Transfer Tuesday: Dante Dowdell Adds Another Body at Running Back for Georgia Bulldogs
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ATHENS - One of the Georgia Bulldogs’ biggest goals during the 2025 offseason was to improve the running game from the previous year. They accomplished that, and it looks like Kirby Smart and the program wanted to keep the ball rolling when they added former Kentucky running back Dante Dowdell through the transfer portal in January.
With Cash Jones and Josh McCray’s graduations and Roderick Robinson’s transfer decision, Georgia was going to be down three running backs while only adding one from the 2026 high school in Jae Lamar. The addition of Dowdell will help provide depth that Georgia could have been desperate for without him. Now the Dawgs stable of backs for 2026 features Nate Frazier, Chauncey Bowens, Bo Walker, Dwight Phillips Jr., Lamar and Dowdell.
Frazier looks primed to enter the season as Georgia’s lead back again after finishing the 2025 campaign in a strong way. Early season struggles led to Bowens becoming Georgia’s top back for a few weeks, but Frazier turned it on as the year went on and took back the role as the primary ballcarrier.
Bowens had a month where he looked like Georgia’s best running back and even scored the game-winning dagger in Jacksonville against the Florida Gators. He will likely command 100 carries again.
Who will be the next running back on the depth chart remains to be seen, and that could be where the experienced Dowdell comes into play. Dowdell will suit up for his fourth school in four years. He started at Oregon then transferred to Nebraska before transferring to Kentucky in 2025. His final year will come in Athens, as he decided to stay in the SEC for his senior season.
Dowdell’s best season came in 2024 at Nebraska, where he rushed for 614 yards and 12 scores. He totaled 560 yards and three touchdowns on the ground last year at Kentucky.
Standing at 6’2” and nearing 230 pounds, Dowdell is a big and physical back. Losing Robinson and McCray meant that Georgia was losing a lot of size. While not as powerful a runner as those two, Dowdell supplements some of that bulk that will not be present in this year’s backfield.
Despite the large frame, Dowdell is capable of breaking off big runs. He scored a 79 and 65-yard runs last season - both longer gains than any Georgia running back has had since James Cook’s 67-yard scamper in the 2021 National Championship win over Alabama.
In terms of ability and experience, Dowdell can contribute in Athens immediately. Georgia is going to roll with a committee style backfield as it has for its entire history under Smart.
Georgia ran for 2,550 yards in 2025, which was a big jump from the down year in 2024, where the Dawgs totaled just 1,742 on the ground. Part of that improvement comes from the transition of offensive styles with dual-threat quarterback Gunner Stockton manning the offense. He accounted for almost 500 rushing yards and 10 scores.
Assuming Frazier and Bowens are going to keep their roles in making up Georgia’s starting running back tandem, that means there will be a competition for next up in touches. Dowdell will primarily compete with Walker and Phillips Jr. for that role, working under another assumption that Lamar will be in the backseat as a true freshman.
Phillips Jr. scored the first touchdown of the season for the Dawgs in 2025 and looked like he might end up being a big part of Georgia’s offense but was phased out after the first month of the season. Still, he averaged six yards per-carry last season and is Georgia's fastest man in the backfield.
Walker showed off his low-to-the ground skillset in November, rushing for three scores against Charlotte and seemingly surpassing Phillips Jr. on the depth chart. There were few players that received more positive buzz than Walker during spring practice a year ago, so he may be the main player that Dowdell needs to hold off to carve out a role in this offense.
Georgia will use its stable of backs. Jones was consistently used on third downs and in the receiving game last year. McCray proved to be a short-yardage beast for the Dawgs. Both of them had specific roles even though Frazier and Bowens saw the bulk of the carries.
Dowdell will likely get touches. The question will be where does he fit in this backfield? Can he push for a starting role or will he be fighting for that third spot?
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