Georgia’s secondary is in a state of flux. Gone are Malaki Starks and Dan Jackson. Will Muschamp’s role with the team is unknown.
Starting cornerback Daylen Everette is back, but he’s dealing with a hernia injury this spring. That creates more reps and competition for Daniel Harris, Demello Jones and Ellis Robinson.
At safety, Georgia brought in transfers Zion Branch, Adrian Maddox and Jaden Harris.
Yet for all the uncertainty swirling about the position group that coach Kirby Smart knows best, he has one known commodity this spring.
That would be sophomore safety KJ Bolden.
“KJ’s there, and he continues to bulk up, get a little bit bigger and be able to take care of himself and tackle like he needs to in terms of size, but he understands the defense, and he’s a good athlete. He can he can do things and cover‚” Smart said following Tuesday’s practice.
Bolden is entering his second season at Georgia after earning SEC All-freshman honors last season. He finished the campaign with 59 tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, a sack and an interception.
A former 5-star prospect and Buford High School standout, Bolden lived up to the hype in his first season in Athens. Smart couldn’t wait to rave about him when the Georgia head coach got to SEC media days last year.
Entering 2025, Bolden knows even more is expected of him.
“I pray for moments like this, to just be a leader in one of the (position meeting) rooms at Georgia,” Bolden said. “So just being able to take over that leader role, just pushing the guys every day, cuz I know what the standard is here. And I know what the standard is gotta be.”
Smart was not thrilled with his team following Tuesday’s practice, lamenting that his team was not playing to the standard that had been set by the likes of Starks, Lewis Cine, Richard LeCounte and all the great Georgia players that had come before Bolden.
The topic of taking hard coaching came up, especially as that is a sensitive subject in today’s NIL era.
Bolden, who could’ve gone anywhere in the country and likely been a standout, offered his advice for those who are making the transition to Smart’s Georgia program.
“Here, you really just gotta hear how they’re saying it to you,” Bolden said. “You really can’t, they may be yelling at you and saying how they say it, but you just really gotta hear what he’s saying. They really want you to be the best player you can be. So I really don’t, I tell the young guys, don’t take it offensively. They just really want you to be the best you can be. So just be coachable, that’s how you get on the field.”
Bolden was quick to praise freshman Todd Robinson as someone that has impressed him thus far. Time will tell if the Valdosta High School standout will emerge as quickly as Bolden did for Georgia.
When he arrived in Athens last year, there wasn’t a smorgasbord of unknowns in the secondary. As Smart laid out Tuesday, there are a lot of unproven players vying to get on the field next to Bolden.
“It’s just like a lot of guys and there’s nobody really standing out,” Smart said. “JaCorey (Thomas is) working in there. Zion Branch is working in there. We got Maddox working in there. Jaden’s working in there. JaCorey, I think I mentioned him. Todd Robinson. Joenel (Aguero)’s gotten reps at safety as well as star. Jaden’s working at Star (nickel back) some. Kyron (Jones is) working at Star. Kyron’s working at safety. I mean it’s, it’s a lot of people, but there’s no like, you know, the solid foundation that Malaki and Dan provided is not there.
“So it’s a by committee group. I’m thinking it’s too early to have anybody like out in the lead. They’re all swimming a little bit. They’re trying to survive practice instead of thrive and we want to thrive, not survive.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise that things are so unsettled at this point in the Georgia secondary. As much as Smart wants things to be further along, it has been just four practices to this point, with Georgia’s fifth set for Thursday.
Players are going to get better, especially if they heed Bolden’s advice.
As for Bolden, he’s likely going to improve as well. He’s already done so this offseason and is primed to go from a name that every Georgia fan knows to one that all of college football appreciates.
“Trying to get 1% better every day,” Bolden said on his goals this spring. “Every day (is) not gonna be a good day for you, so you’re gonna have on-and-off days. So just going to practice every day, trying to give 110%, and just trying to be the best you can be. I feel like that’s the most I’ve learned for now.”
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