WATCH: UGA football’s Kirby Smart on new SEC coaches, roster management
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart speaks to reporters on May 28, 2024 in Miramar Beach, Fla. at the SEC spring meetings.
Georgia football’s running back room has added a player whose father is one of the greats at the position in program history. It also no longer has a local player who spent last season with the Bulldogs.
Gannon Hearst, son of former All-American Garrison Hearst, is a redshirt sophomore walk-on transfer from Limestone College. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Greater Atlanta Christian graduate played two games in 2022 for the NCAA Division II school in South Carolina, rushing for 84 yards on 5 carries.
His father won the Doak Walker Award for nation’s top running back and finished third in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 1992. He rushed 3,232 yards at Georgia, fifth most in program history and played in the NFL for 12 seasons.
Another walk-on is no longer with the program.
Len’Neth Whitehead, a transfer from Tennessee who played at Athens Academy, joined the Bulldogs in 2023 after battling injuries with the Volunteers. He rushed for 207 yards and two touchdowns for the Vols in 2021.
Georgia had 19 different players carry the ball last season when it was hit hard by injuries at the position, but Whitehead wasn’t one of them. He did not play in a game.
Georgia lists 11 running backs on its updated roster, including six players recruited to the program on scholarship.