Florida Gators still processing Trevor Etienne’s transfer to Georgia

DALLAS — If he hadn’t transferred to the University of Georgia, there is a good chance that Trevor Etienne would have been with the Florida Gators here at SEC Media Days on Wednesday.

Instead, it was Montrell Johnson who was repping for coach Billy Napier. With Etienne set to be dressed in red and black in the coming season, Johnson is set to be the Gators’ primary ball carrier this fall.

“I expect to get the ball more this next season,” Johnson said of his team losing Etienne. “I’m not worried about it because I feel like I can hold the load on my own.”

As for how Etienne signing with the rival Bulldogs made him and his teammates feel, that’s a little more complicated.

“It was like an outrage, kind of,” said Johnson, a 5-foot-11, 214-pound junior. “But at the same time, he’s our friend and we knew he was trying to make the best decision for himself. So, we weren’t really mad about it.”

In these complex times of unlimited transfers in college football, it’s certainly difficult to make much of a fuss about losing a teammate. Johnson himself began his career at Louisiana-Lafayette and followed coach Billy Napier to Gainesville.

Likewise, quarterback Graham Mertz began his career at Wisconsin.

“That’s the nature of college football right now,” Mertz said. “Regardless of what’s going on, you’ve got to look out for yourself. Trevor thought that was the best option for him. I wish him nothing but the best. Trevor is my guy. That was just his decision for where he wanted to be.”

In two seasons at Florida, Etienne played in 23 games and rushed for 1,472 yards on 249 carries and 14 touchdowns. But he became one of Georgia’s first commitments from the transfer portal when he announced his decision to join the Bulldogs in December.

Etienne enrolled at Georgia in January, went through spring practice and was tracking toward earning a starting role before running into trouble with the law.

Last week, the 20-year-old Louisiana native had DUI charges dismissed in an Athens courtroom. In the same hearing, he pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge and guilty to underage consumption of alcohol. The charges stemmed from an incident in March in which police accused him of driving his 2024 Audi RS7 “80-90 mph” in a 50 mph.

The situation has left coach Kirby Smart with a difficult decision to make regarding Etienne’s availability for the season opener against Clemson on Aug. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. On one hand, the DUI charges were dropped; on the other hand, underage drinking is a violation of UGA Athletics’ code of conduct.

Smart did not specify when asked about it at SEC Media Days on Tuesday.

“We don’t talk about the suspensions; we have them,” he said. “I think it’s pretty obvious we’ve done them in the past. ... Each of those cases is very different, and they’ll be handled in different ways.”

Georgia dismissed senior safety David Daniel-Sisavanh this week after he was charged with reckless driving in February. Former wide receiver De’Nylon Morrissette also was suspended last year after he was charged with DUI and other driving transgressions. He no longer is with the program.

What’s certain is that, barring injury between now and then, Etienne should be suiting up for the Bulldogs when they play Florida in Jacksonville in October. And for the Gators, that’s one heck of a note.

“It’s never really anger because, again, he’s doing what’s best for him,” said linebacker Shemar James, who came to Florida in the same recruiting class as Etienne. “If that (decision) was to leave and go to a different organization, then that’s what it was. That was a heartbreaker for me because that was my guy. We came in the same time, same class. But I wish Trevor the best. He made the best decision for him.”

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