Georgia football: Kelee Ringo is destined to be the star of 2022

Georgia football fans have no greater 2021 National Championship memory than Kelee Ringo’s interception from Bryce Young to return what became the title game’s longest pick-six return in history.

At that moment, Ringo joined Georgia football’s new crop of stars.

But yet 12 months ago, Ringo was a redshirt freshman on campus whose first season had been kiboshed by injury. Should we forget that Ringo arrived in Athens as the No. 4 recruit nationally and came with high expectations? Sadly, year one did not match Ringo’s or fans’ expectations.

Georgia football cornerback Kelee Ringo is ready for another great year.

Despite the slow start to his Georgia career, 2021 would transpire to be Ringo’s breakout year in Athens, starting 15 games and recording 26 solo tackles and two interceptions, including that career-defining pick six to seal Georgia’s first National Championship win in 41 years.

A feature of Kirby Smart’s teams is the conveyor belt of talent ready and able to step up as players become injured or move on to the NFL. Last year, Nakobe Dean and Lewis Cine were excellent examples of this as they stepped up to senior leadership roles in the National Championship run.

So the question on Georgia fans’ lips is Kelee Ringo poised to take the same leap this year? Well, the signs are good.

With Derrion Kendrick off to play his football on Sundays in Los Angeles, Georgia lost. It’s a clear No.1 cornerback. Last season Ringo won out in the competition to play opposite Kendrick from Ameer Speed. Spending that season playing opposite Kendrick will have been an excellent experience for the young Ringo.

At 6-2 and 205-pounds, Ringo has the size to make life difficult for receivers, but he also has speed. In high school, Ringo recorded a verified 40 time of 4.35, meaning he is already featuring in Draft scouting reports in anticipation of a further step up in the 2022 season.

So what does Ringo have to do differently in this coming season? Well, probably not much different. The experience of playing an entire season with SEC Championship and National Championship appearances will be invaluable to him this year.

In all but two games last year, Ringo gave up less than 40 yards on plays in each game – those two exceptions were against Alabama, but Georgia fans will happily recall Ringo’s pick-six over anything else he did in those two games.

As in the case of Dean and Cine, Ringo has expectations to perform a leadership role this year, and being the top cornerback will bring additional pressures. This means that Ringo will be the primary cornerback, the role that he watched Kendrick perform this last year.

There is no doubt that Ringo needs to find consistency in his game — at times, his coverage could be patchy – but we have to remember how young he was last year. He will get asked to play a dominant role this year in a defense that will be expected to be as aggressive as last year.

The question will be how dominant this new defense can be with so many key parts having moved on to the NFL. Ringo can play his part with his size and speed, helping him with this role and those inside Butts-Mehre have the utmost confidence that Ringo will push on from his solid 2021 season.

Draft chatter has Ringo as first-round material when he becomes draft eligible in 2023. Of course, that is premature talk, but he has shown us thus far that he has all the right tools for this to become a reality. The pieces of the jigsaw are there. This season will be another test of Ringo’s undoubted capabilities.