UGA Football Coach Kirby Smart Talks New Transfer Additions

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ATHENS - Georgia Bulldog coach Kirby Smart isn’t changing his ways.

College football is changing quickly, and while many programs hit the transfer portal incredibly hard this winter, Smart’s plan was a little different.

To Smart, staff and roster retention is key to Georgia’s success. He wants to identify his targets, recruit them, develop them, and keep them around. That’s the philosophy, and it may not change anytime soon.

While several SEC programs decided to bring in 30+ new players from the transfer portal, Smart and the Bulldogs just brought in nine. The least amount in the SEC.

Here’s what Smart had to say this week about some of his incoming transfers...

On Georgia Tech transfer wide receiver Isaiah Canion: “Isaiah [Canion] is a guy we knew about in high school and someone we knew a lot of. I remember Coach Bobo going down and watching him practice, and he made a couple really acrobatic catches. He was in the back of our mind all along. Of course, we got to play against him last year, and he made some plays against us last year in that game. The more familiar you are with someone through recruiting, the more success we've had. He's a good football player. He's an even better person, and he played with several guys on our team, so there's a relationship there.”

On Kentucky RB transfer Dante Dowdell:

“We know him, so we're excited about him. For us, it became about physicality, having a back that was big, physical, played in our league, knows what it takes to win at this level. He's done nothing but come in and bust his butt and work hard.”

On Auburn outside linebacker and EDGE transfer Amaris Williams…

“We know a lot about him [Amaris Williams]. He's got to be able to play within our system, understand our system, but also add value. He can start by taking the reps he's going to get this spring.”