West Virginia defensive back Tykee Smith announced he was entering the NCAA’s transfer portal on Wednesday night, and that created a buzz among UGA fans.
Why was that? Smith was the prize pupil at West Virginia under defensive backs coach Jahmile Addae, who was recently hired at UGA in the same role.
Naturally it led to speculation that Smith may want to reunite with his former coach in the SEC.
Even UGA players quickly noticed the possibilities, with running back Zamir White posting a tweet under the Smith news with two images of his fingers crossed.
Smith is a pretty big deal, and easily one of the top overall prospects in the portal. He was an AP third-team All-American last year at West Virginia, and he was recently ranked as the No. 5 overall returning DB in college football by PFF.
From the UGA perspective, defensive back is arguably the biggest concern on the team after the early NFL defections by Eric Stokes, Tyson Campbell and DJ Daniel. On of that, promising sophomore Tyrique Stevenson abruptly transferred to Miami after the season. However, the Bulldogs do have depth and talent at defensive back – it’s just young and inexperienced.
Back to Smith: On Twitter, he revealed his news by saying: “I would like to thank West Virginia University for giving me the opportunity to play the sport that I love at a high level … Despite that, I would like to announce that I will be entering the transfer portal. However, West Virginia will always have a special place in my heart.”
There’s no evidence that Smith is interested in UGA and vice versa, but this will definitely be a situation to monitor heavily.
Bulldogs fans also got excited last month when another West Virginia DB decided to transfer. Dreshun Miller ended up choosing Auburn, and it’s unknown if there was any interest shown by UGA.
Smith is a much hotter commodity, after two stellar seasons with Mountaineers. He’s from Philadelphia, and had 18 major-college offers out of high school. He selected West Virginia over UNC and Baylor, per Rivals.