One of Georgia’s most prominent support staffers is expected to depart the program just before the start of fall camp, as Matt Zenitz of 247Sports reports that Georgia assistant athletic director/director of football operations Neyland Raper is expected to leave for a job with the Big 12.

Raper first came to Georgia prior to the 2017, serving first as a football operations assistant. After working as the assistant director of football operations and recruiting, Raper earned the title of director of football operations prior to the 2021 season.

Per his Georgiadogs.com bio, Raper, “helps oversee team travel, on-campus recruiting, budgeting, creative media, and the daily schedule of the players and coaches.”

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart recently spoke about how he has gone about delegating more and if he would consider hiring a general manager, as schools like Alabama and Texas Tech have done.

“Yeah we have people in charge of every area. If you want to call a general manager for us, it would be the football ops person for us is over tops for everything,” Smart said. “General Manager is a title. What does a general manager do they oversee a lot of things. So there’s a lot of things that are overseen by other people than me, but they report to me.”

Smart is entering his ninth season at Georgia, where he has won two national championships and two SEC championships.

While he knows he has to delegate more than he did when he first arrived at Georgia, the head coach has grown comfortable as he has built of the support staff at Georgia.

“I think me, starting in year 9, much more comfortable in delegating the offense, the defense, the special teams, the recruiting asset,” Smart said. “The off-field, the on-field, all the duties that are out there. Much better place with oversight in terms of me feeling like it doesn’t have to be me making the decisions.”

Georgia has already had plenty of on-field coaching turnover, as the Bulldogs had to replace four on-field assistants this offseason. The last time Georgia had such staff turnover came back in 2022, when Georgia also had to replace four on-field assistant coaches. Georgia went on to win a national championship that season.

The Bulldogs are expected to start fall camp late next week, as Georgia opens the 2024 season against Clemson on Aug. 31.