ATHENS — Kirby Smart couldn’t have known that Nick Saban was going to retire when he was speaking to reporters prior to the SEC championship game.

The Georgia head coach likely didn’t envision a world where he had a chance to potentially coach Caleb Downs, the SEC’s Newcomer of the Year and Alabama’s leading tackler.

But Smart still gave a glowing review of Downs anyway.

“He doesn’t look like a freshman at all. He looks like a guy that’s been playing for three years,” Smart said. “He’s instinctive. He’s fast. He’s fearless. He’s everything that he was in high school. I’ve seen him play about 100 7-on-7 games at our stadium and at our facility when his high school team came over all the time, and he’s everything that we thought he was, punt returner, he’s just a football player that is instinctive, great tackler. Just what you draw up when you want a defensive back.”

That quote, and the post-game embrace between Downs and Smart could prove to be telling if the Bulldogs end up with Downs on the 2024 roster.

Saban is no longer the head coach at Alabama after announcing his retirement on Jan. 10.

Smart can now recruit Downs in a more direct manner, as the talented safety entered the transfer portal on Wednesday. He’s the top-ranked player to enter the portal this cycle.

In the brief history of the transfer portal, perhaps only Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams can be viewed in the same caliber of transfer as Downs.

Downs was a 5-star recruit in the 2023 recruiting cycle. He had offers from almost every program in the country. He was the best player on the best team in Georgia’s largest high school classification, as Mill Creek High School went unbeaten and won the state championship with Downs doing a bit of everything.

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