‘The guys trust him:’ What assistant Travaris Robinson will bring to Georgia football

A couple of guys that played with Jerraud Powers with the Indianapolis Colts chopped it up with the former Auburn cornerback after Travaris Robinson was hired for the Georgia football coaching staff.

Tim Jennings and George Foster, who played for the Bulldogs, keep in touch with Powers.

So when Robinson was named co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach under Kirby Smart, Powers, like many, saw it as a great get for Georgia. The well-known SEC assistant spent the past two seasons as Alabama’s cornerbacks coach under recently retired Nick Saban.

“I was just telling them, man, the rich get richer,” Powers said. “When you think about the talent that Georgia has and the system and the program that’s already in place, adding T-Boy is just the rich getting richer type of thing. He’s going to fit that environment and know the system already because it’s a similar system that he coaches and I think he’s going to thrive in recruiting.”

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Robinson, known widely as T-Rob, was a student assistant and then graduate assistant under then defensive coordinator and secondary coach Will Muschamp for Powers’ first two seasons at Auburn in 2006 and 2007. Robinson worked extensively with nickelbacks.

“He’s always been a bright mind, but he was an Auburn alum,” said Powers, who played eight seasons in the NFL with the Colts, Cardinals and Ravens. “When he came back to coach, we were all ears and trying to learn and gain knowledge from him as much as possible because we knew he had just been through what we’d been through and he was just coming from the NFL.”

Robinson played 48 games as a free safety and returned kicks for Auburn from 1999-2002, where the Miami native was All-SEC and a team captain his senior season and shared the team lead in interceptions with Carlos Rogers with 4. He then played for the Falcons for two seasons and Tampa Bay for one.

“He quickly learned Muschamp’s system as far as the teaching points and how to get guys ready for it,” Power said. “He was one of the main guys we used to rely on in understanding the system and understanding how Muschamp wanted us to play back then.”  

Robinson and Muschamp worked together later for 10 straight seasons at Florida from 2011-14 when Muschamp was head coach, 2015 back at Auburn when Muschamp was defensive coordinator again and at South Carolina from 2016-2020 when Muschamp was Gamecocks’ head coach.

They will work together again at Georgia with Muschamp serving as a defensive analyst now and Robinson taking over the coaching role that Muschamp held.

SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic praised the Robinson hire.

“He’s one of the best recruiters in the nation,” Cubelic said in a message to the Athens Banner-Herald. “Big program experience. Knows South Florida well. Coordinator experience & players love him. Also great with punt returners. Just adds a ton of value.”

Robinson is credited with recruiting five-star prospects Vernon Hargreaves and Teez Tabor at Florida, Jordan Burch at South Carolina and Caleb Downs and Jaylen Mbakwe at Alabama.

Downs, a safety, entered the transfer portal after Nick Saban retired but he ended up committing to Ohio State.

“There’s a lot of guys that love playing for him,” Powers said. “You don’t find too many guys that played for him or Muschamp that have anything negative to say. When it comes to recruiting and just getting guys to run through a brick wall for him, he does a good job in building those relationships to where the guys trust him and obviously the play on the field is the bottom line. More times than not, he’s been around a lot of great guys that have played in the secondary and on defense that are playing in the NFL to this day.”

Robinson, 42, considers himself a “very personable guy,” he told reporters in 2021 when he was Miami defensive backs coach. “One of the biggest things in college football is creating relationships. I think that’s more than the recruiting factor, it’s when you get a kid on campus, it’s having a relationship with that kid that it feels like he can come and talk to you about anything. And the kid will play more for you.”

Heritage High coach Ryan Andrews met Robinson when he was recruiting Chaz Elder out of Banneker High where Andrews coached. Elder went on to play for Robinson at South Carolina.

“In recruiting he is relentless and very authentic and honest,” Andrews said. “As a coach, very detailed oriented and does a good job of getting his players to play hard for him.”

Robinson was defensive coordinator at South Carolina, and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin created a stir this season when he said he thought Robinson started calling Alabama’s defensive plays — not Kevin Steele — after the loss to Texas.

“Our guys watching the TV copy schematically in this last game, it certainly seems like T-Rob’s now calling the defense,” Kiffin said. “We played him before at South Carolina, so we’re preparing accordingly, you know, for him calling the defense. He’s done a good job, too. And they’ve got really good players.”

Robinson said of players he recruits that he will “coach him hard, I’m going to hold him accountable and responsible for everything that he does. But I’m gonna love him equally as hard and that’s why I think I’m successful as far as the recruiting part. … Not only can I recruit and get the No. 1 player or whatever the case may be, but I want to develop him so when he leaves here he’s going to have that same opportunity to be the No. 1 player when he’s getting ready for the draft.”