ATHENS — Even for someone with as much raw talent as Ellis Robinson, the redshirt freshman still felt nervous prior to Saturday’s game.
Robinson was the top defensive prospect in his 2024 recruiting class. He spent last season biding his time in hopes of contributing at Georgia.
While many rooted for Robinson to make an early impact at Georgia, he understood he was going to have to earn his playing time, especially at a place like Georgia.
“It’s different,” Robinson said on Tuesday. “SEC ball is definitely different from high school. I’d say it took me a couple months to adjust to it, even from practice aspects of it, really. So it was just really adjustment for me overall, just coming here.”
Robinson appeared in only four games last season, even with Georgia rotating between Daniel Harris and Julian Humphrey at cornerback. The latter transferred to Texas A&M, with Harris returning to battle Robinson for a starting spot.
Against Marshall, Harris and Robinson trotted out on the first defensive series of the game. That was because All-SEC cornerback Daylen Everette suffered an ankle injury in practice last week.
Everette dressed out for the game but did not play. Kirby Smart said this week that Everette was making good progress to returning to the field. He will slot in as one of the starters when he returns to full health, even if that comes against Tennessee on Sept. 13.
That makes the continuous development and progression of Robinson all the more important for Georgia’s secondary.
“There’s so much more that goes into playing defensive back, and playing corners specifically, than just being able to cover people in terms of zones, checks, eyes, motions, adjustments,” Smart said. “He has bought into that. He’s said, ‘You know what, that’s important. That’s what’s keeping me off the field and I want to work on that.’ His communication, his understanding of the defense has been really good.”
Without Everette, the ability to communicate in the secondary was tested. Seeing as how the Thundering Herd didn’t cross midfield until the fourth quarter, Robinson and company aced the first test.
“I feel like we did great,” safety KJ Bolden said of the Georgia secondary. “Even with Daylen not being out there, we did a great job out there communicating. Next guy up mentality, I think the guys who came in for him did a great job.”
How Robinson tackles will be perhaps the best barometer for success in 2025. Physicality was part of the reason he wasn’t ready to start as a true freshman.
Now with a full year of weight training and understanding how Georgia likes to practice, Robinson is better equipped to handle everything that will be thrown his way.
“He’s improved his stamina, first and foremost. He can finish practices and get through practice and keep up,” Smart said. “The pace of the practice is really high, so his ability to maintain that, compete in the realm of receivers, play after play, and play in fastball circumstances, he’s done a good job doing that.”
With the transfer portal and revenue-sharing, players are less inclined to wait around for an opportunity that may never come. Throw in Robinson’s lofty recruiting ranking, and there’s a natural curiosity for how long Robinson might be willing to push for playing time.
Robinson feels that last season will end up being a positive experience for him. He can’t control Everette’s health or how Harris plays but Robinson can control his own effort and attitude.
Those have improved, which is why Robinson is ready to play a much bigger role in 2025 than he could have in 2024.
“What I took away from that was just staying patient, really, just knowing that my time was gonna come eventually,” Robinson said. “And I just had to wait for it.”
