Fall camp is a wonderful time at Georgia because there are always a few players who come out of nowhere and show why they deserve a lot of playing time. Sometimes those players are true freshman, but in reality that doesn't happen too often.
Kirby Smart however recently shared that true freshman offensive lineman Juan Gaston has already been earning first team reps throughout fall camp.
“Juan got to get in better shape. He’s a talented player, but he plays a lot of snaps,” Smart shared via on3.com. “They just can’t handle the volume, the practice load that they get. And he’s growing at that. He’s lost 25, 30 pounds since being here, but he continues to work hard and work with the ones and the twos in pickups, pass pro pickups, and the different things he has to do.”
Freshman OL could start for Georgia this season
Gaston was one of the top players in Georgia's 2025 recruiting class. According to 247Sports, he was a five-star recruit and the No. 18 overall player in the country. He also was the No. 4 offensive tackle in his class and the No. 4 player from the Peach State.
Even though Gaston was recruited as an offensive tackle out of high school, he has been working at right guard during fall camp. And that is the position where he is reportedly already earning first team reps.
Starting as a true freshman at any position is a very difficult thing to accomplish at any position at Georgia, but that is especially the case on the offensive line. Offensive linemen arguably have the biggest jump to make from high school to college football, so even the best linemen in the country typically do not play as true freshman.
That however doesn't appear to be the case for Gaston. It's unclear if he will actually start for Georgia this season, but at worst it sounds like he will see some playing time at right guard off the bench.
Regardless of what happens this season, Gaston is going to be a force on Georgia's offensive line for many years to come, so look for him to be one of the top offensive linemen in the country by the end of his career in Athens.