New Georgia safeties and co-defensive coordinator Travaris Robinso joked Tuesday that he probably should not have told safety Malaki Starks that he wanted to lose some weight.
"I told Malaki I was going to start running, and he was like, ‘OK, what time are you going to run?’” Robinson recalled. “I say 5:30. So, I get in at 5:30 and Malaki is in the dang indoor waiting on me.”
The story doesn’t end there.
“He says ‘What time are you coming tomorrow, Coach?’ I said 5:30 again. Same thing,” Robinson said. “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?’”
Color Robinson impressed.
“He’s straining, but it’s the same thing he does on the field,” Robinson said. “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, Malachi holds people accountable, and he holds himself accountable. That's why he's a good player.”
• Robinson did not really know cornerbacks coach Donte Williams before the two arrived in Athens.
It hasn’t taken them long to build a strong working relationship, even if Williams’ methods on one of their first days on the field caught him by surprise.
"He's a guy that brings a lot of energy. I don't know if you guys had a chance to see it. But one time he was out at practice, I guess it was my first or second day, and I see a guy running with a helmet but no jersey on," Robinson said. "I was like, 'Who doesn't have a jersey?' I thought it was a player."
No, it was Williams showing firsthand how to defend the back-shoulder fade.
"I asked him because he's a pretty boy, a good-looking guy. He told me he did it before when he was at the other place (USC), and he got hit in the face," Williams said. "So, he started putting on the helmet because of that. But he's a really good dude, a very smart coach and I'm excited to get a chance to work with him."
• It appears Mykel Williams will not be the only defensive player to play more than one role.
“Because of the style of defense that we play, the different personnel groupings, the packages, the way that we rotate and mix and match based on our opponent's situation in the game, I think it gives us the opportunity to dual train guys like Mykell, guys like Jalon (Walker), guys like Gabe Harris'" defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann said. "There's a lot of guys in the secondary, there's guys who play safety and star.”
Per Schumann, different players can have different opportunities, depending on the opponent and the offense they employ.
“We do this a lot in practice. On game day, their roles are based on what we think is best for the game,” he said. “But as these guys have matured and grown and been able to go through this learning process multiple times, they can take on more.
• There’s still some learning the South Carolina transfer Xzavier McLeod has to do, but so far, so good.
“He has been a really good athlete. He obviously has size (6-4, 315). He’s a really good athlete for his size,” Schumann said.“When he's able to move, he has to be able to go and show up for the running game in terms of all of the goal-line teams. We just put pads on a few days ago. As time goes on, we'll continue to grow that area.”
• After working to defend him in last year’s SEC Championship, Robinson said he’s gained further appreciation for what it takes to defend Bulldog quarterback Carson Beck.
“I understand the difficulties of some of the things that we do, all right, that cause problems for the defense,” Robinson said. “He knows where to go with the football. He gets the ball out of his hand very well and really throws the deep ball well. It’s exciting and challenging every single day.”
Robinson joked that he likes to try and push Beck’s buttons when they’re on the field.
“I talk a lot of trash to Carson, and he does a good job of handling it in the right way,” Robinson said. “He does a really good job of responding. He makes a bad play, but he’s like all right, and he’ll pick it up and he go do something different and hurt us. He's a talented guy and we're going at it every single day.”
