When Kalen DeBoer took over for Nick Saban at Alabama, he reportedly tried to hold on to Crimson Tide cornerbacks coach Travaris Robinson. The effort was unsuccessful, and Robinson headed to Athens, joining Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia, where he’s now coaching safeties and picked up a co-defensive coordinator title.

Speaking at SEC Media Days on Tuesday, Smart said Robinson’s past as a defensive back at Auburn helped him become a successful coach in the SEC.

“He has a great pedigree as a player. He played in the SEC. One of the things you can never really justify or explain to people is the culture of the SEC. No. 1, recruiting. It’s tough. It’s hard. It’s cutthroat. You don’t have experience in those battles, it’s hard to win them. He was a really good player. Played for coach (Tommy) Tuberville who has a lot of stories about T-Rob and the great job he’s done”

Robinson has coordinator experience in the SEC, holding the job at South Carolina from 2016 through 2020, working under Will Muschamp, now the Bulldogs’ other co-DC. His name was mentioned in 2023 by Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who made waves when he called a press conference to say Robinson was calling the Tide’s defense instead of UA’s coordinator at the time, Kevin Steele.

Robinson, Steele and Saban all denied that game-week allegation, but it was clear Robinson was a major contributor on Alabama’s staff.

“Coach Muschamp vouched for him and talked about the great job he has done,” Smart said. “And brought in a tremendous energy into our secondary, which is a young secondary, and he got the valuable time over with coach Saban at Alabama, which is invaluable in terms of knowing how our program operates.”

Robinson takes over a healthy safeties group at Georgia, which includes consensus all-American Malaki Starks. Starks represented the Bulldogs at media days after racking up three interceptions and 52 tackles in 2023.

Starks had high praise for his new position coach on Tuesday.

“T-Rob, the energy, man, it’s just different,” Starks said. “I think a lot of people were kind of interested to see how that change was gonna be with him and Muschamp, but he was with Muschamp for a long time. You know it’s funny because they’re like the same person. They say the same things, they move the same way, but he has a different type of energy that he brings.

“I think guys follow him because they know what he wants and I think everybody’s just excited.”

Robinson will face his old team on Sept. 28, when the Bulldogs travel to Bryant-Denny Stadium for a battle with the Crimson Tide.