Kirby Smart explains importance of walk-ons in Georgia program
ATHENS, Ga. — Over the past decade, and especially over the last five years, Georgia football recruiting has risen from one of the best in the country to maybe the best in the nation year in and year out. While so many highly touted high school players have committed to the University of Georgia in that time period, there’s also been several overlooked Georgia products that have snuck onto the Bulldogs roster without a scholarship and played a huge role for the Dawgs.
It seems as though it would be difficult for a head coach to find a bunch of 18-year old kids to come onto the team in a preferred walk-on, better known as PWO, capacity, but Kirby Smart explained that the true struggle actually comes in not having enough spots for them all.
“Yeah, it’s not hard to find the pool. There’s thousands of kids wanting,” Smart said. “The hard part is deciphering between what you’re going to take because some of the walk-ons we get have scholarship offers. We got — you know some of our preferred walk-ons have turned down full rise to schools and they want to come to Georgia. Maybe because they want to go to school at Georgia, maybe because they want to play at Georgia, but we got a pretty good track record of the PWOs. We only get a few of those a year, so we have a limited number of spots for an unlimited number of people. We don’t have to go beg people to walk on. People are dying to do that. We get countless requests for that.”
For Smart and the Bulldogs, it’s not always about just bringing the best possible players onto the team as walk-ons, but it’s in order to fill a potential vacancy on the team.
“We’re more selective of who we bring out there because some years we need o-linemen, some years we need DB, some years we’re short at running back,” Smart said. “We try to get our needs out of the walk-on class.”
The Bulldogs only get a specific number of scholarships that they can extend to the team in any given year, meaning that there’s the potential for a lot of quality in-state players to not get an offer. Over the last ten years of Georgia Football, Smart cited three different Bulldogs that they were able to land as walk-ons that have played huge roles on the team.
“Every now and then, in our state especially, you’ve got tremendous high school players who get overlooked,” Smart said. “There’s no greater example of that than Dan Jackson. Several guys when I first got here, Prather Hudson. I mean these guys were really good football players that contributed. Aaron Davis I think was one when I got here. They’re just really good athletes. So we’re very blessed to have the opportunity to bring in the walk-ons we have.”
When most Bulldog fans hear “PWO,” they likely immediately think of Georgia safety Dan Jackson. Due to a foot injury suffered earlier this season, Jackson unfortunately won’t be able to suit up in Athens for the rest of 2022, and his presence in the Bulldogs secondary will be missed. From North Hall High School in Gainesville, Georgia, Jackson has totaled 56 tackles in his Bulldog career, including three tackles for loss, a blocked punt, and this interception on Spencer Rattler and the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Despite appearing in many blowout games for the Bulldogs, carrying the ball in order to run out the clock, Prather Hudson played a similar role on special teams as Dan Jackson. In his career with the Bulldogs, Hudson ran the ball 25 times for 97 yards and after, transferred to Illinois for his graduate season. While the Columbus (Ga.) native has since then joined the Georgia football staff, he’ll always be remembered most for shooting his shot with ESPN and SEC Network reporter and host Laura Rutledge.
The last name that Smart mentioned may be a little bit of a throwback, but Aaron Davis was a walk-on who joined the Georgia football team in 2013. Coming from Luella HIgh School in Locust Grove (Ga.), Davis received plenty of attention from colleges as an underclassmen in high school. However, after suffering an ACL tear before his senior year, several schools were no longer offering Davis a scholarship. After joining the Bulldogs and redshirting his freshman season in 2013, Davis picked off Clemson quarterback Cole Stoudt in the defensive back’s first career game.
Jackson, Hudson and Davis aren’t the only three examples of successful walk-on stories in Athens. Just look at current running back Cash Jones, who was named one of the team’s special teams players of the week after the Mississippi State win. We don’t even have to mention the likes of Stetson Bennett and Rodrigo Blankenship, both of whom went on to earn a scholarship. There are dozens of examples of PWOs that played huge roles for the Bulldogs over the last few decades, including one that inevitably led Georgia to their first National Championship in over 41 years. So, while the Bulldogs may be landing elite recruiting classes each year, it’s important to keep an eye out for the next PWO to play a huge role for Georgia.
