Sentell’s Intel: What did the Georgia football early enrollees look like at Sugar Bowl practice?

This Sentell’s Intel rep on Georgia football recruiting sums up what the early enrollees at UGA looked like from the media viewing period from Friday afternoon’s practice. There were a lot of those new Dawgs on hand to check out in one of their first few practices at UGA.

Ethan Barbour and Elyiss Williams seemed joined at the hip on Friday afternoon for the media viewing period as Georgia continued its prep for the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame.

That was fitting. The two will be Todd Hartley’s twin terrors for SEC defensive coordinators in the years to come. Barbour is about 6 feet, 3 inches and 225 pounds. He’s a sleek, modern do-everything tight end.

Williams seemed like a skyscraper standing next to him. Yet one with the wingspan of an Airbus A380.

In the 15 minutes we saw him, he flashed a solid pair of hands. It looked more natural. That must have been some early coaching. Williams didn’t look as fluid in pregame warmups when we saw him this season at Camden County.

Barbour has been trained well at two-time state champion Milton High. He was red-lining his effort to practice like it was the GHSA Class 5A state title game all over again at the end of his first full week in Athens. The two of them looked like they could contribute against the Irish next week in New Orleans.

It was another best-in-the-nation Hartley haul. Williams was rated as the nation’s No. 1 TE by most of the national services. He wasn’t rated the No. 1 prospect by ESPN, but Barbour earned that honor.

That was one lasting visual from the 15 minutes that media were permitted to watch Sugar Bowl practices on Friday afternoon.

That wasn’t the only one.

There was injured QB freshman QB Ryan Montgomery rambling up and down the indoor field at the “House of Payne” as best he could. That bodes well for his aggressive hopes to be ready to help Georgia as much as he can for spring practice. The 4-star QB from Ohio suffered a season-ending full ACL, meniscus and MCL tear on the first series of his senior year at Findlay High School.

Mongomery had a sleeve on his knee, but he was trying to keep up with the pace of Georgia’s hurry-up offense.

It’s hard not to appreciate Montgomery for all things Georgia here. When he committed to UGA last April, he did so with a live Bulldog. He also said “for the next three to five years” when he made that verbal pledge in front of his school.

That showed his commitment to the time it usually takes for any of Georgia’s quarterbacks to become the starter in Athens. That was what Carson Beck and Gunner Stockton have had to do.

There was a late flip attempt by Florida, but Montgomery had known he wanted to be a Dawg for a long time. If he couldn’t go play with his older brother at Ohio State, he had wanted to be at UGA since his first few practice visits.

We saw freshman RB signee Bo Walker trying to work his way to the front of the drills among his position group. Walker looked quick and thick. He’s going to hide behind the program’s “Great Wall of Georgia” for a lot of big gains during his time in Athens.

Walker is the only freshman RB signee in the 2025 class. That’s probably why he stood out so much despite his 5-foot-8-plus frame. He’s also a winner. The three state championship teams he’s been a part of in high school stand to support that opinion.

There was a series of freshman defenders that caught our eyes. Some were in black jerseys. Some were in the same No. 44 jerseys.

We measured up 4-stars Darren Ikinnagbon and Chase Linton in the same light as Barbour and Williams. The two EDGE signees were often standing next to one another as they tried to absorb everything that was happening at a rolling clip on the Georgia practice field.

Or they went back-to-back in reps.

Those two provided good context. Linton is 6-foot-4 and about 230. Ikinnagbon is an inch taller and about 20-25 pounds heavier. Their frames popped out quickly on their high school teams. Yet when they were mixed in with the grown men on Georgia’s defensive front, it showed the difference in what a few years of lifting with Georgia strength coach Scott Sinclair and his staff can do.

Kirby Smart was barking on the mic. As per the norm. There was no yoga session in this practice period like some of the media tribe had expected to see from previous open practice periods for Smart’s teams in the postseason.

These Dawgs were working. Everywhere.

We saw freshman LBs A.J. Kruah and Zayden Walker dropping and moving through various drills.

Kruah was moving quickly in a No. 34 jersey. He scored 10 touchdowns this year at Marietta High School. He’s a jack-of-all-trades defender who had time to do all of that on offense and rack up 55 tackles, 15 TFLs and seven sacks as a senior.

Georgia flipped him from North Carolina late in his senior year. The 4-star LB also lined up at defensive end, quarterback, running back, tight end and wide receiver this past season.

Walker didn’t have a black scout team jersey on. He was wearing No. 14. That’s a likely nod to him being in Athens last week and getting acclimated. The 5-star signee checks the size and speed boxes handily. Especially for a GHSA Class A LB prospect who’s only been on campus for just over a week now.

He was moving well. Very well. It didn’t hurt that his high school team featured him at receiver this year and he caught 25 passes for 379 yards and five scores. Walker also ran for eight touchdowns.

Some of the new Dawgs were wearing black scout team jerseys. Others were in the red (offense) or white (defense) jerseys which indicated the side of the ball they were on.

There was a big 6-foot-4 frame flashing across the field and hauling in a deep ball from third-team QB Jaden Rashada. But that was senior Colbie Young. Not freshman 4-star CJ Wiley.

That was okay. Young’s status is a hope for the short term, as the new NCAA thoughts on junior college seasons no longer count toward player eligibility.

Wiley’s going to benefit James Coley’s receiver room for many many years. He’ll probably catch a thousand deep balls like the one Young did during his practice field time at UGA.

That’s the same for all the new receivers. Landon Roldan, Talyn Taylor, CJ Wiley, and Tyler J. Williams are all already on campus. However, during the 15-minute viewing period, we didn’t catch a good look at them. They looked to be watching the early groups go through drills.

That made sense. Taylor didn’t arrive from Chicago until late on Christmas night. Taylor and Williams plan to room together in Athens next year. Roldan will pair up with Montgomery.

Georgia sent out a wave of freshman defenders for a few reps. We spied freshmen cornerbacks Dominick Kelly and Jontae Gilbert both wearing the same black No. 21 scout team jersey. They were easy to distinguish despite that. Gilbert has the longer frame that would allow him to play all over the back end, but he intents to start at cornerback.

Kelly, the prospect who reclassified from the 2026 cycle back in November, looks more apt to play cornerback. He was one of the first, if not the first, early enrollees to report to UGA and start bowl practices.

When we saw 4-star DB Todd Robinson for the first time, he actually looked like a veteran out there among the twos and threes clicking off rep after rep. He looked like he belonged as well. Especially to be a future true freshman DB. It looked like he had an SEC body. That’s no small feat given that he spent his entire high school career playing quarterback restoring the pride in longtime state titan Valdosta High.

Late Boise State flip Hezekiah Millender-Hale was working at what looked to be the fifth-team quarterback in a black No. 13 jersey. He moved to Georgia from Arizona hoping to get big-time exposure. He wound up committing to the Bulldogs after an excellent season at nearby Clarke Central.

The best nugget we can give regarding 5-star EDGE Isaiah Gibson is that he was very hard to spot at first and second glance among the Georgia defensive line group. He wasn’t in a black jersey and looked just like one of the regulars on the front. At 6-foot-5-plus and about 270 pounds, he should.

The lasting takeaway was just the size of each of the early enrollees we’ve been following for years. They were easy to spot on their high school fields, but it was more like a page of the “Where’s Waldo?” children’s book trying to find them blended with the best overall roster in college football.

We didn’t get a good look at any of Georgia’s early enrollee OLs because they were working far across the field or outdoors for most of Friday afternoon’s practice viewing window. We do know that at least two or three are already in town.

What does the early enrollee picture look like for this class? DawgNation expects to see 25 of the 28 new recruits enroll early. The first rollout moved in last week, the second came right after Christmas and another group will show up in early January.

Here’s the latest DawgNation intel on the early enrollee picture for the 2025 class.

Have you subscribed to the DawgNation YouTube channel yet? If so, you will see special 1-on-1 content with key 2025 prospects like Ethan Barbour, Ryan Montgomery, Elijah Griffin and Justus Terry

DawgNation also provided extensive video coverage of the open practice period on Friday afternoon, including our own Brandon Adams with a live breakdown of the viewing window.

SENTELL’S INTEL

(check on the recent reads on Georgia football recruiting)