Georgia football S Malaki Starks on his very different spring, playing in bowl with injury
There’s a lot going on with the Georgia football secondary this spring, but Malaki Starks hasn’t been in much of the action.
The rising junior from Jefferson who was a consensus All-American last season is coming off shoulder surgery which has opened the door for others to get quality reps at safety this spring.
The Bulldogs already lost starting safety Javon Bullard who is viewed by most draft analysts as a Day 2 NFL draft pick.
“It’s tough,” Starks, a junior, said Tuesday. “I haven’t been out for this long since I started playing football. Just for me to sit out and not being able to do stuff, I just started doing indy (individual drills) not too long ago so I’m able to get back into it a little bit.”
Starks said he tweaked the shoulder last preseason and in the third or fourth game felt pain in the shoulder.
“I figured out before the Bama game that I needed surgery,” he said of the SEC championship game loss.
Starks still played in the Orange Bowl against Florida State, a non-playoff game where he could have chosen to sit out. Starks said he wanted to play with guys who were finishing out their Bulldog careers in that game.
“There was still a game to play,” Starks said. “Just because it wasn’t the game we wanted to play or whatever the case may be, I just wouldn’t have wanted to sit out.”
Starks called his rather light spring a “blessing in disguise,” because he’s leading from a different perspective. Starks won’t be on display at Saturday’s 1 p.m. G-Day game in Sanford Stadium because he can’t take part in any contact this spring.
He seems like a good bet to be picked by coach Kirby Smart to represent the Bulldogs at SEC Media Days in July and is among the key cogs for a Georgia team that could begin the season preseason No. 1.
Here is some more of what Starks said Tuesday:
On five-star freshman safety KJ Bolden: “He’s very athletic, very smart. Just like all the young guys that came in with him. They all have talent that they possess. He’s like a sponge. He just wants to soak up all the knowledge, all the information. When you see him in meetings, he’s writing stuff down.”
On growing as a leader while on the sidelines: “Not being out there is forcing me to speak up a little more and just be that voice that we need.”
On benefitting in NIL era including through his partnership with deals hammered out by ESM: “I keep the main thing the main thing. NIL is great. I love it, but my whole goal before I got to college, because it wasn’t a thing when I got here, my whole goal was to get developed and go to the league. I keep that the main thing.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football S Malaki Starks on shoulder injury, NIL and more
