Offensive lineman Ekene Ogboko arrived to Georgia this year as a coveted five-star recruit. That comes with a lot of hype and expectations, and when he showed up to fall camp he already had the physique of a player who looked capable of starting in the SEC.
According to Kirby Smart his conditioning is the one thing that is holding him back though.
"He's come a long way," Smart said via 247sports.com. "He's looked better. He's added some weight. The conditioning part and the level of play and how many snaps he can play, we'll find out. We hope to be able to get him in there to play some and get better. The only way he's going to be able to get better at this point is to play some."
Kirby Smart isn't impressed with Ekene Ogboko's conditioning
It doesn’t matter how good a player is, if their conditioning isn’t good enough then it’s hard to play them a significant amount of time.
It sounds like Ogboko will still see the field on Saturday, but he might get less snaps than originally expected because of his conditioning.
Ogboko isn’t the first offensive lineman to be called out by Smart due to poor conditioning. Sophomore tackle Juan Gaston was also called out at the start of fall camp and that might be more concerning since he is supposed to be a starter for Georgia this season. Regardless of if he does start or not having two offensive linemen struggling with their conditioning could create some challenges when it comes to the Bulldogs’ rotations up front.
Georgia should be able to survive their first couple matchups against lesser opponents even with poor conditioning, but that may not be true once SEC play begins. Gaston and Ogboko however will have an opportunity on Saturday to prove their conditioning isn’t a problem like Smart thinks.
Ekene Ogboko may not be able to start for Georgia yet
Ogboko is a former five-star recruit out of the 2026 recruiting class. That fact doesn’t guarantee that he could start at Georgia as a true freshman this fall, but there were previous reports indicating that he had a chance to win a starting job.
His lack of conditioning could ultimately be what prevents that from happening. He will still get some playing time this year as indicated by Smart in the above quote, how much he gets is the question that remains.
Since Tennessee State is their opponent this weekend there’s a good chance he’ll see significant playing time considering Georgia is expected to win by a lot. That could also be the case in their week two matchup against Western Kentucky. After that SEC play will begin and his playing time could decrease unless his conditioning improves, but he’ll have a chance to earn more playing time if he earns it on Saturday.
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