The Georgia Bulldogs have brought in four defensive backs from the transfer portal this offseason, and the hope is that they’ll be able to contribute more this fall than their last crop of portal secondary players.
Gentry Williams (Oklahoma) and Braylon Conley (USC) joined the cornerback room while the Bulldogs went out and got Khalil Barnes (Clemson) and Ja’Marley Riddle (East Carolina) to bolster the safety room.
All four players were rated as three-star transfer prospects. Barnes, Riddle and Williams have one year of eligibility remaining while Conley has three.
The hope is that at least one or two of these players will be able to come in and help a secondary currently headlined by rising junior safety KJ Bolden, redshirt sophomore cornerback Ellis Robinson and junior cornerback Demello Jones.
Georgia's lack of portal success in 2025 hurt their secondary
Before the 2025 season, the Bulldogs brought in safeties Adrian Maddox (UAB), Jaden Harris (Miami) and Zion Branch (USC).
Maddox and Harris played very sparingly, only seeing 67 and 56 snaps respectively across four games of action. They have both since transferred to the sunflower state, with Maddox heading to Kansas State and Harris to Kansas.
Branch was pressed into action after a season-ending injury to safety Kyron Jones. Though he played significant snaps for the Bulldogs and was a positive run defender, was not the most reliable player in coverage.
Georgia’s safeties were not a strong suit for the defense in 2025, especially after Jones’ promising season ended prematurely. The Bulldogs went right back to the portal to address the secondary, which had lost two one-time starters in nickel Joenel Aguero and cornerback Daniel Harris.
Of the new additions, Barnes is perhaps the most likely plug-and-play candidate. The Athens native started 30 games in his Clemson career and was a freshman All-American in 2023, becoming the first freshman in the Dabo Swinney era to record multiple forced fumbles and interceptions.
In 2025, Barnes recorded 46 tackles (one for loss) and five pass breakups in 10 games. He’s spent time playing both the nickel (or STAR) and safety position. That experience could be helpful as Georgia seems set to roll out Rasean Dinkins out at STAR, who showed flashes as a true freshman last year but only has one start to his name.
"He really makes a defense from a communication perspective because of his experience," Clemson defensive coordinator Tom Allen said of Barnes last October. "He’s done a great job; he knows the defense. I sit in all the meetings with him, and he communicates at a high level.”
Riddle was a standout at ECU, recording 70 tackles, four for a loss, seven passes defended and three interceptions in 13 games.
Williams has missed significant time due to shoulder injuries in 2025 and 2024, only playing in six games last season and two in 2024. In his last healthy season in 2023, he recorded 30 tackles and three interceptions.
Conley lost his starting job at USC towards the beginning of his redshirt freshman season in 2025. He recorded 14 tackles, 2 for loss, one pass defended, and one forced fumble on the season.
Williams and Conley will likely serve as depth pieces to begin, although the promotion of Jones and Robinson to the starting lineup last year shows the Bulldogs aren’t afraid to make changes to the starting cornerback rotation mid-season.
There looks to be a more immediate path to playing time at safety. Jones is seemingly the favorite to start next to Bolden, but a competition is to be expected. Barnes and Riddle will likely get the chance to prove themselves this spring and summer.
The Bulldogs need one, or multiple, of these players to step up and command some playing time in 2026. Last year’s transfer class was a dud on defense, with only Branch and defensive lineman Josh Horton making a moderate impact.
With Georgia aiming to break through the quarterfinal round for the first time in the 12-team College Football Playoff era, they can’t afford to have such an identifiable weakness in the back end of their defense. They’ll have to hit on at least one or two of these transfers if they want to avoid a leaky secondary once again in 2026.