Trevor Etienne highlights why he left Florida Football for Georgia
Florida Football saw a number of players depart for the transfer portal in the off-season, but the one that made the most headlines was Trevor Etienne leaving to go to Georgia.
And appearing on the Real Talk GA podcast, Etienne shed some light as to why he departed Gainesville for Athens.
Florida Football: Florida Vs Everybody
When Princely Umanmielen left for Ole Miss, he cited coaching and specifically the strength coaching as one of the reasons he opted to leave. He has since gone one to throw teammates under the bus, but that's a whole different story,
The point is that it is a fair critique from Umanmielen if he didn't feel the coaching was up to par and wanted to become NFL ready.
Etienne however didn't cite coaching specifically. The way he phrases it, he just wants to win.
Trevor Etienne on transferring from Florida to Georgia:
— On3 (@On3sports) March 2, 2024
“I can stay RB2 on a losing team or go somewhere and possibly be RB1 and win a natty.”
(via @RealTalk_GA) https://t.co/OPzIwzMqIf pic.twitter.com/ZZs5UqRQQf
As is often the case, there are two truths to what Etienne is saying.
The first truth is that in 2024 when a team sucks, players are going to leave. That's just the reality with NIL and the transfer portal. So if Gator fans don't want players like Etienne leaving, then Florida needs to win more games. It's as simple as that.
The second truth is that Etienne is on a hope and prayer if he thinks he is going to waltz into Athens and get more carries than what he got at Florida.
The notion that Etienne was an RB2 at Florida is false. He had 131 carries last season, an almost identical carries per game as Montrell Johnson. And beyond the pass blocking concerns that surfaced only after he opted to leave, if Etienne were to do something in Athens like run out of bounds to allow the opponent to save their final time out and then that time out was used to set up a converted 4th and 17, he probably won't be seeing too many more carries.
Plus, Georgia's RB2 last year, Kendall Milton had 121 carries in 13 games, a much lower clip than what Etienne had at Florida.
And even though Etienne's rationale for leaving sounds like something Kevin Durant would say in a quest to chase a ring, at the end of the day it is still a deeper commentary on the fact that would be starters left because they didn't think Florida was going to be good in 2024.
Don't like it? The only solution is to win.