Travaris Robinson talks transition to Georgia, differences in Kirby Smart and Nick Saban

ATHENS, Ga. — Travaris Robinson is no stranger to the truth. He joked about himself being a little bit overweight entering his first fall camp at Georgia, and he’s worked with a trio of head coaches over the years in Will Muschamp, Nick Saban and Kirby Smart that aren’t afraid to tell you what they’re thinking. Need examples? Look no further than Tuesday at practice when Smart called his team “a bunch of Tickle Me Elmos.”

Robinson has been on the receiving end of it before too, and it’s the biggest difference he sees in Smart as compared to the other two – Saban in particular.

“See that microphone here, that would probably be the main difference. As far as the energy and different things like that, getting after guys and holding guys accountable, I would say it’s equal. The same thing. I would say the microphone, getting that public talk-to, it’s a little different now when a guy comes run to you and tells you something or when you hear it on that microphone and your players hear him talking to you,” Robinson said on Tuesday in his first meeting with Georgia media. “‘Hey T-Rob, this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing or you don’t know how to coach him.’ It holds everybody accountable. It’s really good. And anybody can get it. That’s the great thing about this place.”

Robinson was hired by Georgia away from Alabama in January after a series of events that saw Saban retire, Muschamp take on a lesser role and Smart in need of another coach in his secondary. New Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer tried to keep Robinson in Tuscaloosa, but the opportunity in Athens was too much to pass on.

“I’ve been with Coach Muschamp for a long time. I GA’d for him at Auburn, worked with him at the University of Florida and was his defensive coordinator at South Carolina. He’s a guy that’s been a mentor to me, a father figure. Everything I’ve done in my career, he’s always assisted. When he told me he was looking into not being here full time but being here a lot of the time it was something that I wanted to do,” Robinson said.

“He’s a big time Georgia guy. Obviously played here, did those different things and he wanted to pass that torch to somebody that he felt could come in and run things like he did. I was excited about that call,” he continued. “When Coach Saban retired, Coach Smart called me, and Coach Muschamp and him got on the phone and told me exactly what it was going to be. I was excited to do it. I wanted to be a part of the same type of culture, the same type of environment, and I thought it was the best thing for me to do.”

Having spent time under Saban the past two seasons, Robinson knows how things were run at Alabama. He remembers what times were like when Muschamp was his boss too, and in Smart, he sees the a slightly different spin on things. To him, what’s being done by the Bulldogs now takes the best of various programs and combines it into one.

“Obviously both of those guys, Coach Smart and Coach Muschamp, worked with Coach Saban for a long time. Some of the core values of the organization and how we do things are things that they really looked at. You can tell they did a good job of learning from Coach Saban in doing those things,” Robinson said. “I think as I got here at the University of Georgia I saw that Coach Smart was able to take some of the things we did at Alabama and expound upon those things. From an effort, how we practice, the energy, the different things we do, I think it’s very important and he does a great job of doing that.”

“My entire career, whether it was Coach Muschamp, Coach Saban, now I’m at a place at the University of Georgia where Coach Smart’s in the defensive back room, he’s a DB guy and Coach Muschamp is in the DB room, Coach Donte (Williams) is in the DB room, it’s like an AFCA clinic every day,” he added. “At the end of the day, it’s been great. I really enjoy Coach Muschamp being here and helping me get through the process of learning how we do things because some of the things we do here are a little different than what we did at Alabama. Kirby and Coach (Glenn) Schumann have done a really good job of changing some of the things that we did and making it not as complex, and I think our guys are able to play faster because of that.”

Robinson will look to get the most out of a talented group of Georgia safeties this season. Malaki Starks has earned All-American honors in some capacity each of the past two seasons while KJ Bolden enters as a five-star freshman looking for playing time. Others in the room include sixth-year senior Dan Jackson and Alabama transfer Jake Pope, as well as JaCorey Thomas, Joenel Aguero, Collin Gill, Justyn Rhett, Kyron Jones and Chris Peal, several of whom cross train as STARs too.

Georgia opens the season on August 31st against Clemson in a battle between two of the top-15 teams in the preseason Coaches Poll. The Bulldogs and Tigers hold claim to four of the last eight national championships with at least one of the two teams making the four-team College Football Playoff in eight of the 10 years.