Malaki Starks arrived in Athens already on the scene. The five-star out of Jefferson (Ga.) High School had an incredible career for the Dragons, helping lead them to a state championship appearance in 2020, a pair of region titles and a combined 33-5 record his final three seasons.
If you were only a College Football fan and didn’t follow recruits at the high school level, it didn’t take long for you to learn the name. Starks made a statement in his first career contest with an acrobatic interception against Oregon and future first round pick Bo Nix. That’s just been the tip of the ice when it comes to his accomplishments at the NCAA level, starting the last 28 games for Georgia, earning All-American honors and being one of the nation’s top defensive players regardless of position.
All that amounts to Starks being the No. 1 safety prospect coming out of college this next spring. He’s got a choice to make about whether to go pro or play another year in Athens, but if he keeps up the play he’s consistently shown, it shouldn’t be a tough one. Georgia coaches and fans absolutely would welcome Starks back, but nobody would blame him if he chose instead to be one of the first defensive backs off the board in April. Pro Football Focus included Starks on their names to know at safety ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft while both was the consensus No. 1 safety for ESPN according to draft experts Matt Miller and Jordan Reid.
“As a true freshman in 2022, Starks led all Georgia defenders with 847 snaps during its national championship run. His eight combined interceptions and forced incompletions that year were tied for fifth among SEC safeties,” Max Chadwick of PFF wrote. “Starks built off his freshman year by earning an 84.8 run-defense grade as a sophomore, which placed him seventh in the Power Five for his position. He was also tied for sixth in that same group with seven forced incompletions in 2023.”
“The rising junior is an elite athlete who’s a standout run defender and tackler for the position while also consistently making plays in coverage,” he continued. “He’s the favorite to be the top safety off the board in 2025 and will likely be a first-round selection.”
Starks of course has things he’d like to accomplish in Athens before going pro. A team player, it was important to him he finished out the 2023 season with the likes of Javon Bullard, Kamari Lassiter and Tykee Smith by playing in the Orange Bowl – despite knowing he needed surgery to repair a shoulder injury. Starks missed spring practice but was very involved, and he’s being looked to as one of the team’s top leaders for this fall.
Georgia opens the season on August 31st against ACC favorite Clemson. The Bulldogs and Tigers kick things off at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta at 12:00 p.m. ET on ABC in a matchup featuring the two programs responsible for four of the last eight National Championships and two teams likely to be preseason top-15 squads.
