Dawgs Daily

Freshmen Showing Signs of Impacting Georgia's Roster

Two freshmen on the lines of scrimmage are poised to make an instant impact on this Georgia team.
Austin Mixon|
Juan Gaston and Elijah Griffin
Juan Gaston and Elijah Griffin | UGAAA

Two freshmen on the lines of scrimmage are poised to make an instant impact on this Georgia team.

As Fall camp moves along and the season opener is just 18 days away, Georgia players are looking to earn playing time through their performance in practice and scrimmages. Over the past few years, true freshmen like KJ Bolden, Nate Frazier, Malaki Starks, Mykel Williams, and CJ Allen have come in and made immediate impacts on the Georgia roster. To this point in fall camp, it seems like offensive lineman Juan Gaston and defensive tackle Elijah Griffin are primed to be the next star freshmen at Georgia.

Juan Gaston was ranked as the number four offensive tackle and the number eighteen player in the nation in the 2025 class according to 247sports. Kirby Smart revealed in his press conference earlier this week that the talented freshman has been working with the 1's and the 2's at the offensive guard position. Gaston projects to eventually be a tackle; however, it looks like guard will be his position as a freshman. While this is great news and the five-star seems to be practicing very well, Coach Smart also voiced a bit of concern when it comes to Gaston's shape.

"Juan has got to get in better shape," said Smart. " He's a talented player, but he plays a lot of snaps, and as his volume goes up, you know, he struggles to sustain, which is usually the case with freshmen. They just can't handle the practice load that they get. And he's growing at that, he's lost 25-30 pounds since being here."

All signs point to early playing time for Gaston as long as he continues to practice well and improve his conditioning.

The other freshman making a ton of noise is five-star defensive tackle Elijah Griffin. Griffin was ranked as the number one defensive lineman in the nation and the number three overall player in the 2025 class according to 247sports. Georgia started recruiting Griffin when he was in middle school, as he was always a highly touted prospect. The Five-Star came to Georgia with high expectations, and it seems that he is well on his way to making an early impact. Defensive Coordinator Glenn Schumann had this to say in his press conference last week.

“Elijah, yeah, EG’s doing great. You know, you always want to temper expectations on young players, but he has a maturity to him, a work ethic to him. He’s obviously a big guy with a lot of athleticism, so we hope that Elijah’s able to help us this year. The capacity with which he’ll be able to help us is really about how he continues to grow and advance, but he’s had a good start to camp.”

With just 18 days remaining until the season opener, Juan Gaston, Elijah Griffin, and the rest of this talented Georgia roster are focused on improving and preparing for what is a very difficult 2025 schedule.

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Austin Mixon
AUSTIN MIXON

Austin Mixon is currently a senior in the sports management program at the University of Georgia. Austin is passionate about delivering insightful information about college sports and he will do so by covering primarily basketball and baseball as an intern.

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