Georgia football Brandon Turnage transfer portal

Kirby Smart’s position on the transfer portal has long been clear. He doesn’t want to use it as a way to build his roster but rather to fill any short-term needs.

But the addition of Alabama defensive back Brandon Turnage may signal that Smart is considering a change to his transfer portal policy.

The Turnage addition comes after the NCAA amended its one-time transfer rule, granting transfer players immediate eligibility at their new schools.

Perhaps the bigger rule change with regards to Georgia is yet to come. The SEC still has its intraconference transfer rule on the books, but it might not for much longer. A number of conferences, including the PAC-12 on Monday, have voted to strike down their own intraconference transfer rules. The SEC presidents are set to vote on the rule on June 3.

Should that pass, it clears the way for Georgia to add more players with SEC experience. Since Smart arrived at Georgia in December of 2015, all but two of the transfer Georgia has added came from a Power 5 program. It’s clear Smart values high-major experience when bringing in a player over a high school recruit.

Georgia has twice previously added players from the SEC as graduate transfers, as Alabama defensive back Maurice Smith came to Georgia for the 2016 season and Tennessee tight end Eli Wolf was a Georgia Bulldog for the 2019 campaign.

Turnage is not that. He signed as a member of the 2019 recruiting class and has at least three years of eligibility remaining.

The addition of Turnage comes following the departure of defensive back Major Burns, who entered the transfer portal earlier in May. Burns was expected to be a key depth piece for Georgia at safety in 2021 and possibly a starter for the 2022 season.

Burns himself will be staying in the conference, as he announced that he will be transferring to LSU.

Now there’s a real chance Turnage could fill that specific role. There is the thought Turnage could play cornerback for Georgia, given the obvious need there and that Turnage was rated as the No. 11 cornerback in the 2019 recruiting class.

But once he arrived in Alabama, Turnage was converted to the safety position. If Turnage stays at safety, he’ll likely back up Lewis Cine and Chris Smith during the 2021 season, as well as fellow transfer Tykee Smith at Georgia’s “star” position.

It’s also worth noting Turnage doesn’t enter Georgia with significant playing experience, as he appeared in just four games in his two years at Alabama.

Smart will still prefer to bring in high school recruits, as that is still the best way to develop players and help the team in the long run. But say you have a handful of transfers or departures at one position, like Georgia has in its defensive backfield this offseason. The transfer portal usually has operated as a short-term solution to those problems.

Turnage though fits in the middle of those two options. If he’s a safety, he might not see the field in 2021 on a consistent basis. If he plays well at Georgia, he probably isn’t sticking around to finish out all three years of his remaining eligibility.

The Turnage commitment is similar in that sense to when the Bulldogs brought in JT Daniels last offseason. Georgia had a quarterback at the time in Jamie Newman who seemed like the clear starter for the 2020 season, with Daniels likely being the plan for 2021.

It did not play out that way as Newman ended up opting out of the 2020 season, making the addition of Daniels even more paramount.

Georgia is still going to prefer to build its team through high school recruits. Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and the other elite programs will as well. It’s still the best way to build your program over the long run.

The changes at both the NCAA and potentially at the SEC levels to the transfer portal will make it easier for programs to make upgrades at specific positions.

Georgia is still going to use the transfer portal to address its short-term needs. It just might be a little more liberal now in doing so as it will likely have a deeper talent pool to pick from.

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