ATHENS — Raylen Wilson is a veteran of the Georgia football program. He is in his fourth year in the Georgia program, making him somewhat of a rarity.

Georgia has only 10 four-year players in the program. Compare that to 40 newcomers the Bulldogs welcomed out of either the transfer portal or as a part of 2026 signing class.

That gives Wilson a lot of new teammates to meet. So when he sees someone he doesn’t know in the team facility, he makes it a point to introduce himself.

“I don’t pass anybody I don’t know,” Wilson said. “So I make sure I introduce myself when I know everybody I pass in the facility. So it’s like, yeah, just getting to know everybody throughout the facility. It’s connection, that’s one of our main pieces in this team, like a DNA trait. So we help them out a lot with everybody being connected.”

To this point, Georgia has just one practice under its belt. The full team wasn’t even present, as a few Bulldogs won’t arrive until the summer. Georgia is also without key contributors like Drew Bobo and Gabe Harris as they recover from injury.

This spring for Georgia, much of the focus won’t be on the veterans like Wilson or quarterback Gunner Stockton. Instead, Georgia will aim to get the new faces up to speed.

One such freshman newcomer has already impressed the senior linebacker.

“All our young guys are working hard,” Wilson said. “I like the new offensive guard, Zykie Helton, I feel like he’s gonna be good. He likes to communicate on that line. As a young guy, as a young O-line, you really don’t see that often.”

Georgia does have to replace Micah Morris at the left guard spot, creating an opening for the former Carrolton High School standout. Freshmen have rarely been able to start on the offensive line, but Georgia did have Juan Gaston and Dontrell Glover do so last season.

Among the other freshmen, Kaiden Prothro has emerged as a curiosity. He brings impressive size to the position, along with his strong athletic traits.

While he was recruited as a tight end, he may also be able to help Georgia at the wide receiver position.

“Talent aside, he’s picked it up extremely quick,” Lawson Luckie said of Prothro. “Like, he already doesn’t really make mistakes often, which is rare to see. I haven’t really seen much of. But he’s done a tremendous job learning multiple positions, and I’m really impressed. I think he’s gonna set himself up great to have a great spring.”

Prothro was Georgia’s top-rated signee in the 2026 recruiting class. He figures to be another weapon for Stockton on the outside.

Prothro, however, is not the newcomer who is expected to lead Georgia in receiving this year. That would be Georgia Tech transfer Isiah Canion.

He caught 33 passes for 408 yards and 4 touchdowns last season for the rival Yellow Jackets. The Bulldogs must replace Zachariah Branch, Colbie Young, Noah Thomas and Dillon Bell from last season’s team.

That creates a real opportunity for Canion to come in and show why he was such a coveted player out of the transfer portal.

“He’s got the ideal body for a receiver,” Stockton said of Canion. “I mean, he’s big and he’s really fast. He’s been a great guy to get to know, and I look forward to building that relationship.”

As for the defensive transfers, Georgia made four additions in the secondary. Yet Auburn defensive end Amaris Williams may be the one to watch. He’ll help greatly on Georgia’s defensive front, which will be without Harris this spring as he recovers from toe surgery.

With Harris out, that gives Williams more potential reps to get acclimated to the Georgia way of doing things.

Even with an SEC background, Williams understands life will be very different in Athens compared to Auburn.

“We’ll find out what he can add,” Smart said. “He’s certainly a quick and twitchy guy that we recruited out of high school. We know a lot about. He’s gotta be able to play within our system, understand our system. But add value, he can start by taking the reps he’s gonna get this spring.”

Smart likes what his program was able to do in terms of making roster additions. No SEC team used the transfer portal less than the Bulldogs, as it made only nine additions. But Georgia also saw only 12 players from last year’s team depart the program via the transfer portal. That too is the fewest among SEC teams.

The Georgia coach hopes that veterans like Wilson and Stockton can make life easier for the new faces in Athens.

Even if the Bulldogs are less reliant on newcomers than other programs, the Georgia coach still understands the value in bringing fresh talent that can help the Bulldogs.

He hopes that those new faces ultimately turn into players like Wilson, who continue to pay it forward for the next generation of Bulldogs.

“We think that’s what provides a winning culture, what provides a locker-room culture, is retaining guys and guys having relationships,” Smart said. “At the end of the day, you play for the guys you play with. Most teams that are a bunch of independent contractors don’t play as well together. And we sold ourselves on keeping the guys we got and building on that culture. And we’ll see how much better we can make them.”