This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 5-star Kaiden Prothro. The 3-time Bowdon High state football champion ranks as the nation’s No. 3 TE and the No. 22 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 3 TE and No. 30 overall.
BOWDON, Ga. -- There’s a word that best described what 5-star prospect Kaiden Prothro looked like this morning during his strength and conditioning period at Bowdon High School.
Impressive.
The staff at Bowdon High School has already told DawgNation the stories about him being every teacher’s favorite in the hallways. His exploits in football (41 career touchdowns after 99 career catches), basketball (21 ppg, 16.5 RPG), and baseball (starting left fielder) probably make him a coach’s favorite, too.
That word also best describes what we saw out of Prothro on Friday morning.
Prothro was in control of the playlist for the weight training period. He easily moved 60 percent of his maximum on hang cleans like it was nothing.
Then he pushed a sled loaded with 90 pounds so fast it would’ve gotten a speeding ticket in Clarke County.
“It is one of our offseason workouts we do getting ready for the season,” he said of their sled work. “I feel like that’s what separates us from the other teams in our classification. I feel like we always work hard in the offseason. The sled’s just a normal thing for us to do.”
Bowdon’s coaches were in those groups. Competing along with their players. That’s part of the secret sauce that will have the program pushing for its fourth straight state title this fall.
The 5-star (247Sports Composite) was just in Athens last weekend. He’s set to fly to Texas this weekend for his two-day visit to Austin to see the Longhorns. Prothro has trips planned to Auburn, Alabama, and Florida next week.
The 6-foot-6-plus, 220-plus-pound rising senior is also planning to see North Carolina in early April.
It was a good visit to Athens. The highlights included:
- On the overall vibe: “I just felt like the players just really love each other, and the coaches are pushing the players. I feel like me being there, just being around the players and coaches just building the connection was great.”
- Quotable: “It is starting to feel like home a little bit there,” Prothro said. “The players and the coaches, I feel like they have a great connection. That’s what I am looking for in a school.
- Kirby Story #1: Getting to sit with Georgia coach Kirby Smart in his office for the first time. “He’s just the type of coach that would push the players and love them at the same time.”
- Kirby Story #2: “I talked to Coach Smart,” he said. “We have a good connection. I feel like I would fit in there.”
- An interesting conversation: Smart advised him not to get tied down as a TE, no matter where he goes in college. “He feels like I may not grow into a tight end,” Kaiden Prothro said. “I may just be a receiver. If I go there, they’ll just have to work with that. Just play to my skill set. I feel that’s important for some players. Just playing to their skill set and what they can do.”
- Funny story: When practice was going on, Prothro was brought inside by a staffer for updated measurements like height and weight. “But then you hear Kirby yelling ‘Where’s Kaiden? Where’s Prothro at? He needs to be watching the tight ends,’ so here [Kaiden] comes running out the door,” his father, Clarence Prothro, said. “He said, ‘Kirby is calling me out. He’s probably thinking I’m inside just hanging out or whatnot,’ so it is just cool to watch him just be out there on the field with those kids while they run the offense and kind of being almost in the huddle. That’s a pretty cool moment to sit back and watch.”
Some of that could come down to what he wants to do. What does he want to play in college? He said that he wants to be used in whatever way benefits his long-term NFL potential the most. He could very well wind up as a hybrid TE on Saturdays.
“I feel like whatever gives me the best chance to get to the league, really,” he said. “It may be tight end. It may be a receiver. It is just however it plans out in college.”
Prothro got to watch prized freshman TEs Ethan Barbour and Elyiss Williams work out. The 6-foot-7 Williams is interesting because he’s also a big target that could get reps at TE or flex out at receiver.
He also got the chance to watch his primary recruiter, Todd Hartley, work with his tight end group. That’s a way where he can see how their recruiting relationship will translate to the field.
“I see that he really loves his tight ends,” Prothro said. “They make a play, and they will come over to him, and he’ll talk to them about whatever they are doing wrong or whatever. He gets the young guys involved, too. They are getting reps. I feel like he just has a good rotation with the tight ends and makes sure they get all their reps. I feel like that goes off the field, too. If the players are doing good in practice, they’ll love the coaches.”
Prothro has taken at least six or seven trips to check out UGA now as a recruit. What’s the overall feeling he has with the Dawgs right now as he heads out next week to see if there’s any other program that can top what he’s seen so far.
“I feel like I just got to keep on getting down there and keep on building the relationship,” he said. “Maybe I’ll just love it even more every time I go down there. I feel like that’s the point I am at right now. Just going down to colleges and just building the relationships as much as I can. Because that’s the college I will be at for three to four years so that’s just really important.”
He’s set a top five of Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Prothro said that he may try to visit Colorado and North Carolina as well if he can.
The commitment decision timeline remains flexible.
“I feel like what feels right to me is just waiting as long as I can,” Prothro said. “This is going to be the decision of my lifetime really and were I am going to be at for the next four years. I really want to try to make that after football season or during football season. Or just whenever I know, really, it is just really big for me.”
It sounds like he’ll take all of his officials first and make his decision during his senior season or after it.
The way that Georgia practices continues to be a running theme from recruits. Nobody really practices like the Dawgs. It stands out to a lot of the top targets. Count Prothro in that group.
The way that Georgia works is the No. 1 thing he likes about the Dawgs.
“I feel like Coach Smart does a good job down there, and the coaches just really push the players, and the players just love the work,” he said. “I’m a player that loves the work and just gets after it. That’s what fits in for me with them.”
He hasn’t had any in-depth conversations with current Bulldogs yet.
“No, not really,” he said. “I’m probably going to start texting Elyiss a little bit more. Just asking him how he’s doing, how it is down there and just try to feel what it is like down there.”
Have you seen this week’s “Before the Hedges” program yet?
We have segments on the ongoing Jared Curtis race with Oregon and the growing number of UGA football legacies now coming up as recruits, plus a look at the updated top targets for the Dawgs in the 2026 class. Check it out below.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
