, and broke up seven passes. Starks was a finalist for the Shawn Alexander Freshman of The Year Award, given annually to the nation’s most outstanding true freshman. He was also a Freshman All American
Starks strengths and weaknesses…
The former five-star prospect burst onto the scene in 2022 with a dazzling interception in week one. He then had another impressive pick in week three at South Carolina when the Gamecocks tried to catch the freshman napping. Starks showed the ability to go back on the ball well but he also showed that he can drive on it in front. He’s a reliable tackler in space and when asked to fit against the run. He does a lot of things well from the safety position.
Starks did, however, struggle some later on in the year. It seemed as if there were mental lapses in coverage where he was a step or two late getting to the spot. It happened a couple of times in the SEC Championship game win over LSU. To his credit, Starks shored up his play in the College Football Playoff and did some things to help Georgia win those two contests.
The Buzz…
It’s all about consistency. Stark grew exponentially from the spring of 2022 to preseason camp. He had a solid spring and Georgia is hoping for another summer leap from the talented safety. He didn’t have the most impressive of showings in the G-Day game, missing a tackle on a touchdown run by SeVaughn Clark, but he looked pretty solid in coverage.
In 2023…
Starks is one of those guys who can be as good as he wants to be. He’s a tremendous athlete with great size for his position. The skillset is so well-rounded that Georgia should be able to use him in a variety of ways. His lack of experience limited him some a season ago, especially when you consider what he could do as a blitzer. Georgia might use more of that this season and it might ask him to play man-to-man coverage on guys more often.
