Looking at the biggest three names leaving - Etienne, Princely and Kamari - Etienne is a fantastic runner but a terrible blocker. Not a good fit for Florida’s offense (nor Georgia’s). Princely struggled to edge protect but was solid otherwise. Hate to lose him but he was a non-factor in several games. Kamari - not sure what happened there but it happened quite some time back. Frankly I’m not sure all three weren’t counseled out. You think you’re losing key guys but maybe the coaches see seven losses and know where the boo boos are.
Kamari doesn't fit that group, he hardly saw the field. Outside of some egregious locker room or off-field behavior, any coach that would purposely get rid of productive, experienced starters/co-starters to be replaced by who knows would be a fool of the 1st magnitude.
There was a parting of ways for Kamari. I don't think the staff would push out either ETN or Princely. While neither are the ideal size for their positions, they have shown themselves to be pretty productive.
If any position we could afford to lose a player it is at running back, and I believe we have a couple younger people that can take Prince space without too much lost there. Offensive line and linebackers must come from the portal, the freshmen aren’t tge answer but may play a lot anyway.
Except the ones they’re about to transfer into Florida in the next few weeks so I don’t guess that answer is no one
How about, the silly money is being spent in the early rounds and the "prudent" money later? But I agree, no movement is not good optics. Personally, I would have spent some real money when Seaton eliminated us. I won't say there was that kind of player waiting to be grabbed, but I would have gone shopping with real money. There is prudent and then there is oblivious.
Kamari, maybe, but, I can't see that with ETN or Umanmielen. They both had their flaws, but, were a net positive to the team.
What I’m thinking is maybe Etienne made a fuss about starting and threatened to leave … and the coaches said maybe for the best. Princely honestly was hit and miss and I think they have another starter in mind. Until a few weeks ago everyone thought he was leaving for the draft and I didn’t hear a lot of truly upset folks. Like I said, hate to see him go but I think there is more to this and it’s not always because the coaches don’t know what they’re doing.
That’s definitely a possibility. Who knows. We do have some edge guys that are going to be looking for snaps as well as backs looking for carries. I don’t think the top teams are desperate for backs enough to write big checks. The Carrie’s won’t be anymore plentiful if ETN goes to a team that has a realistic shot at winning it all. I think ETN just wants to play on a winner and I doubt it’s about Carrie’s as much. He got a good amount of carries and plenty of exposure if he’s only worried about being drafted next year..
I know they have talked about UGA or LSU for him but if I was him I would be looking at OSU and Michigan. Both are places he can win at but they are both have major contributors leaving.
Just don't know what "starting" really means these days, other than maybe taking the first snap. Every good team in America seems to platoon their running backs now. I mean, does ETN think he is going to get all the carries at Georgia? Other than learning how to block, he's already proved himself, and, that's not going to change just because he transferred or started the first snap somewhere. I just think he's chasing his tail on that, and, really believe that he just wants to win immediately off a program that someone else helped establish. Either that, or his mother and brother have been in his ear too much.
Someone in an earlier post stated that he “struggled” with blocking and I don’t think that’s the case at all. Struggling implies that you are trying to block but not having success and what I saw was a player who most of the time made either zero effort or only a token effort to protect the QB, his teammate. That, coupled with his apparent desire to slide into a championship contending situation says volumes about who he really is and the type of character he possesses, a guy who despite his massive talent, deep down doesn’t want to put the work in to do the difficult things that are necessary to be a complete player.
Another possibility is that after only picking up 29 yards on 11 carries against FSU he was injured when his blocker made a mistake and didn’t block the right guy. He might be upset that his teammates don’t block for him as well as he wants and is thinking another team might protect him better. Kind of like how Mertz gets blown up when his blocking back whiffs except Mertz isn’t transferring.
Re the portal. Back when Steve was here I knew one of the tutors. There was a 3rd team DB that she tutored for the first time. When he walked in he sat down and the first words out of his mouth were, “I don’t need this sh!t. I’ll be in the league in 2 years”. He never made an impact and did not get drafted or do free agency. He just wasn’t very good but thought he was NFL caliber. My point is many players think they are better than they are. Imagine if the portal existed back when he thought he was the bomb. He would have entered it no doubt. Kids are going to lose out on a college education and end up working whatever they can find when the NIL money runs out.
This could actually work well for us… When he comes into the game, we can be fairly assured he won’t be blocking for a pass play and our D can load up on the run
