ATHENS — Demello Jones understands how a quarterback might attack a defensive back. When he was a high school standout for Swainsboro High School, he played quarterback.

But that understanding hasn’t necessarily helped him a ton as he’s made the full-time transition to playing cornerback for Georgia.

“Where I’m from, we like running the ball, so it really didn’t help much,” Jones said with a smile when speaking to reporters this week.

After doing it all in high school, Jones is settling in at the cornerback position for Georgia. With Daylen Everette limited this spring with a sports hernia injury, Jones finds himself squarely in a position battle with Ellis Robinson and Daniel Harris.

Harris has starting experience from the end of the 2024 season. Robinson arrived at Georgia as the top cornerback prospect in the recruiting cycle.

Jones merely had his athleticism and South Georgia mindset to rely on. Those abilities have served him well as he finds himself in the thick of a very competitive position battle.

“He handles himself like a dog,” Robinson said of Jones. “Demello, all he wants to do is win, all he’s gonna do is compete for everything that he does. So just playing against a guy like that only makes you so better too at that. So it’s just competition.”

Traditionally, Georgia hasn’t rotated at the cornerback position. With the wealth of talent Georgia and cornerbacks coach Donte Williams has to work with this fall, it may be able to mix and match depending on what each matchup brings to the table.

Jones does not have the ball skills that Robinson possesses nor is he as long as Harris.

But the second-year cornerback still brings a lot to this Georgia team. He looks forward to putting all of that on display at G-Day.

“Really fast, he’s got some pretty long arms,” wide receiver Sacovie White said. “And he can track the ball cuz he played quarterback and receiver and running back in high school. So he has really good ball skills, and he has a knack for the ball. He can get to the ball, whether it’s his tackling of the person, or even going up and getting the ball.

“He knows he’s pretty good with his feet and his back pedal and breaking on the ball. So I think that he’s gonna really do good things this season.”

Jones gave credit to Williams for helping him settle in as a full-time cornerback for Georgia. The game has started to slow down for him as he now has a better understanding of what is needed to be an every-down cornerback.

It might be natural to compare Jones and Robinson, given their paths to Georgia and that they are both competing for the same spot.

But that hasn’t impacted their relationship. If anything, it has made their bond stronger.

“I feel like they’re both evolving and obviously getting better day by day,” Harris said of the duo. “But I feel like they’ll play a big role this upcoming season. I feel like we’ll all play a role. We’ve got a, not young back end, but obviously we have a lot of experience, so I feel like we’ll all do good.”

Georgia’s cornerback battle figures to extend well past G-Day. Jones, Robinson and Harris will all take first-team reps on Saturday.

Yet for as far as Jones has come as an on-field player this spring, he feels his off-field development has better helped prepare him to help Georgia during the 2025 season.

“I’d say I’ve grown more as a person, player of course,” Jones said. “But as a person, being around these guys, these are my teammates, and they made me a better person. I’ll say that, that’s probably it.”

Demello Jones updates the status of the Georgia football cornerback battle

“