Jontae Gilbert and Dominick Kelly are two early enrollees at cornerback loaded with talent and skill.

Indeed, neither would be at Georgia if that were not the case.. Both project as eventual starters in the Bulldog secondary.

However, as cornerback coach Donte Williams points out, there are also some differences between the two.

“Jontae is more introverted. Dom will speak up if he doesn't know something or, you know, something doesn't make sense,” Williams said. “Jontae will act like everything's okay because in his mind it's like if I ask a question, then they're going to think I don't know. We don't expect you to know. I've been here 15 seconds, man. It's okay.”

A product of Atlanta’s Douglass High, Gilbert played both offense and defense as a four-star performer.

“His is through the roof. I mean, you get a guy that's already checked in, that's 6-2 with a wingspan, that's 190 pounds, that can run, that's competitive. You see him at 190 pounds and he's still like he's 175,” Williams said. “You see the frame and you see the growth potential. He wants to learn.”

Gilbert made that clear the first day he showed up on campus.

“He's here the first day, and he asks if I can meet with you. I'm like, we're watching film,” Williams said. “It’s like 9:30 and he goes, 'I’ll sit around.'”

Like Gilbert, Kelly is also making Williams’ job easier, too.

“When you get people like that that are freshmen that want to learn already and they have people here that already has a grasp of doing things, I mean, that's all you can ask for as a coach,” Williams said of Kelly, who along with Valdosta’s Todd Robinson, is an early enrollee.

Williams will play both star and safety for the Bulldogs.

Initially, Kelly was supposed to be a year away from getting to Athens.

However, after reclassifying as a 2026 recruit, Kelly is on campus, getting his career underway.

“He’s extremely bright, extremely smart. He’s got great movement traits. He’s got a good frame already,” Williams said. “I thought he was going to actually struggle, maybe right away, fitting in. But he’s fit right away in because he's so really, really mature.”

Williams said that he and Kelly have a running joke between them.

“It's almost like to the point is you look at him and you're like, dang, who's the guy that's been here the longest, me or him?” Williams said. “Again, he’s a mature player. But just like the younger guys from his past, he's learning how to do things the way we ask him to do things. I think that's going to be the biggest learning curve.”

Williams said both cornerbacks will learn from players who have played under Williams for the past year.

That knowledge should serve both freshmen well.

“The plus for him now is these guys (returnees) that have been here, they've been able to be uncomfortable for a whole year, being around me, being around T-Rob (Traveras Robinson), to where they kind of have a grip on how we do things instead of them just learning,” Williams said. “They will all of a sudden not just learn from us coaching them. They’ll get kind of jump because they'll be able to learn from the players because they kind of already have a grasp of how we need things done. That's a plus for him.”