Five-star KJ Bolden flips to Georgia

Kirby Smart has pulled it off.

Smart and the Georgia staff never stopped recruiting KJ Bolden after he committed to Florida State in August. The Bulldogs hosted him for multiple games and went in-home with the five-star recruit in hopes of flipping him from the Seminoles.

Now, those hopes have turned into a reality. Bolden has flipped his commitment from Florida State to Georgia, announcing the news in a signing ceremony on Wednesday.

Bolden has been a priority Georgia target for years. He has visited Athens double-digit times while building strong relationships with Smart, Will Muschamp, and other members of the Georgia coaching staff.

"(Smart) is going to be there for a real long time. He’s a great coach. I feel like me and my relationship, with a head coach, I feel like I don’t have any other relationship with a head coach like his," Bolden said of Smart in July. "At the end of the day, he’s going to be your coach, but he’s not really trying to seem like he’s a coach. He just wants to be one of your friends. You can talk to him on a daily basis like a brother, something like that. That’s how I really kind of sometimes look at him when I’m talking to him."

Ultimately, Georgia's development is what won out and separated the Bulldogs from the rest.

"UGA is definitely a place where you come to be developed and play on Sundays,” Kai Bolden, Bolden's father, said after his son's official visit in June. “(We) hung out with Javon Bullard and Malaki Starks and had a great time just picking their minds about the culture and the coaches.”

Bolden is Georgia's fourth defensive back commit in the 2024 class, joining Ellis Robinson, Demello Jones, and Ondre Evans.