This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting shares the perspective of what UGA assistant coach Travaris Robinson looks for when scouting the next great UGA safety.
Javon Bullard. Lewis Cine. Dan Jackson. Malaki Starks. Chris Smith. Tykee Smith.
Those Dawgs have all lined up to play safety for Kirby Smart’s program since the 2021 season. When the next NFL Draft rolls around, they will all have seen their names drafted into the NFL.
We will keep watching the path that rising sophomore KJ Bolden is on. That’s another sure-fire future NFL guy and maybe even another first-rounder like Cine and Starks is projection to be.
That will only enhance those “Safety U” thoughts about the Bulldogs. While any fan base would champion this, it also seems natural at UGA with Kirby Smart leading the program.
Smart is a defensive guy. He was a first-team ALL-SEC safety selection as a senior. That was after he led the conference in interceptions in 1998. His 13 career interceptions are still sixth all-time in UGA history.
SEC veteran coach Travaris Robinson has been at Alabama, Miami, South Carolina, Auburn and Florida. “T-Rob” just finished his first season at UGA and just signed his first recruiting class. He’s about as well-versed in what to look for as anybody in the SEC about what it takes to be a great defensive back in the conference.
And then he’s got Smart paying attention to everything in that room, too.
What does Georgia look for as it seeks to find more guys that can produce like Bullard, Bolden, Cine, Jackson, Smith and Starks? Robinson laid it out for DawgNation at Sugar Bowl Media Day back on December 30.
“I would say the first thing is instinctive,” Robinson said. “You want to find instinctive football players. They’ve got enough size that can handle, you know, SEC football. So you try and look for guys anywhere from 185 to 190 [pounds] that you can potentially see them getting over 200 pounds.”
That gumbo for a prized Georgia safety recruit doesn’t stop there.
“Then you want to find guys that are tough,” he continued. “Like to play at Georgia period, not just necessarily safety, to play at Georgia period, you got to have tough guys, and then especially you have got to be mentally tough because coach Smart is in the room all the time with us as well. So it’s different when you have a position coach and the head coach is kind of somewhere else.”
“But when the head coach is a DB guy, it’s a lot on those guys. We’ve got to find guys that have got the right makeup, and can handle that. I would think that, and then obviously, like size and speed and all the traits of a good football player, but instincts are important, and toughness is probably the next important and then ball skills.”
TRob on 2025 signee Todd Robinson
Let’s look back at that recipe for a prototype Georgia safety again.
- Instincts
- SEC size and speed
- Toughness
- Ball skills
Georgia signed a trio of safety prototypes in 4-stars Todd Robinson, Jaylan Morgan and Rasean Dinkins in the last cycle.
Robinson was the highest-rated of the trio. The 247Sports Composite listed him as the nation’s No. 9 safety and the No. 206 overall recruit. Morgan, the nation’s No. 272 overall prospect out of Tennessee, has also already enrolled.
Dinkins, the Warner Robins standout, who might have the brightest future of any of the trio, won’t report until after his high school graduation in May. He just took his official visit to UGA with his family this month before the dead period.
The nation’s No. 33 safety and No. 361 overall prospect was vastly underrated. He’s got those instincts, toughness ball skills traits in spades all across his high school film.
Robinson was a different evaluation. He didn’t have two year’s worth of All-State film like Dinkins did. He was a quarterback at Valdosta High School for his high school career.
“TRob” was able to share an early look at what he saw out of Todd Robinson from bowl practices.
“Excited about him,” Travaris Robinson said. “Obviously played a lot of quarterback in high school. Played only quarterback. He’s a guy that’s a leader. You can see that. You can see a guy that’s tough. You can see that he’s done a really good job in this couple of days of practice trying to do things the right way. He’s got a ways to go, but we’re excited about him.”
That’s the future of the safety spot in Athens. The program also addressed the present via the transfer portal last month. Georgia brought in another trio of veteran safeties in UAB transfer Adrian Maddox, Miami transfer Jaden Harris and USC transfer Zion Branch.
Those stories are all different.
Maddox grew up in Conyers and played at Heritage High. Harris grew up in Atlanta and played for former UGA great Robert Edwards at Riverwood. Branch came to UGA with his brother Zachariah. That was a package that allowed UGA to bring in the latter as a former 5-star WR recruit.
Those guys have college bodies and have gotten college reps and are ready to help right away with depth after the loss of Jackson and Starks to the NFL.
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)
