Kirby Smart has high praise for Georgia center Jared Wilson
Jared Wilson can see it on film. Even when he’s surrounded by big-time athletes on both side of the ball, the fourth-year junior notices that he moves at a slightly different speed. Entering his fourth season at Georgia, Wilson now has a chance to show others and Kirby Smart seems as fired up as anyone.
“I’m excited for the rest of the world to get to see Jared Wilson,” Smart said on Tuesday. This a guy that, No. 1, I don’t put a lot of high expectations on people and anoint people, he has a lot to do to be the best player he can be. But when you talk about athleticism at the center position, this guy runs faster than a lot of our defensive backs, believe it or not, our tight ends, our quarterbacks. His numbers, extremely athletic, over 300 pounds, can get to the second level as quick as anybody. Just really athletic.”
The 6-foot-4 325-pound center, who was rated as a four-star prospect and ranked as the No. 246 overall prospect in the country in the 2021 class per the On3 Industry Ranking, has waited his turn. He started his career at guard and quickly started learning how to play center.
After taking a redshirt in his first season, the next two years saw him work at both spots. He appeared in games as a guard, primarily in mop-up duty. He also got a chance to play center in those same scenarios. But in 2023, when Sedrick Van Pran-Granger went down with an injury against Kentucky, Wilson stepped in. Georgia put points on the board with him snapping the football but as soon as the team’s veteran man in the middle was healthy enough to go back in, he did.
Both Smart and Wilson believe that Van Pran-Granger rubbed off on his predecessor. Wilson said on Tuesday that he can’t even put into words how effective Van Pran-Granger was as a leader. Oftentimes Wilson had no questions for the Louisiana native because he was so vocal and demonstrative that he would provide answers before an opportunity to ask had presented itself.
But the time is now for the North Carolina native. The wait is over and instead of entering spring drills a snap away from being the team’s starting center, it is his job to lose. One might think that filling Van Pran-Granger’s shoes and being charged with getting the football to and blocking for a big-time quarterback like Carson Beck comes with a lot of pressure. Wilson has a different way of looking at it.
“Nothing has been different. Everything has been cool, calm, and normal,” Wilson said of his first spring working primarily with the ones. “My mindset is really make the ‘mike’ point, snap the ball, play hard. I know the guys, me, the guys beside me, we’re going to do our jobs. If we do our jobs, (Beck is) definitely going to do his job. I’m not really worried about it. Everything’s good back there.”
With no starts and limited meaningful action under his belt, Wilson will see some new things in 2024. There will be pressure, whether he’s feeling it yet or not. Teams will throw things at him for which he might not be ready.
The bad news is that he’s going to get confused at times, bust some assignments, and lose some battles. The good news is that he has a veteran group of offensive linemen around him to help out. Georgia returns thousands of snaps and dozens of starts at the guard and tackle positions and due to the bond amongst that group, Wilson knows they’ll have his back.
“There’s something about the o-line and the connection in that room is really special,” Wilson said.
