ATHENS — KJ Bolden knows all about pressure, most often lining up as the last line of defense between opponents and the goal line from deep in the Georgia secondary at his safety position.

But Bolden, once a 5-star prospect ranked the top player at his position, has learned to deal with the intensity and scrutiny of the position.

RELATED: Finebaum says ‘you’d have to be Bevo to pick Texas’

The former Buford High School standout explains there is no choice when your head coach is over your shoulder and staying on your back to improve every day.

“He’s very serious about the game, and that’s the type of coach you want to be a part of, and you want to play for him,” Bolden said leading up to the Bulldogs’ 7:30 p.m. game with Texas on Saturday.

“Any DB, he’s always hard on us because that’s the position he played, so he’s always going to be hard on us in the right way, and I love that.”

Smart noted earlier this week that Bolden, despite his relatively young age, is growing into a veteran leadership role like the players before him who have gone on to win championships and enjoy success in the NFL.

“This year, I would say his growth has been in leadership, I’d say his freshman year it was probably adding some bulk and some size,” Smart said. “

“His biggest growth this year is in being in a room where he has to step to the forefront and be a leader and communicate more,” he said. “Where he relied on other guys to communicate in the past, he is the lead communicator on the back end now, and he’s done a nice job of that.”

Bolden’s ability to communicate his knowledge has been a big part of Georgia’s growth in the secondary, even as he’s one of three players with less than a full season’s worth of starting experience.

“As a unit, we’ve just been working on starting faster,” said Bolden, who had a career-high 10 tackles in Georgia’s 41-21 win at Mississippi State last Saturday. “I feel like I’m getting better with covering things, covering issues and little things like that.”

The Maroon Bulldogs entered that contest with an SEC-high 16 pass plays of more than 40 yards, but they managed just one against UGA, in the fourth quarter after the game had been decided and several substitutions had been made.

Bolden said the success Georgia had against Mississippi State, however, doesn’t necessarily automatically carry over to the next opponent any more than last season’s success against Texas carries over to this season.

“Two different teams, a lot of different players on each team,” Bolden said. “Texas is a great team …. very physical, explosive, fast, they’ve got a great quarterback. I’m definitely looking forward to this week to see how our guys come out there and compete.”