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Five Georgia football newcomers to keep tabs on this spring

Georgia football begins another pursuit of a national championship Tuesday when spring practices begin for the 2024 team.

With more than a dozen players from last season’s roster now pursuing an NFL career and 20 more scholarship players who departed via the transfer portal, there’s plenty of opportunity for more prominent roles for players.

Georgia will have 28 scholarship newcomers with the team this spring. That’s six of Georgia’s seven players it landed from the transfer portal and 22 early enrollees from a 28-player signing class that are also fighting for their spots on the depth chart.

More: Five storylines to follow as Georgia football begins spring practices

More: Texas joins Georgia football for ‘big boy ball’ in SEC. The Longhorns aren’t backing down

Here are five newcomers that could make an impact this season:

RB Trevor Etienne, transfer from Florida

This is the easiest to list. Etienne rushed for 1,472 yards and 15 touchdowns in two seasons at Florida. Georgia’s top returning rusher is actually a wide receiver—Dillon Bell-who rushed for 157 yards, but Roderick Robinson and Andrew Paul can have expanded roles.

WR Colbie Young, transfer from Miami

The Miami transfer gives Carson Beck his biggest wide receiver target yet at about 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds. He had 5 touchdown catches last season and at least 4 catches in seven different games.

S KJ Bolden, Buford

The Buford five-star signee will be among a group of players who would seem to have a shot at the starting safety spot opposite of Malaki Starks. Two years ago, Starks won a starting safety job as a freshman.

“We're in need at that position,” coach Kirby Smart said of the secondary. “We're under our quota there. They're going to be thrust into some opportunities to go out there and play and compete.”

CB Ellis Robinson IV, IMG Academy

There’s not a certain path to playing time for Robinson, but keeping a player ranked the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the nation by ESPN.com off the field may be hard to do.

“He's a wonderful, wonderful kid who has high expectations," Smart said. "We have high expectations. But he's going to work to get better and develop within our program.”

TE Jaden Reddel. Raymore-Peculiar (Mo.) HS

The 6-6, 245-pound Rddell was electronically timed running a 4.6 40 in high school and, according to a post on X by Blayne Gilmer, posted a 21.7 GPS during a workout this winter. He had 97 catches for 1,969 yards and 23 touchdowns in high school.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Five Georgia football newcomers ready to make an impact