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The Gator that "Got Away" from Georgia Football's Kirby Smart

Dean Legge|
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart leads the team onto the field.
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart leads the team onto the field. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Georgia Bulldogs

ATHENS - Georgia football coach Kirby Smart knows when he’s missed out on a good thing.

And he knows that he missed out on exceptional Florida running back Jadan Baugh, who went to school at Columbia High School just outside of Atlanta.

“I remember Jaden well,” Smart said Wednesday. “I have a great relationship with him, his dad and his family. He came as a 9th grader to camp and was playing safety. Everyone was raving about this 9th-grade safety. I just remember this big, physical - for a 9th grader I thought: ‘Golly, what is this guy going to be?’”

As it turns out Baugh would be one of the most physical running backs in SEC - a real challenge for Smart, the Bulldogs and the rest of the league. In 2026 alone Baugh has 763 yards on 135 carries with 13 touchdowns.

Smart said Baugh was in Athens consistently for football recruiting camps at Georgia.

Florida RB Jadan Baugh gestures after scoring a touchdown against the Mississippi Rebels.
Florida RB Jadan Baugh gestures after scoring a touchdown against the Mississippi Rebels during the second half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“He grew and grew and came each year,” Smart said. “His junior year he was playing a lot of linebacker. He went on a playoff run late in his senior year. He had an unbelievable run of running back stats - doing really incredible things.”

Baugh was listed as a consensus three-star running back in the class of 2024. Baugh initially committed to Arkansas in early 2023, but after the playoffs Alabama offered him before he took an official visit to Florida. He decommitted from the Hogs three days before signing with the Gators.

“I think we had two running back commits, and he went off on the playoff run and just blew up,” Smart said of that time.

Georgia signed three backs that class - Chauncey Bowens, Nate Frazier and Dwight Phillips. Bowens has been hurt much of this season, but Frazier and Phillips have powered the Dawgs this year.

“He’s a really good player - one that got away for sure.”

Smart had better hope he doesn’t get away too often on Saturday or the Dawgs could be in trouble. In two games so far against Georgia, Baugh has rushed 32 times for 136 yards and a touchdown.

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Dean Legge
DEAN LEGGE

After two-plus decades of covering the Georgia Bulldogs and the SEC, Dean Legge is one of the definitive voices in Athens and beyond. Legge has authored two books - DAWGSTRUCTION and DOUBLE DAWGS - with each chronicling Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs' run to national titles in 2021 and 2022. Legge has been a Heisman Trophy voter since 2005 and a Biletnikoff Award voter since 2009. He’s covered SEC Championships, Peach Bowls, Orange Bowls, Sugar Bowls, the Rose Bowl Game, College Football Playoff National Championship Games, the NCAA Tournament, the College World Series as well as a slew of college football, basketball and baseball games. Legge graduated from Coker College in 1999 with a degree in Political Science. He played both tennis and basketball for the Cobras. After graduating, Legge completed his academic career at the University of Georgia where he earned a Master of Public Administration from the School of Public and International Affairs in 2001. In 2008, Legge was elected President of the Coker College Alumni Association. He served on the Board of Trustees at Coker from 2009 to 2017 and was a member of the Executive Committee, Student Services and Enrollment Committee and Athletic Committee in that time. Legge is a native of Tucker, Georgia.

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