This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 5-star Kaiden Prothro at Bowdon High School. He ranks as the nation’s No. 3 TE and the No. 25 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 2 TE and No. 29 overall.
For the longest time, Kaiden Prothro has been the answer to a very big question when it comes to the 2026 Georgia football class. It went something like this: Who’s the most likely 5-star that Georgia gets this cycle?
Prothro provided the world with his own answer to that question on Saturday afternoon from a packed ceremony within the Bowdon High School gymnasium.
The nation’s No. 3 TE prospect said “Georgia” when it was time to make that decision known. The 6-foot-6-plus, 215-pound rising senior chose the Bulldogs over a strong interest in both Florida and Texas.
The reasons why Prothro was the most likely in-state 5-star were multi-fold.
- Georgia’s track record of producing at that position in the Kirby Smart era
- The skill and tenacity that ace recruiter Todd Hartley deploys to secure top talent for his TE room
- The fact that Bowdon is full of Dawgs, he’s a home state product and that UGA has prioritized Prothro for a very long time for this class.
- The pitch involved him being more than just a TE in Mike Bobo’s offense
It got closer when he started taking his official visits. During that process, he asked his father, Clarence Prothro, what he thought about just Florida, Georgia and Texas after those visits. He also visited Alabama and Auburn.
What did he find he liked the best about Georgia?
“I would probably just say the player development and the fans and just the whole city, really,” he said last month.
Prothro made his decision inside the same gym where he showed what type of athlete he was with Hartley, Smart and other recruiters in attendance during the winter. The 3-sport athlete had 31 points and 20 rebounds that night.
Prothro averaged 20.7 points and 16.5 rebounds per game as a junior on the court. That’s an athlete. His career was even at once inspired by an all-time Bulldog great.
“He told me once he wanted to be the next Brock Bowers,” Bowdon High coach Rick Fendley said. “I think he’s pumped up about the tight end spot, but I think he could go be somebody’s No. 1 receiver there in college, too.”
How good is Prothro?
- He’s a three-time state champion for the GHSA Class A school.
- According to MaxPreps.com, he’s caught 99 passes in his high school career. He’s scored touchdowns on 39 of those. That’s a gaudy 39 percent touchdown rate every time he catches a pass for the Red Devils.
- The 5-star caught 22 of his 39 career touchdowns last year. He racked up 1,203 receiving yards on 56 catches after 21.5 yards per catch.
Check out many examples of those in his junior highlight film below:
Prothro also scored on an explosive play in the GHSA Class A state title game last December against Brooks County.
Kaiden Prothro: The unique position fits with Georgia football
Prothro becomes the 28th public commitment for the 2026 cycle in Athens. He’s the third TE, but projects as a flex tight end. Georgia has been open about the fact that he could be a receiver in college. He was receptive to it.
That’s the position he’s played for Bowdon High so far. No teams in Class A, or better yet, the SEC, have a good matchup against a 6-foot-6-plus target with Prothro’s athleticism, ball skills, and catch radius.
Prothro just turned 17 in October. When he worked out at the Under Armour All-American game as a junior in December, he spent the week at receiver. He was one of the week’s top performers, even though he was one of the first rising juniors to play receiver.
Some see his athletic frame and project that he’s built for speed and length. Not power and the trenches. He was around the 205-to-215-pound mark most of his junior year. Playing basketball all winter didn’t allow him much time to stack on muscle and good weight.
“I tell coaches this all the time,” Fendley said back in December. “Fifty percent of the coaches are recruiting him to play tight end. Fifty percent are recruiting him to play receiver. I don’t think he’s going to have an issue putting on weight. He goes straight from football to basketball to baseball every year and never has an off-season to bulk up. So I think he’s going to be a really big kid by the time he grows up.”
Fendley doesn’t have a clear idea about where he should play.
“I think that’s a hard question,” Fendley said. “I think he’s going to be successful in whatever he does.”
The key talking point in this recruitment is the position fit. If Prothro stays within 15 pounds of his current weight while he’s in college, he’ll likely be a receiver.
If he gets up to 240 or 250 pounds, he’ll see much more work at TE.
“They just told him you come in and it all depends on what we’ve always said,” Clarence Prothro said. “It all depends on what [his] body does. But he’s probably going to transition into a tight end, and I think that’s what Kirby [Smart] was saying.”
Smart told Prothro he’s an athlete right now, and they will figure it out from there. If he only gets to 220 or 230, he’s probably going to be more of a hybrid-type who will flex out wide.
But he also told the Prothros that if Kaiden gets to 240, then ‘You’re still going to be a hybrid kid and an athletic kid,’ but other than that, it wasn’t clarified.
“But of course, Hartley sees him as a tight end in the future,” Clarence Prothro said this summer. “If he wants to go to the NFL, then that’s probably what he’s going to play, and Kaiden understands that.”
“So I think it is just going to be a yearly thing. So that first year, if he commits to Georgia or wherever he commits to, I think, you know, it’s going to be ‘Ok, let’s see what you can do in our group and find the mismatches of how we can best use you after that.’”
Kaiden Prothro: Kirby Smart went on a quest to find anyone to say something bad about him
Prothro was wanted in Athens, but not essentially because of his 5-star status and elite size. It was everything else in a makeup that the Dawgs seem to build championship-caliber teams around.
When Smart joined Hartley to watch Prothro at a basketball game this year, it was big news. Clarence Prothro, his father, knew word had spread around town that week. The crowd might have been the biggest to come see Bowdon basketball all year.
“It was a very proud moment to hear that the head coach of the University of Georgia is coming to watch your son,” his father said back in February. “People dream about that. But then to listen to Kirby talk about your son and what he thinks about him. Not only athletic-wise but character-wise. That makes me proud.”
Smart has some fun quizzing the Bowdon athletic director and principal. He was probing to get them to say something bad about Kaiden. It was a fleeting exercise because all the intel has been that he’s the type of young man every coach marries their daughter one day.
“Kirby said he’s one of the type of kids they like to recruit,” Clarence Prothro said. “High character and hard worker. ... To listen to him talk about your son like that, it does almost bring tears to your eyes. Because they do notice his talent and his character. They do their research on him.”
Prothro holds a high B-grade point average and attends church on Wednesdays and Sunday mornings. He can be found running routes on Saturdays and Sundays and will even go to a sand pit to sharpen his skills.
“One reason why I work so hard is just to show people that you can be different,” Kaiden Prothro said. “You know a lot of people, once they get these stars and everything, you know, they feel like they have made it. I feel like I want to change the world and just be different in the position I am in. Just working hard and doing what I do.”
When asked about his game, he had another uncommon answer.
“I would probably say I’m a leader,” he said. “I feel like I have a leadership role on my team. I feel like I’ve got a good personality to keep the players together. I just really care about my teammates. I feel like that’s real important for me. Make sure all my teammates are good because if they are not good then we are not playing well.”
Prospect with those stat lines don’t say things like that. But that’s Prothro.
As one might expect, he has many fans at Bowdon High.
“Probably the most well-liked kid in all of Bowdon,” Fendley said. “Teacher’s favorite kid in the school building. The hardest-working kid in the weight room. Loves to go bass fishing. He would fish all day if you let that kid go fish.”
“He’s just your best everything. Character kid. Off-the-field kid. The kid plays basketball. Plays baseball. I mean, he does everything.”
He will be able to graduate early. It is something in this era that he has been able to remain in a small community and not leave for a bigger school.
“But he has an old-school dad who gets it,” Fendley said. “He isn’t going to let it happen. His kid is going to be a Red Devil. He’s said that from day one, and he’s not going to let anything influence him.”
Kaiden Prothro: Why the UGA offer was a big deal
It was big news when Hartley offered him in March of 2024. That was during a spring practice visit. To be honest, he was tipped off about it by offensive coordinator Mike Bobo.
“That was so exciting because that’s one of the offers he’s been wanting,” his father said. “You know he grew up a Georgia kid. A Georgia fan.”
There are many Georgia fans in Bowdon. Kaiden was one of those. Clarence Prothro told Hartley one story back in January at that basketball game.
“He was five, six or seven years old and his thing is he was going to play baseball for the University of Georgia and be a catcher and a hitter,” his father said. “So, you know, it is in his blood.”
“And you know and, hopefully, I say hopefully, because what Kirby and is and the type of program that Kirby runs and then what Coach Hartley does for his tight ends. He may go in there and be 215 or 220 pounds, and they may move him to wide receiver. I don’t know. But I think he’s got to wait and see what his body does. I think with the right nutrition, I think, they will get him to where they want him to be, where he can be productive [at tight end] and still have his athletic ability. But it was a special moment for him to get that offer from them.”
This was not an NIL-driven recruitment. He will be taken care of by Georgia, but that was not the catalyst behind this decision.
“We’re not money chasing,” Clarence Prothro said this winter. “We’re not doing that. We are looking for the best place that is going to develop him as a man and as a person and as a football player.”
How does he feel Georgia checks those boxes? Clarence Prothro had that conversation with Smart at that basketball game in January.
“I love what he does with his football program,” Clarence Prothro said. “I told him that he teaches them to win, but he does it the right way with hard work. You work hard for what you get and I told him I love to listen to his practice speeches to his players because it is real talk. He talks to them about real-life stuff and this is why you do stuff.”
“Because it is going to make you a better person down the road when you have a family. You’re going to have to know how to deal with certain situations when you don’t think you can do it anymore. But you can because you’ve been through it. With Hartley, his record speaks for itself with what he does with his tight ends. That’s why I think Georgia is a fit for him, but he’s the one who has got to see that and do the research on it. I’ve done the research on it. It is not very hard to see when you’ve got five or six tight ends in the NFL. But Kaiden has got to believe in the process from that aspect of it. It is not going to happen overnight. It takes work.”
Smart reinforced that with the Prothro family during their official visit.
“I just like the authenticity of what he told him,” Clarence Prothro said. “He was just telling Kaiden ‘If you come here, then he’s going to get on his ass.’ He said you may not like it, but it is for his own good to make him a better player, a better human, and that’s just being tough; that’s how the program is. That’s what I like, and I think Kaiden likes that as well.”
Kaiden brought that up when asked what impressed him the most during his OV.
“The relationship with the coaches is great,” he said. “I would say they work hard, and I’d say Coach Hartley and what he does for the tight end position there, it stood out to me.”
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