ATHENS — Given the chance, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has not hesitated to bring up how young his team is this fall.
It has been a constant talking point for the Georgia coach, who wants to remind people that many key members of the 2025 Georgia football team have not yet done anything.
“I don’t know a freshman that we sign anymore that doesn’t come in with high expectations of themselves. I want that,” Smart said. “Like if they don’t have high expectations of themselves, then we probably got the wrong guy. Because honestly, they have to be ready to play because of the volume of players we have.
“We have 50% of our team is year one and two. So if you don’t come in on year one thinking you’re going to play, then probably the wrong place.”
Yet another reminder of where the talent on this Georgia team does, or doesn’t lie, is in the various All-American teams that national media publications are rolling out at this time of year.
ESPN’s Chris Low only had punter Brett Thorson as a First Team All-American. Thorson is still working his way back from a knee injury that ended his 2024 season last September. It’s far from a guarantee that he is Georgia’s punter when the Bulldogs open the season against Marshall.
CBS Sports also had Allen on the First Team, along with linebacker CJ Allen. Low viewed Allen as a second-team selection at linebacker.
Allen is one of the few multiyear starters on this Georgia team. On the defensive side of the ball, only Allen, fellow linebacker Raylen Wilson and cornerback Daylen Everette enter the season with multiple years of starting experience.
“Next in line in the Georgia linebacker lineage is Allen, who has lightning quickness from the second level of the Dawgs’ D and brings an absolutely thump to whoever he hits,” Richard Johnson of CBS Sports wrote. “When you collide with him, you go down. It’s as simple as that, he’s a seek-and-destroy player. He stepped in as a freshman and has not looked back. There was no sophomore slump, and now as a seasoned veteran, he’ll earn numerous accolades at the end of this season. Internally, Georgia is sky high on its linebacker room.”
It isn’t just the veterans, though, that are lacking in the traditional preseason accolades at Georgia.
Among the players who are sophomores or younger, only safety KJ Bolden earned any sort of recognition. Both ESPN and CBS Sports had Bolden as a second-team selection.
Bolden was one of the jewels of Georgia’s 2024 signing class, which finished the cycle No. 1 in the country. Nate Frazier and Chris Cole also made an immediate impact last season.
But beyond those two, that sophomore class needs to show why there was so much promise around those additions.
“In some cases. We’ve had some guys that were injured a little bit last year and didn’t get to see them as much, and now they’re getting more reps,” Smart said. “The guys who play, they still have a lot of growth. We have freshmen who played last year that are still seeing growth. But I’m very pleased where that group is.”
Fortunately for this group, there will be opportunities. On offense, Georgia is excited to see what tight end Jaden Reddell and offensive linemen Daniel Calhoun and Michael Uini bring to the table. Quarterback Ryan Puglisi isn’t likely to start, but Georgia is doing everything it can so he can be prepared to if called upon.
Defensively, there is a little more to play with. In addition to Bolden and Cole, cornerback Ellis Robinson, linebacker Justin Williams and defensive lineman Joseph Jonah-Ajonye all can earn playing time this season.
But it won’t just be handed to them simply because they were former five-star recruits.
Even the proven players in the class, Cole and Frazier, face massive internal expectations from Smart and the coaching staff.
“He’s long, he’s rangy, but the number one thing is he’s a high-effort player,” Smart said of Cole. “He’s a high-IQ player. So we need him to be a good inside backer. We need him to be a good third-down factor. We need him to be a guy that can line up and play on tight ends because of his length. And he’s given us that ability.”
All-American lists are not always the best representation of talent and success. Nick Chubb never made one during his stellar career in Athens after all.
For Georgia, there aren’t the same individual standouts that last season had. Carson Beck, Malaki Starks and Mykel Williams began the year as all-Americans but it’s fair to say that none of them had the season they envisioned. Starks and Williams still became first-round picks while Beck ended up transferring to Miami.
The lack of true individual stars isn’t of concern to Smart right now. If Georgia wins, people will take notice of Allen, Bolden, Zach Branch and Gunner Stockton. Winning elevates stars far more than gaudy statistics or advertisements.
If anything, it might help this Georgia team further accomplish what Smart wants it to.
“It’s the analogy of small campfire,” Smart said. “You can have all these little small campfires or you can have a burning inferno, and we want a burning inferno. We want all those campfires to come together and be 11 burning fires, not a couple of burning bushes over here and over there.”
