Saban Blocking a Transfer to Georgia

He's supposed to graduate from Alabama this weekend. We'll see what happens then.

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Unless I misunderstood the article I read the SEC still requires the original school to sign off on the transfer. The article said the SEC treats interconference graduate transfers the same way it does regular transfers. Again, I could have interpreted it incorrectly but this is what I took from it.

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It does, but I'm not sure that Alabama will stick to their guns on this under media scrutiny, especially after they just let Chris Black transfer to Missouri.

BTW, Georgia better be careful not to do anything that could be perceived as tampering.

He looks like he'd be a good addition, but I was hoping I'd open the link and it was a big lineman on either side of the ball - preferably D. Guess it's a moot point anyway if he's blocked.

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Saban Blocking a Transfer to Georgia

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Didn't CKS block a transfer to Miami to play for CMR?? Kinda the same thing...

Do want

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Didn't CKS block a transfer to Miami to play for CMR?? Kinda the same thing...

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Kirby didn't want any player who wanted to follow Richt, to be able to do so. He wanted to set that precedent.

This situation is a little different because he will be a grad transfer and there aren't going to be many cases of impact player grad transfers wanting to join Kirby. Saban could have helped himself by blocking any and all transfers, grad or undergrad, within the conference.

Has anybody followed Miami to see if Richt is still allowing for the same suicidal open transfer policy down there?

We'll still be dealing with the consequences of it here for another few years. Or until they get kicked out of auburn or Louisville or wherever again.

The new dawg nation article says Saban had all the kid's personal stuff in his locker cleaned out and thrown in the trash right after their first meeting about transfering.

Part of The Process, i guess.

I've tried to look at it without being a homer, as well, and while I understand and agree with some of what Saban is saying, I don't agree with it as a whole.

There is a more recent DawgNation article that details Smith's letter to the Alabama Appeals Committee requesting this transfer, I'll try to attach. Basically for those that don't want to read it, he felt "ostracized" from the team the day after he met with Saban to inform him of his desire to transfer, showing up to the locker room only to find all of his personal belongings, team gear, etc in the trash. He was barred from the facility, even detailing a text from a staffer saying they couldn't let him in because its "all in or out policy."

I understand Saban wanting to set a precedent that just because Kirby relocated in conference does not mean players can follow suit. That's what Kirby did more or less (despite that Miami is in the ACC). Makes plenty of sense to me. The difference here is that the kid is graduating Saturday, he actually wanted to go to Baylor before these Art Briles scandal came to light, only then did he settle on UGA, he claims Alabama and Saban have intentionally slow-played the process for things to work out in their favor, and most importantly, there's a bit of a double-standard here. By allowing another grad transfer in Chris Black to transfer to Mizzou to play, you really don't have much of a leg to stand on because the only difference with Smith is he could see playing time at nickleback. Without that, I can't completely disagree with Saban. But because of Chris Black, this kid should be allowed to transfer and play here, immediately, IMO.

To put a cap on it, I think Smith said it best in his letter to Alabama's appeals committee: "Please do not punish my success and instead reward the efforts of discipline and determination that UA requires in all of their student-athletes to succeed."

I'd also like to point out that this kid seems incredibly intelligent/well read and has great understanding for what he's doing(no surprise given he's graduating in three years.)

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He can still come here, but he'd have to sit out and redshirt this season.

He graduated in 3 years, so that's an option if he so chooses. It might be his best option, too. He's not going to have time to learn a completely new system and play well at another school before the NFL draft. He pretty clearly isn't going back to Alabama.