ATHENS — For Georgia players, the first transfer portal window has opened and shut. The deadline to enter the 2024 NFL Draft passed on Monday.
While the coaching carousel and an April transfer portal window are still on the college football calendar, we now have a better idea of where things stand with the Georgia roster.
“As coaches, we really just want to know what our roster is going to be for a year,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said in a radio interview last week.
The Bulldogs currently have 89 scholarship players on the roster for the 2024 season. That will need to get down to 85 by the start of fall camp. Georgia could still also make some additions via the transfer portal, with Alabama, Washington and now Arizona all getting extensions due to their coaching changes. Michigan is another team to watch with Jim Harbaugh recently interviewing with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Below is a look at how Georgia, and some of its 2024 opponents, dealt with the roster turnover that has taken place over the past six weeks. The Bulldogs open the 2024 season against Clemson in Atlanta on Aug. 31.
Winner: The Georgia defensive line
The biggest reason Georgia’s defensive line finds itself in the winners category is because of the return of Nazir Stackhouse and Warren Brinson. Neither, to this point, has been a Jalen Carter or Jordan Davis-type monster in the middle of the Georgia defense.
But they’re both good players who have made winning contributions. Getting them back gives Georgia’s defensive line, especially on the interior, two key pieces. Add in Mykel Williams, who shut down any transfer rumors after the Orange Bowl, to go along with Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins and Christen Miller and the Bulldogs have the pieces of a defensive line that can take a step forward from where it was in 2023.
Georgia’s defensive line is going to be deeper next season, as the Bulldogs also signed five defensive linemen in the 2024 recruiting cycle. It landed Xzavier McLeod out of the transfer portal. Getting back Brinson and Stackhouse for their fifth seasons in Athens gives Georgia some much-needed leadership in that room as well.
Defensive line play was a big reason Georgia won back-to-back national championships. If the Bulldogs are going to be the last team celebrating at the end of the 2024 season, Brinson and Stackhouse will need to be big reasons why.
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