This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting has the latest with 5-star target Kaiden Prothro of Bowdon High School. He ranks as the nation’s No. 3 TE and the No. 26 overall prospect for 2026 on the 247Sports Composite. The On3 Industry Ranking has him as the No. 3 TE and No. 30 overall.
Kaiden Prothro took his long-awaited official visit to check out Georgia this past weekend. It is usually an opportunity for the Dawgs to show a 5-star everything they would ever need in order to commit to the G.
Prothro flipped that script.
While he gave the Dawgs an “A” for his official visit, he gave the program an “A+” moment to chew on when it comes to his makeup.
After 48 hours in the Classic City of being treated like a VIP and eating off a king’s table, the nation’s No. 3 TE ate off the floor.
The 6-foot-6 Prothro checked his officially visited self out of the hotel room, put his cleats on, and went to work. The 3-time state champion from Bowdon High School, who has turned 39 percent of his high school catches into touchdowns, joined the June 1 summer camp at UGA.
His mother asked Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley if any recruit had ever done that before.
“He was like ‘Never’ and they all got out of here and he stayed for a football camp from 3 p.m. until like seven o’clock or something like that,” his father, Clarence Prothro, said. “Just to get some work in.”
Prothro, who wasn’t the only official visitor to stay over for that camp, jumped in with those looking for their first UGA offer or a commitable one, with the entire staff watching and filming their every move.
“Really, I just wanted to see the full experience,” Kaiden Prothro said. “To see how coach [Todd] Hartley coached and just seeing what the coaches are doing and just getting a little taste of what it would be like playing there.”
He had an interesting description of that camp.
“I would say it was work, and I would say it is what they do there,” Kaiden Prothro said. “I got a little taste of it and it was good.”
Georgia made no bones about how hard it is to be a part of their program. That’s part of that authenticity that the Prothro family noticed over and over.
It was his father’s big takeaway from the OV.
“The camaraderie and the standards that they all have,” his father, Clarence Prothro, said. “With the players. That’s big to me. Hey, just be real, and they were real about what they talked about and how they go about coaching, and how it is not going to be easy, and they tell you that up front.”
Kirby Smart made that clear in their sit-down.
“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, and 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.”
What was the overall message he got from UGA on the visit?
“Really, that I am their top guy right now and that they want me there,” Prothro said.
Kaiden Prothro: What did he think about the Mark Bowman decision?
Prothro was on campus when 5-star TE Mark Bowman committed to USC. The dream class for the Dawgs was for ace recruiter Todd Hartley to find a way to add both Bowman and Prothro to the roster.
That is unlikely going forward. It now makes Prothro an even bigger priority for UGA.
Does Bowman’s commitment to USC affect the way he now views his opportunity at UGA?
“No, not really,” Prothro said. “I mean, I figured it was going to be between Texas and Georgia for him. But I didn’t think USC was in it. But now since he’s committed there, I’m there and I’m their top guy [at UGA] and they want me and they are recruiting me hard.”
Clarence Prothro also didn’t see that as a factor.
“I don’t think it really matters,” he said. “Kaiden is going to choose the best fit for him. It doesn’t matter who’s there or who’s coming in. He’s a competitor. He doesn’t even look at it like that. He didn’t even know that the Bowman kid committed.”
“You can tell he doesn’t keep up with it. I think somebody told him while he was there, but he doesn’t really look at it in that aspect of somebody else’s decision. He’s just going to find the best place for him.”
That seemed evident because his host was freshman TE Elyiss Williams. Williams was a 5-star last cycle, and he’s the rare skill guy in any locker room that can say he’s taller than Prothro.
The rising senior at Bowdon High School is not concerned about the nation’s No. 1 TE from the 2025 class getting a year’s jump on him. Those two hit it off well.
“It was great,” Kaiden Prothro said. “We spent a lot of time together. We are a lot alike. Kinda quiet a little bit. Kinda keep to ourselves. I just had a good time talking to him about what it would be like there.”
Prothro posed with Georgia freshman tight ends Ethan Barbour (left) and Williams (right) in the image below. He’s wearing the No. 11 UGA jersey in the middle.
Kaiden Prothro: Will he be a TE or a WR?
Georgia reiterated this message over the weekend: That Prothro is a Dawg and he belongs in Athens.
The other 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 that he’s an athlete right now, and they will figure it out from there. If he only gets to 220 or 230, then he’s probably going to be more of a hybrid-type guy 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. “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.’”
How much did UGA impress the Prothro family?
Clarence Prothro has stated in the past that his son’s decision will not be driven by NIL. It means that the old-school family feel of these visits will matter, and there won’t be a bottom line that bottom lines everything.
Like the Justus Terry decision. Or the Jackson Cantwell and the Mark Bowman decisions.
“I think they made a big impression on the whole family,” Clarence Prothro said. “Not only myself, and my wife. My wife is actually an Alabama fan, and she was very very impressed with the way they ran things and how they went about it, just being authentic and just being real about stuff. Talking about certain things. The culture and the standards that they have there, and they recruit those kids that have those same standards.”
When the 5-star camped right after his official visit, it was a telling example of how Prothro would fit in well with the standard in Athens.
What’s next for Prothro? He’s got a busy slate of June OVs:
- June 6: Alabama
- June 10: Auburn (midweek OV)
- June 13: Florida
- June 20: Texas
It stands within reason that Texas will pony up an enhanced financial package for Prothro, given that they also lost out in the Mark Bowman sweepstakes.
What sort of timeline is Prothro thinking about now?
“I know he does want to get through these official visits and then see who separates themselves,” his father said. “I asked him, ‘What are you looking to get out of these officials?’ and he said, ‘To see who separates themselves,’ so I think once we get done with the officials, he may narrow it down, or he may already know and make a decision. That’s going to be all him on that aspect of it.”
Kaiden won’t make a decision until he’s ready. That’s just how he is. He wants to be 100 percent on it when he makes that move.
It does sound like he’s planning to take all of his officials, even if he already has his mind made up or he’s found the right fit.
When will he decide? That was been fluid at times. In previous interviews, he’s said he might wait until December.
That no longer seems to be the case.
“I would probably say sometime soon,” Prothro said. “Maybe the end of the month or maybe going into or after the fourth of July or something like that.”
Have you seen this week’s “Before the Hedges” weekly recruiting special on YouTube yet? Check it out below.
SENTELL’S INTEL
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