ATHENS — JaCorey Thomas didn’t need an introduction to his new position coach this spring.
The Georgia safety had been recruited by Travaris Robinson when Robinson was at Miami. Thomas remembers being recruited by Robinson out of Orlando, Fla., though Thomas ultimately wanted to be a Bulldog.
Now, the two will work together in Georgia’s secondary.
“He’s a cool coach,” Thomas said. “Him and Coach Muschamp’s been coaching together for they said like 15 years, so they’re pretty much the same person.”
Thomas doesn’t have the same relationship with Robinson that Muschamp does, as the two worked together at South Carolina, Florida and Auburn.
So when Muschamp wanted to take a lesser role in the Georgia machine in order to spend more time with his family, Robinson emerged as the perfect replacement.
As his relationship with Thomas demonstrates, he’s well-traveled as a recruiter. In addition to his time at Miami, he has also worked as Alabama’s cornerbacks coach for the past two seasons.
Robinson should have little trouble picking up the way Kirby Smart wants things done at Georgia, in part because of his prior education.
“He’s got tons of value in our SEC footprint,” Smart said of Robinson. “Recruiting value, football knowledge, leader of men. Anywhere he’s coached, his players really, really trust him and enjoy him. He’s been nothing but an asset for us in terms of knowledge, but also in terms of relationships.
“We’ll get a great benefit from T-Rob coming, and we’ll get a huge benefit from Coach Muschamp remaining part of our program to help us.”
Robinson is now one of two new defensive back coaches at Georgia, as the Bulldogs also brought in Donte Williams to coach the team’s cornerbacks.
Smart has long been one of the top defensive back coaches in the sport, going back to his time at Alabama.
He’s also had to cycle through defensive back coaches as the head coach at Georgia, largely because they keep getting hired away to run their own programs.
So Smart knows what he’s looking for when he hires defensive back coaches. And he very much believes in what Robinson and Williams bring to this team.
“They both have great energy. They have great relationships with their players,” Smart said. “They’re really good recruiters but they’re also passionate and have a lot of energy on the field. Everything that we heard about them and the things we wanted them to come into our program for, they’re here for. I’m really proud of both those guys and how they’ve transitioned thus far.”
Robinson won’t have much time to ease into the job, as Georgia has to replace Javon Bullard and Tykee Smith at safety and Star. Malaki Starks has been recovering from a shoulder injury this spring, and while he’ll be back for fall camp, that leaves plenty of openings in the secondary.
Robinson will have plenty of pieces to work with, be it transfer Jake Pope, 5-star freshman KJ Bolden and veterans such as Dan Jackson and David Daniel-Sisavanh.
And of course Thomas, someone Robinson has long been comfortable with.
“I‘ve been here for three years, so there’s always very high competition at the safety level from Chris Smith to Javon Bullard and stuff like that. It’s always going to be competitive,” Thomas said. “You know, we like to compete here at Georgia.”
