Freshmen Faces: What Malaki Starks brings to the table

Georgia has a good history of producing elite players in their secondary and Malaki Starks certainly fits the bill of being that for the Bulldogs.

Over the past couple of years, Georgia has produced some elite talent to the NFL at the secondary position with names like Deandre Baker, Eric Stokes, Tyson Campbell, and soon to be Derrion Kendrick and Lewis Cine. In a few years, there's a high chance Starks will be added to that list.

Starks fits the mold in regards to what Georgia is looking for at the safety spot. Good size and length, with a quick initial burst of speed, and possesses the ability to play coverage. 

For all of those reasons, Starks is ranked as the No. 28 overall prospect in class according to the SI-99 list. While Starks is listed as an athlete on his recruiting profile, it is expected that he is coming to Athens to play Safety. In fact, Starks touched on this back in December while also hinting his role could go beyond just defense. 

“Right now I am hearing more at safety and as for me that is the open spot to go to. I would love to play on the offensive side of the ball, I have really good passion for offense, but we have some dawgs coming in on the offensive side of the ball so they won’t need me anytime soon. I am thinking safety, punt return, and kick return.”

Georgia is returning Chris Smith, William Poole, and Dan Jackson for the 2022 season so early playing time might be tough to find as a freshman, but you can never rule out a player with the abilities of Starks. However, Kirby is no stranger to getting his young playmakers involved on special teams in the early stages of their careers. 

The Bulldogs were stretched thin this year in their secondary, but in typical Kirby fashion, Georgia did more than enough to beef up their depth chart through this year's 2022 with Starks being the headliner of not just that position group, but the class as a whole. 

Kirby Smart and his staff have done a prolific job over the years at locking down in-state talent, and Starks being from Jefferson, Georgia is a premier example of that. It is no question that the Bulldogs landed themselves another star in the making on defense.