Georgia fans spent the offseason feeling good about the running back room after Dante Dowdell landed in Athens as a portal add. That optimism took a hit this week when Kirby Smart confirmed the veteran back is going to be out for a while, and it's not because of a torn ACL or a routine offseason tweak.
Pete Nakos relayed Kirby Smart's confirmation that Dowdell will miss extended time.
Georgia will be without transfer running back Dante Dowdell for an extended period of time, per Kirby Smart.
According to reporting out of Georgia, this stems from an off-campus accident involving an ATV back home in Alabama during the team's break, not a football injury. Smart told reporters at SEC Media Days he doesn't have a firm timeline, saying the program is "praying for him and his family" and that they expect a full recovery, but the outlook right now is a waiting game. Reports have described the injuries as serious enough that Dowdell has been through multiple hospitals before ending up back in Georgia.
The timing stings. Dowdell was one of the more intriguing portal pickups of the cycle, a 6-foot-2, 227-pound bruiser who's already played for three different programs. He started at Oregon, moved to Nebraska, then broke out at Kentucky last season with 112 carries for 560 yards and 3 touchdowns, good for second on the team behind Seth McGowan. Georgia brought him in to add size and juice to a room that needed both, and now that plan is on hold indefinitely.
This isn't the first time Georgia's had to answer hard questions about a transfer running back's health, and it puts even more pressure on the returning depth chart to carry the load early in the season. Smart's program has weathered backfield injuries before and still found a way to run the ball, but losing a projected contributor for an unknown stretch right as camp opens is never the news a defending champion wants.
For now, all anyone around the program can do is wait on updates. Smart made clear the human element outweighs the roster math here, but Georgia still has to figure out how to build a rotation without knowing when, or if, Dowdell factors into the fall plan.