UGA Football coach Kirby Smart has Something to Say About the Transfer Portal

ATHENS - UGA Football coach Kirby Smart said the quiet part out loud in front of reporters during SEC spring meetings Tuesday in Florida. 

“The biggest decision is that has to be made in college football right now is when is the portal window - is is there one or two (windows for transfers)?” Kirby asked Tuesday.

The NCAA Transfer Portal has been a game changer in collegiate athletics. For decades, the NCAA prohibited scholarship players from transferring from one institution to another freely. Typically a scholarship player would be forced to sit out an NCAA-mandated one year before resuming on-field play. 

Jarvis Jones might be the most notable UGA transfer that was forced to sit out a year before resuming play in 2011 after not playing in 2010. 

But now players are permitted to leave a school and go to another without much in the way of restriction. The SEC, however, does not permit football players to transfer and play immediately if they transfer in the spring, or second, portal window. 

Meanwhile, Kirby and the Bulldogs have been active in the transfer portal. This season alone UGA football has seen 14 former Dawgs leave, while adding ten - including two high-profile receivers, and a former Big Ten running back that the Dawgs hope will jump start production on the offensive side of the ball.

UGA football opens the 2025 season against Marshall at home Between the Hedges on August 30. The game is sold out.