Setting Up Summer: Prepping for battle along the Georgia OL

We’re almost to the month of May where, soon, Georgia players will wrap up final exams. After that, they’ll get a few weeks to themselves before coming back together as a team and working hard over the summer to get ready for preseason camp.

Those summer months are crucial. The Georgia heat is no joke and conditioning is taken to a different level. The players also get a chance to settle in, take what was taught and learned during spring drills and allow it to all soak in. The Bulldogs have plenty that needs doing in June and July. In the coming weeks, we’ll be writing on the storylines and situations ahead. Position battles along the offensive line, ones that won’t be decided until maybe a month into the season, are up next.

Fierce competition looms with the Georgia OL

Georgia is pretty much set at three positions on the offensive line, and it has four guys who are almost sure bets to start. Left tackle, left guard, and center are locked down. Earnest Greene will protect Gunner Stockton‘s blind side. Dontrell Glover will serve as the left guard, and Drew Bobo, coming back from a major foot injury that ended his 2025 season, is the center.

Juan Gaston will also start, but where? In his first season of college ball in 2025, Gaston gained experience—starting and otherwise—at both right tackle and right guard. Where he plays in 2026 will depend on who puts together the strongest preseason camp.

True freshman Zykie Helton, who had a tremendous winter and spring, got the start in the G-Day game. He was at right guard with Gaston at right tackle. A few series into that game, however, Jah Jackson came in and played right tackle.

Both Helton and Jackson made noise this spring. Jackson, a 6-foot-10 former basketball player who is in just his third year of football since middle school, has come a long way. He has put himself in the conversation for a starting spot, and that says a lot about his raw talent and development. Helton, however, is a bonafide football player. At 6-foot-2 (and some change), 310 pounds, the Carrollton High School product has a tremendous combination of power, athleticism and toughness.

Fellow true freshmen Ekene Ogboko and Graham Houston also stated their cases this spring. The prevailing thought inside Georgia’s football facility this spring was that both of those guys were ready to play if needed. But based on what we saw and heard this spring, the battle for that fifth starting spot is going to come down to Helton or Jackson.

Ultimately, the good news is that Georgia used those five weeks and 15 practices to develop some depth. When we broached this topic in February, depth was the No. 1 concern.

What the summer holds…

As is always the case with big men, discipline is huge going forward. Helton and Jackson have never really struggled with keeping their weight down, but this summer wouldn’t be a good time to allow that to enter the picture. Gaston, however, does have to keep that in mind at all times.

The Georgia heat should help with that. The Bulldogs condition heavily during the summer months and it’s often when players are able to slim down.

Beyond the physical, the inexperienced offensive linemen who’ll be stepping into bigger roles must put in the work necessary for what they learned during spring to truly sink in. Helton, Houston and Ogboko drank from a firehose in March and April. More was thrown at them than they could have possibly absorbed. Putting in the extra work to learn the offense and blocking schemes is what Georgia needs.