"Who would you rank as the coaches most important to UGA's success?"
A DawgsCentral user posting under the name PiousMonken posed that question to me in the spring of 2023, and I quickly realized that a good answer would require quite a bit of consideration.
When thinking about the question, I kept coming back to an old football cliche, "It's not the X's and the O's, but the Jimmys and the Joes that make the difference." I found myself considering the players who suit up on Saturdays. Good gameplans and great play calls are key to the success of any college football program, but they are usually only as good as the personnel executing them. With that in mind, I decided to broaden the scope of the rankings beyond members of the coaching staff.
It sparked a series of longform articles called 23 For 2023. The premise was simple- Profile the 23 people who were most important to Georgia’s success on the gridiron in 2023. To create such a list, one must make value judgments on what on and off-field assets are most important to a modern college football program.
It focused on players and coaches within the UGA program. Collectively, the series served as a giant preview for the season ahead. It became a favorite of subscribers, and it forced me to ask questions that I hadn’t before.
This year, I am bringing the list back once again. Naturally, it will be called 24 for 2024.
With his former mentor now manning a microphone on ESPN, Kirby Smart is college football’s most accomplished coach. In 2024, Smart will have to navigate significant staff turnover and seismic changes within the sport itself. Georgia came up short of a third straight national championship in 2023, but winning it all this season would give the Bulldogs three titles in four years. That achievement would cement the program as a modern dynasty.
Whether or not Georgia can reach that lofty pedestal, and how they go about trying to do it, will be largely influenced by the roles these 24 individuals play.
Today we continue the rankings with #10 and #9. The first entries in this series were not paywalled, but they are now. Let’s get after it…
Previous Entries
#23 - Will a True Nose Tackle emerge for the Dawgs?
#16 - Trevor Etienne + #15 - Josh Crawford
#14 - Daniel Harris + #13 - Donte Williams
#12 - Earnest Greene + #11 Stacy Searels
24 For 2024 - #10 Malaki Starks + #9 Travaris Robinson
Alabama DB coach Travaris Robinson joined UGA's staff twice this offseason. Once on a Saturday, and then again for good on the following Monday.
That Monday announcement came on January 13th, and it marked the end of a whirlwind period where Robinson was linked to the defensive coordinator positions at both Alabama and Georgia.
UGA first announced Robinson as its new Co-DC/Safeties coach on Saturday morning. By late Sunday night, sources were confirming that Robinson had interviewed for the defensive coordinator position at Alabama.
So, how did the man known as "T-Rob" end up at Georgia for good, and why was he uniquely suited for the UGA defensive coordinator job?
Already in the works
The announcement of Robinson's hire coincided with UGA sharing that Will Muschamp was moving into a defensive analyst role. Sources told DawgsCentral that Muschamp had met with UGA head coach Kirby Smart about the change back in December, expressing a desire to move into a role with fewer day-to-day responsibilities. At that time, Smart started looking for Muschamp's replacement.
Smart identified Robinson as a potential hire well before Nick Saban announced his retirement. That isn't surprising if you know the history between Muschamp and Robinson. The two started their working relationship in 2006, with Robinson working as a defensive graduate assistant under Will when he was the Auburn DC.
Robinson coached defensive backs for Muschamp when he was the head coach at Florida from 2011-2014. After Muschamp was fired at UF, the two went back to Auburn together in 2015. Robinson once again coached DB's and Muschamp served as the DC for Gus Malzahn.
The next offseason, Muschamp was hired as the head coach at South Carolina. He immediately brought on Robinson to serve as his defensive coordinator and DB's coach. Robinson called the plays for the Gamecocks throughout Will's tenure in Columbia, but Muschamp was let go seven games into the 2020 season.
Knowing this history, it is logical why Kirby Smart saw Robinson as the logical choice to replace Muschamp. Smart values Muschamp's opinions and the two have a large amount of philosophical overlap when it comes to coaching techniques. In a perfect world, sliding Robinson into the co-defensive coordinator role next to Glenn Schumann would ensure a seamless transition for the entire defensive staff. The only problem was that getting Robinson away from Alabama was never going to be easy.
A strong finish
Robinson knew that Georgia wanted to hire him before Nick Saban announced his retirement, but he didn't jump ship when the legendary coach called it quits on Wednesday, January 10th. At the time, multiple sources confirmed that Robinson met with new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer on Friday evening to discuss his future with the program.
Sources also confirmed that Robinson was the play caller for Alabama's defense for mpstof the 2023 season. Saban hired Kevin Steele as his defensive coordinator in February of 2023, but in-game play calling duties were given to Robinson sometime in September.
That change was never formally announced by the Crimson Tide, but it was called out by Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin prior to the game between the two schools in week four.
“We’ve been against Kevin a number of times. Worked with him at Alabama and against him at Auburn and LSU. There seems like there’s been a change there. I don’t know what happened after the Texas game, but our guys watching the TV copy and schematically in this last game, certainly seems like T-Rob’s now calling the defense. We played him before at South Carolina, so we’re preparing accordingly for him calling the defense. He’s done a good job, too, and they’ve got really good players.”
The switch worked. Alabama's defense closed 2023 by allowing a defensive success rate of just 35.2% to opposing offenses. That was ranked fifth in the Power Five. Robinson also coached defensive backs the Crimson Tide, and that unit was one of the strengths of the team. 2023 Alabama allowed successful plays on just 34.8% of opponent's pass attempts, which ranked tenth in the FBS.
Robinson's defense held UGA's seventh-ranked scoring offense (38.8 points per game) to just 24 points in the SEC Championship. The Tide defense followed that by holding Michigan (37.6 points per game) to only 20 points over the first four quarters of their 27-20 overtime loss in the CFP semifinal. Following the strong close to the season, Robinson seemed like a natural choice to be the permanent hire in the DC role at Alabama. Reports from the Alabama side indicated that T-Rob was mulling over a new contract offer from Bama and the UGA job offer at the time of Saban's retirement.
A lack of answers
Alabama AD Greg Byrne announced the hire of Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer on Friday afternoon.
Sources told DawgsCentral that Robinson met with DeBoer that night to discuss his future with the Crimson Tide. Following that meeting, Robinson told the Alabama administration that he was resigning.
It is believed that DeBoer declined to offer Robinson defensive play calling duties in that initial meeting. Early the next morning, Robinson reached out over text message to tell Alabama players that he was stepping down.
In communications with his now former players, Robinson said DeBoer was "unable to answer" all of his questions about his job duties and new contract due to how quickly the transition had happened. Robinson then encouraged his Alabama players to not make any fast or uninformed decisions about transferring.
After expressing gratitude and well wishes, Robinson shared that he was taking a job as the Co-DC/Safeties coach at UGA. Robinson told the Alabama players that NCAA rules would prohibit him from contacting them once his hire at UGA became official.
A couple hours later, Georgia announced Robinson's hire on Twitter. 24 hours after that, DeBoer was offering him the DC job at Alabama.
A miscalculation
The answers that DeBoer lacked on Friday night suddenly became available in the hours after Robinson left for Georgia. It is certainly possible that DeBoer needed more time to think about how he wanted to structure his new staff, but his decision making may have also been influenced by the reaction to Robinson's departure.
CB Dezz Ricks, a former five-star recruit, announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal within hours of the news. Other talented young defensive players began to consider doing the same.
One of the players considering a transfer was Caleb Downs, who starred for Alabama as a true freshman. Downs flashed the kind of ability that should make him one of the best safety prospects of the decade. Even at a program where Saban stacked elite talent for the better part of two decades, Downs is a rare type of player who you can build an entire defense around.
The reaction to Robinson's departure underscored some of the reasons why UGA wanted to hire him. He is one of the best recruiters in the SEC, with a history of pulling blue-chip recruits out of other program's backyards. Robinson recruited and coached future first-round NFL Draft picks Vernon Hargraves III and Jaycee Horn when he was overseeing the DB's at Florida and South Carolina, respectively. That is the type of proven success that resonates in an elite prospect's living room.
Robinson's recruiting relationships run deep in talent-rich Florida. His recruiting ability is so strong that he often helped Alabama in its pursuit of offensive players too. Robinson was a key part of Downs' decision to leave the state of Georgia to go play for the Tide. Those are the kind of high-stakes recruiting battles a program has to win if it wants to capture championships in the SEC. At the upper levels of the sport, games can sometimes be swung by one or two star players.
Perhaps DeBoer realized Robinson's value as reactions to his departure trickled in on Saturday. Who or what changed his mind is still unknown, but we do know that he managed to convince Robinson to interview for the Alabama DC job on Sunday. This was a dramatic 180-degree shift.
DeBoer had not wanted Robinson as his defensive play-caller when they met on Friday night. By Sunday, he was offering him a job as Alabama's sole defensive coordinator with a significant bump in pay.
Robinson strongly considered the offer, but on Monday he informed UGA that he planned to work for the Dawgs.
Why did T-Rob make the move?
Sources said that the opportunity to work under Kirby Smart was a major factor in Robinson's decision to take the job as co-DC/Safeties coach at Georgia. Many were surprised that he took a job as a co-coordinator at UGA when he could have called the defense for DeBoer at Alabama.
The Bulldogs pitched Robinson on learning the UGA system while working with incumbent DC Glenn Schumann in 2024. Schumann is a rising star in the profession and is likely to be offered a head coaching job in the near future. If and when Schumann leaves, Robinson will be in a natural position to call the defense for Smart's program.
Being in the position of defensive play-caller at Georgia has led to head coaching jobs for former UGA DC's Mel Tucker (Colorado/Michigan St) and Dan Lanning (Oregon).
Smart has made his feelings on college coaching well known over the years. It is his belief that talent acquisition is the most important part of the job. After UGA's 2021 victory over rival Florida in Jacksonville, Smart put it bluntly.
"The best coach to ever play the game, better be a good recruiter because no coach is going to out-coach players. Anyone will tell you our defense is good because it has good players." To this point in Smart's tenure, every defensive coordinator at UGA has had success. That success is largely the product of recruiting highly ranked classes year after year.
With the hire of Robinson, Georgia added another elite recruiter to a staff full of elite recruiters. Robinson has been part of signing 7 five-stars and 35 four-stars in his career. He has often been in charge of coaching defensive backs, but he recruited players at all positions when at South Carolina. He even helped land offensive skill players at times in the past.
Leading a leader
Robinson is no stranger to SEC football, but he has joined a UGA program that has become college football's standard for defensive excellence. With Schumann calling plays and Muschamp still in the building, T-Rob will have plenty of help from the rest of Georgia's staff.
The biggest help to Robinson might be what he inherited in his safety room. Georgia has some questions at the position, but it also has Malaki Starks on its roster. The rising junior might be the best safety in the country, and he could go down as the best safety in program history before his time in Athens is through.
Starks and Robinson clicked from the moment T-Rob arrived at UGA. Robinson knew what kind of player Starks was, but he talked to reporters this summer about how he learned of Starks's leadership traits firsthand. Robinson mentioned to Starks that he was going to start running in the morning to lose weight.
"I told Malaki I was going to start running, and he was like, ‘OK, what time are you going to run?' I say 5:30. So, I get in at 5:30 and Malaki is in the dang indoor waiting on me.”
The two completed their run together, and Starks was immediately ready for the next day.
“He says ‘What time are you coming tomorrow, Coach?’ I said 5:30 again. Same thing. So, the next day my knee was bothering me a little bit, so I wasn’t going to run, but I wasn’t going to tell Malaki that. So, I get back home and I get a text about 10:30 or 11 and it’s Malaki going ‘What time we going, Coach?’”
Robinson used that story to illustrate the type of leadership abilities that Starks possesses.
“He’s straining, but it’s the same thing he does on the field. He's holding people accountable. I think that's one of his greatest traits. Yes, he's a good football player. Yes, he's a great ball hawk, all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, Malaki holds people accountable, and he holds himself accountable. That's why he's a good player.”
Starks has become one of the biggest leaders in Georgia's program. He guides the way for his teammates with both words and actions. Sometimes that's being a coach on the field. Other times that is encouraging his teammates to match his level of effort in workouts and practices.
In 2023, Starks showed just how much being on the field means to him. He played through a torn labrum in his shoulder that happened in the third game of the season. The injury meant his shoulder lacked stability, but he still filled run lanes and slammed into ball carriers with abandon.
Despite the injury, Starks played 417 coverage snaps in 2023. That was the most on the UGA roster. He gave up just 18 receptions for 200 yards receiving while being targeted 35 times. His 7 pass breakups led UGA and his 3 interceptions were second only to Tykee Smith.
Smith shined at the STAR position for the Bulldogs last season, and replacing him will be one of Robinson's biggest tasks in 2024. The DB's playing STAR are part of UGA's safety room, and right now it looks like former 5* recruit Joenel Aguero has the inside track on the job.
The position is key to UGA's defensive scheme because it must out leverage run blocking schemes on rush attempts and cover shifty slot receivers on pass plays. It's a lot to learn, and the details matter a lot. If the player at STAR makes a mistake it can have a domino effect of bad consequences for the defense. If they play things right, it can create turnovers and tackles for loss.
When teaching Aguero and his projected backup Jacorey Thomas, Robinson has an ally in Starks. The All-American free safety know UGA's defense so well that he often helps coach the other players in his position room. He also can slide into any position in UGA's secondary when needed.
Starks did exactly that late in the fourth quarter against Missouri last year, shifting to the boundary cornerback position to guard WR Theo Wease after the Tigers hit him on back shoulder fades on both a 3rd & 8 and a 4th & 14 play to keep their last gasp drive alive. Starks shut Wease down and Mizzou QB Brady Cook forced a throw downfield a couple plays later. That ball was intercepted, clinching a 30-21 victory for the Dawgs.
Filling out the room
As we sit in August, it feels like UGA's safety room is the one that can least afford an injury. Starks is the known commodity who can cover ground lightning quick and erase bad angles for the rest of the defense. Aguero has talent but still hasn't proven himself under the lights. The Bulldogs need to cultivate depth in the safety room as the season goes on, but they have to find a starter next to Starks first.
With the season approaching, it appears veteran Dan Jackson will be UGA's starter at strong safety when the Bulldogs open against Clemson in Atlanta. Jackson has battled back to form after injuries derailed his 2022 and 2023 campaigns. Back in 2021, he was Georgia's sixth-leading tackler while rotating behind Chris Smith and Lewis Cine.
Jackson played 455 coverage snaps that season and his snap to target and snap to reception allowed ratios were on par with Smith's. He's a better player than many realize, and a lot of people have forgotten how good he could be when healthy. Jackson can be a solid member of the secondary who keeps mistakes from being made.
Pushing him is another special talent. That's five-star true freshman KJ Bolden, a late-cycle flip who moves differently on a football field than all but a select few players. He is both fast and physical and he has come into UGA's program and dedicated himself to learning all he can. His athletic gifts made him a five-star, but he shares Starks's desire to be great. Starks even helped recruit Bolden last fall, and told him to come to Athens so they could play together this season.
Bolden will be a star for UGA, but the question is how soon it will happen. As we move towards the season, Bolden looks more and more like a player who will demand snaps. Robinson's experience coaching Caleb Downs last season will be huge for Bolden. T-Rob took Downs from a player who gave up 118 yards on 6 TGT/5 REC against Texas in week two to one of the best safeties in the country by the time the season ended. If Starks isn't the best safety in college football in 2024 then that title will likely belong to Downs.
Bolden has a similar type of raw talent that Robinson could mold into a ball hawking machine. KJ rarely takes a bad step, and T-Rob could help him become a player who never takes one. If Robinson gets Bolden somewhere close to meeting his potential then Georgia could have the best safety tandem in the sport by the time the College Football Playoff comes around.
Between now and then, Robinson will also look to get snaps out of Alabama transfer Jake Pope. Some were surprised when UGA brought Pope in out of the portal, but his former position coach with the Crimson Tide was one of those who banged the drum for the redshirt sophomore. He could be an important depth piece and he understands the system if called upon in a big moment. T-Rob will also look to develop redshirt freshman Justyn Rhett into a player who competes for significant snaps with the first-team in 2025.
If T-Rob is successful the leadership of Starks will be a big reason why. When one of the best players and biggest leaders on the team follows a coach the rest of the room tends to fall in line. Both will try to build a trustworthy safety room around Malaki. If they do, Georgia's defense could take the punch out of the deep pass attempts they're likely to face against Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ole Miss.
Erasing explosive plays is big for any defense, but it could have even more value for the 2024 Bulldogs. Kirby Smart teams usually tackle very well. It's hard to drive the field on a team by taking small chunks, and the Dawgs could become a nightmare to face if that happens. It's hard to get first downs if you have to be successful three plays in a row to do it. If that becomes the case then it will open up all sorts of interesting options for Schumann and Robinson when calling the defense. Eventually QB's and OC's are likely to lose patience, and Georgia's safeties could be there to make them pay for floating it downfield when they do.
If the Dawgs are able to hoist a third national title trophy in four years, the continued improvement of the safety room will be a key reason why.
-
1
-
4
-
1
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.