Troy Hoff isn’t sure he’ll ever see a player like Eric Stokes suit up in an Eastside uniform again.

In high school, Stokes was just so tall, long and fast. Every Friday night, the Eastside coaching staff could count on Stokes to make some sort of highlight-reel play. During his senior season, Stokes helped lead the Eagles to a 7-3-1 record and postseason appearance.

“There were a few plays we’ll never forget that he made,” Hoff said. “When I say that, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a player who could have covered that much ground that fast to make that play. That’s not something we see every day. I wish I had two, three, four or five of those. It’s hard to compare any player we’ve had to him just because of that pure speed.”

That speed and grit was a mainstay last season with Georgia. While Stokes didn’t record an interception, he totaled a team-high nine pass deflections. Receivers rarely got behind him. Stokes finished the year as a member of the AP All-SEC second team and is on preseason watch lists for the Bednarik Award, Jim Thorpe Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy.

Stokes credits his rise to those before him. Redshirting as a freshman in 2017, Stokes had plenty of veterans to look up to as Georgia made an appearance in the College Football Playoff national championship.

“Just learning from the people above,” Stokes said. “When I first got here it was (Dominick Sanders, Aaron Davis) and Malkom (Parrish). Just by learning their routines. Even when my sophomore year came, I’m still learning from J.R. (Reed), even from (Deandre Baker). I’m just learning different techniques, how they help and to be a pro. So just watching them has been the most help I’ve ever had here.”

But before he could step into a starting role at Georgia, Stokes had to learn the ropes of what it took to become a good cornerback near the end of his high school days. Stokes was primarily a running back for three seasons, even though he did rep at cornerback in practice and play on defense during games. But it wasn’t until college coaches suggested that Stokes' future might actually be at cornerback that he decided to focus on furthering his ability there.

Among those coaches who saw Stokes as a cornerback was former Georgia defensive coordinator Mel Tucker, who is now the head coach at Michigan State. Tucker saw the 6-foot-1 height and the long arms. And with Stokes' exceptional speed, Tucker figured the makings were there for a good college cornerback.

“From early on (Tucker) loved his skill set,” Hoff said. “They knew he was raw. But they knew what they had and if they could coach and develop him, and if he continued to work the way he was, that you’d see where we are today.”

Georgia didn’t offer Stokes until Nov. 1, 2016, which was fairly late in the process for the Class of 2017 prospect. But the buzz on Stokes had been building, with Tucker apparently pushing for an offer to be extended. That summer of 2016 was when Stokes started to garner more recruiting attention. He attended many recruiting camps as a cornerback and wowed college coaches with a 40-yard dash time in the 4.3-second range.

From there, the offers started rolling in.

While Stokes was considered a three-star recruit, the interested programs suggested he was better than the rating.

“Alabama called. He had offers from Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia,” Hoff said. “I don’t believe he was underrecruited. Was he a national spotlight star? No, not necessarily. But it wasn’t like people didn’t know who he was.”

His recruitment also featured a frequent question at the beginning due to his speed.

Was Stokes a track athlete trying to play football?

His track-and-field times were exceptional for the high school level. His 10.39-second 100 time is still an Eastside program record. He won the 400 as a sophomore. This was a natural question from schools, but one that actually bugged Stokes.

“Football guys don’t really showcase that kind of speed, especially in Georgia, and not run track and not be a trackster,” Eastside track and field head coach Frankey Iverson said. “That was always the first question they asked. ‘Is he a track guy?’ No, he’s just fast.”

Said Hoff: "He’s a competitor, loves to compete. But he was always a football player. If you ever get a chance to talk to him, ask him about being labeled as a track guy. The competitive fire will come out.”

Iverson, who is also the receivers coach with the football team, said Stokes had to be convinced to run track. It just so happened he improved his speed considerably thanks to one particular innate trait.

He hates losing.

Iverson said that at the start of his freshman track season, Stokes wasn’t that fast. But there were a couple of runners faster than Stokes and that irked him. So he continued to train and saw his times improve over the course of the year.

“Eric didn’t like to lose,” Iverson said. “You could tell that early on. We had a couple of guys who were faster than him during the season. You could tell it bothered him a lot. He started training harder and that helped him out. He ended up being faster than those guys toward the end of the season.”

Stokes eventually became the fastest Eastside runner that year, qualified for the 2014 state championship meet in the 100 and finished sixth. The next year, he nursed a hamstring injury and ran the 400 since that distance wasn't as taxing on that particular muscle. As a junior, Stokes convinced Iverson to let him run the 100 again during a tune-up before the region meet, even though that wasn’t a part of the initial plan.

“He said, ‘Coach, can I run the 100 today?’ I said, ‘Yeah that’s fine.’ He was like, ‘But I’ll make a deal with you. If I run the fastest time in our class, you’ll let me stay in the 100.’ I knew Eric ran a 10.9 as a freshman and I think the fastest time, at that time, was 10.7 or 10.8. I didn’t think he would run that fast. I was like, ‘OK, Eric, whatever you want. If you run faster than 10.7 or 10.8 today I’ll let you stay in the 100.’

“He proceeded to run a 10.65. I had to keep my word.”

The hate-to-lose mentality is evident when it comes to football too. How Stokes worked behind the scenes always impressed Hoff. The day after Stokes finished the 2016 state track meet, he showed up for football practice. While on the camp circuit later summer, Stokes never missed a summer practice or workout in the weight room.

Hoff said everything was earned with Stokes, who has continued this approach at Georgia during his three years with the program.

“He wasn’t the can’t miss five star. He went into it with a chip on his shoulder,” Hoff said. “He redshirted but he stayed hungry. He went to work every day. He continued to compete every day to get to that spot where he could take somebody’s job who had more stars than him or was recruited higher than him. I think that’s why people can relate to his story.”

As one of Georgia’s defensive leaders, Stokes still approaches the game like he did at Eastside. And as a leader on what should be a loaded Georgia defense, Stokes is looking to continue playing his part to produce in the back end.

“There’s a lot of confidence and we’re trying to be the best that we can be,” Stokes said. “We’re going to compete everyday, because we are a deep unit. I know that any of us could go and start any game and be the superstar. So we’re all out here competing trying to be the best that we can be.”