Rennie Curran, Georgia’s leading tackler the past two seasons, announced Sunday that he has decided to forego his final season to enter the NFL draft.
“There was no right or wrong answer,” Curran said. “If I came back, it would have been awesome. If I leave, there are a whole lot of opportunities as well.”
The 5-foot-11, 225-pound weakside linebacker from the Atlanta suburb of Snellville played in 37 games for the Bulldogs and made 30 starts. He led the Southeastern Conference this past season with 130 tackles after tallying 115 during the 2008 season.
Curran’s 298 career tackles rank 16th in program history and are the most for any player who competed just three seasons, topping the 280 Thomas Davis amassed from 2002-04.
“He’s just a tackling machine,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. “He always has been. I don’t care what level of ball he plays at. He’ll always be that torpedo making hits.”
Richt now has lost 18 players early to the NFL since his first season in 2001, an average of two per year. Junior safety Reshad Jones announced last week that he will bypass his final year of eligibility, and the Bulldogs lost quarterback Matthew Stafford, tailback Knowshon Moreno and cornerback Asher Allen last January.
Curran called the decision the toughest of his life and weighed several factors. First and foremost was providing for his family, which includes 16-month-old daughter Eleana, but he also expressed concerns about playing for a new defensive coordinator and without defensive tackles Jeff Owens, Geno Atkins and Kade Weston.
“Those are some of the things I wrote down, and when I listed the pros and cons, my reasons to go outweighed my reasons to stay,” he said.
Rivals.com’s No. 11 middle linebacker in the 2007 class — Chris Donald, formerly of Tennessee and now at UTC, was No. 1 and Alabama’s Rolando McClain was No. 2 — Curran made five starts as a freshman and had 53 tackles. He then became the first Bulldogs player since linebacker Greg Bright in 1996-97 with consecutive years with 100-plus tackles, collecting a career-best 16 this past season against LSU.
Curran said he spoke with Dexter Coakley, who is 5-10 yet played 10 NFL seasons with Dallas and St. Louis, and others about the challenges ahead.
“I feel like the sky is the limit,” Curran said. “I only have to get one team to like me, and there is no reason why I feel like I can’t go in the first round despite my size.”
The early departures of Jones and Curran leave the Bulldogs with five returning starters defensively.
Still not talking
Richt pushed the rewind button Sunday when asked about reports he has extended an offer to Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart for the same opportunity with the Bulldogs.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve been saying all along,” Richt said. “I’m not going to make any comments on the search until I’ve got my guy.”
Asked if he thought a hire might be imminent, Richt replied, “I’ll let you know when it happens. I promise.”