Georgia Football Freshmen Faces: WR, Arian Smith

Arian Smith enters Georgia as one of the fastest football players in all of college football as just a freshmen. An update on his health and more.

10.30 seconds. That's Arian Smith's personal best in the 100M. For reference, Mecole Hardman, who is often considered one of the fastest players in recent memory at Georgia, ran a 10.64 in high school. Now, granted when I asked him last week, he said he could break 10 seconds at this point. 

Smith has bona fide world-class speed. In fact, he and he's UGA classmate, Matthew Boling are two of the four members of the world record holder in the 4X100 in the U20 age division. Though this just isn't your average track star playing football. 

When you watch Arian Smith play football, it's obvious that he's not afraid of contact. Instead of running out of bounds, he will lower his shoulder and fight for extra yardage. 

We've reported here on Dawgs Daily that Todd Monken has been adamant with the 2021 class that he needs a wide receiver to play the Desean Jackson roll in this Georgia offense, someone to stress the defense down the field. Arian Smith is exactly that. In 2018, Desean Jackson led the NFL with 18.9 yards per reception in Todd Monken's offense in Tampa Bay. 

He's relatively new to playing wide receiver full-time, up until he was a junior in high school he played quarterback until attending Lakeland high school in Florida where he was afforded the opportunity to play wideout full-time. 

There's an advancement in his ability to track the football. He's one of those players that is almost impossible to overthrow because he's got an extra gear that he seems to find when the ball is in the air. 

Of course with this kind of speed, you'd expect to see Smith on the field early in his career as a kick returner. 

As for his health, Smith underwent wrist surgery this offseason from an injury he suffered during the 2019 season. He is on campus and participating in offseason conditioning drills and even catching balls according to sources close to the program. One source told Dawgs Daily that, “the speed is every bit as fast as advertised.”  

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