CBS Sports named 13 players it expects to become superstars in college football during the 2026 season. Georgia cornerback Ellis Robinson made the list.
The second-highest rated cornerback in 247Sports history — behind only Travis Hunter — Robinson emerged as a starter for Georgia last year. Unsurprisingly, he was awesome. Opposing passers completed only 39.5% of their passes against him and he tied the SEC lead with four interceptions.
Robinson is a starter kit for an elite cornerback. He’s not overly big at 6-feet and 180 pounds. He is, however, long with sub-4.5-second speed in the 40, a 40-inch vertical, elite ball skills and an excellent feel for space.
Leonard Moore of Notre Dame enters the 2026 season as the nation’s top cornerback. Robinson may not pass him for that title, but he will be among the SEC’s best overall players.
Robinson is coming off being named the FWAA Freshman Defensive Player of the Year, the the first Georgia player to win the Defensive Freshman of the Year award, which is in its third year. Tight end Brock Bowers won Freshman of the Year in 2021. Robinson beat out LSU defensive back DJ Pickett and Oregon defensive back Brandon Finney for the award. Robinson made 12 starts during the 2025 season, totaling 20 tackles, a shared tackle for loss, seven pass breakups, and a team-leading four interceptions, tied for the most in the SEC. Kirby Smart discussed Robinson’s development following the win over Georgia Tech, when Robinson intercepted his fourth pass of the season.
“Donte (Donte Williams) did a great job. I mean, Ellis has always had confidence,” Smart said. “It was not like we put confidence in him. He came in here with confidence. He was one of the top corners in the country. He’s got great ball skills. The kid loves football. I admire how his mom and dad made the decision to send him down to IMG so he could get to play against the best. He was a work in progress as a freshman, just frustrated sometimes. But he believed in the process of getting better, and he’s still getting better. So I’m proud of him. I’ve seen him make those plays and practice that he made today. So I think he’s growing.”
Robinson came to Georgia as a five-star prospect and the No. 2 overall recruit in the 2024 cycle, and it didn’t take long for him to wow on the practice field. He arrived in time to participate in Orange Bowl practices, and his length and play-making ability quickly generated buzz. Robinson was viewed as a potential 2024 starter opposite Daylen Everette, but some of Georgia’s older cornerbacks put their experience to good use. Redshirt sophomore Julian Humphrey won the starting job out of camp and maintained it until November, when sophomore Daniel Harris took his spot.
Robinson played sparingly as a true freshman in 2024 and only saw the field against Clemson, Tennessee Tech, Mississippi State, and UMass. He ended the season with 3 tackles. Robinson said he knew coming to Georgia was going to be work, and he did his best to focus on his development even though he didn’t play as much as he hoped. He said learning to be patient was the hardest lesson he learned from his freshman year, though he’s hopeful that patience pays off shortly.
“I wanted to be out there on the field, but at the end of the day I knew that my time was coming. And I knew that it was going to come eventually,” Robinson said. “So just staying patient, just trusting the process of what they have planned for me.”
Robinson has received praise for his play this spring as he gears up for his redshirt freshman season with the Bulldogs. While there’s no guarantee that Robinson will be a starter given the depth that Georgia has at cornerback, it seems like a lock that No. 1 will get more playing time this time around.
“I feel like spring for me has been going well,” Robinson said. “[I’ve been] picking up on the plays, just everything, just with communication, just talking to guys, just being on the same page with everybody. Spring overall has just been going good for us as a whole — as a team overall. And I say for my room, defensive room-wise, we’re just connected and we just keep competing every day. We know nothing’s guaranteed here at Georgia, so we’ve just got to keep working for everything that we got.”
