Kirby Smart, Georgia Accused of Tampering to Land Star Transfer RB

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | Last updated Jun 25, 2025 7:09 PM ET

Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs know what they're doing when it comes to acquiring talented players. You'd have to go back to the class of 2016 to find Georgia outside of the top 5 in national recruiting rankings, and even then, they had the No. 6 class in the nation.

The same can be said for the transfer portal, where the Bulldogs have routinely landed high-profile players year after year who come in and help their team right away.

This past offseason, the prized transfer was former Illinois Fighting Illini running back Josh McCray, who came to Athens after four seasons under Bret Bielema. As the No. 11 rated RB in the portal this year, McCray chose Georgia as the team he wanted to play for in his final year of eligibility, trying to boost his NFL draft stock.

However, Bielema is now calling foul, saying that Smart and the Bulldogs tampered with McCray and went outside of the rules to get him to Georgia.

On the latest episode of the Triple Option Podcast, Bielema questioned how the Bulldogs were able to land McCray so quickly after he decided to leave Illinois, speculating that some early communication must have taken place.

“We did lose a guy to Georgia,” Bielema said on The Triple Option podcast. “Somehow, he found his way to the portal and 12 hours after being in the portal, he was on a flight to Georgia. I don’t know how that happened, but it’s crazy."

Georgia's interest in McCray is understandable, as he had a career year in 2024 with 117 rushes for 609 yards and 10 touchdowns. With Trevor Etienne off to the NFL after his nine-touchdown season with the Bulldogs, Smart wanted to find another veteran back to pair with Nate Frazier in the backfield, and he did just that with McCray.

Whether ot not he went outside of the rule book to do so is unknown at this point, but Bielema has no problem making his speculations public.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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