UGA Football Defender No Longer On The Team For 2026 Season

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ATHENS - The Georgia Bulldogs will be without a veteran defensive lineman for the 2026 season.

Defensive tackle Xavier McLeod, a transfer from South Carolina, has left the program just days before the Bulldogs kick off their season against Tennessee State in Athens.

Dawgs247, which broke the news earlier Monday, reported that McLeod described himself as "done with football" and "retired."

You don’t see many players “retire” in college football, but it seems McLeod was obviously ready to move on and hang it up. 

The experienced defensive lineman had 30 tackles in 29 games for the Bulldogs with his first start coming last year against Mississippi State.

McLeod was expected to provide quality depth in the rotation along the defensive line along with guys like Josh Horton, Jordan Hall, Nasir Johnson, Nnamdi Ogboko, Elijah Griffin, among others. He flashed the ability to make an impact at times and was certainly going to play a role this upcoming season.

Now, an opportunity will present itself to others. With one door closing, one or two could open up for others.

Here’s what Kirby Smart had to say about his defensive line during his weekly press conference on Monday.

“They work hard as a group,” Smart told reporters about his defensive tackle group. “They're a very by-committee group. They compete. They go against a big physical offensive line. We've got a few more twitchy guys in there with Joseph Jonah-Ajonye sliding in playing a little more time inside. We've got the size with Nnamdi Ogboko in there and Nasir Johnson playing in there. Both those guys have been good at run stopping for us. What we need is the twitch, the athleticism to make us better passers.”