Curran says he’ll leave UGA for NFL draft
(Updated 6 p.m.)
As Bulldog Nation awaited word Sunday on whether Kirby Smart will be Georgia’s next defensive coordinator, the team’s best defensive player announced he is leaving school early for pro football.
In what he called the “toughest decision I’ve had to make in my life,” junior linebacker Rennie Curran said he will forgo his final season of college eligibility and enter the 2010 NFL draft.
His decision came as Georgia appeared on the verge of hiring a defensive coordinator to replace Willie Martinez, fired on Dec. 2.
Smart, Alabama’s defensive coordinator and a former Georgia player, has been considering a lucrative multi-year offer to take over the UGA defense but has not made his decision known.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve been saying all along: that I’m not going to make any comments on the search until I get my guy,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said late Sunday afternoon.
And is he about to get his guy?
“I’ll let you know when it happens, I promise,” Richt said.
Smart could not be reached for comment Sunday.
The new coordinator will have to rebuild the Bulldogs’ defense without the linebacker who led the SEC in tackles this past season.
Curran, from Brookwood High School, played in 37 games in his three seasons at Georgia, making 30 starts and 298 tackles. He was named the team’s Most Valuable Player this past season.
His decision to enter the draft was not a surprise, but he said it was agonizing.
“There were so many variables, so many unknowns in making a big decision like this, because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” Curran said. “It’s a total leap of faith.
“It’s one thing to say that you’re going to go -– that you’re mentally and physically ready. But it’s another thing to actually take the stand and have the courage to do it and not look back. . . . It was something I really battled with.”
In the end, Curran said an accumulation of factors convinced him the time was right to end his UGA career: the need to financially support his 1-year-old daughter, the loss of other key defensive players, the likely change of defensive scheme with a new coordinator, and the recognition that the biggest knock against his NFL potential (his height, generously listed at 5-11) wouldn’t change with another year of college.
“Those were some of the things I wrote down on my list of pros and cons,” Curran said, “and my reasons to go outweighed my reasons to stay, even though I love Georgia.”
He is the second starter on Georgia’s 2009 defense to announce he is entering the NFL draft early, following junior safety Reshad Jones. Georgia also is losing two other starters in the secondary and the top three defensive tackles off the ‘09 team to graduation.
Curran said he considered delaying his decision until a new defensive coordinator is hired, which could be as soon as Monday, but concluded he’d make the same choice no matter who the hire.
He wouldn’t disclose the round in which the NFL advisory board projects him to be drafted, but said it is “good enough” to justify the decision. He is counting on a strong showing at the NFL Scouting Combine late next month to boost his stock.
“I’m going to have to really knock out the Combine,” he said, “but I feel like the sky is the limit. I just have to get one team to like me.”
Said Richt: “I think Rennie will do well. He’s a tackling machine. He always has been. I don’t care what level of ball he plays at, he’s going to be that torpedo that can hit. I just want to tell him thanks for everything he did for us.”
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178 comments Add your comment
tw3a
January 10th, 2010
4:38 pm
I know everyone would love to have Smart, but there are alot of DC outhere ready to bloom. There is another Smart out there and if that person comes to Georgia he can do the same thing Smart did. I still think Pollack would be a good hire on the defence somewhere maybe linebackers he brings alot of energy, youth that I think the players will relate too
jack bull
January 10th, 2010
4:39 pm
if we don’t get Smart, whom i don’t think is the answer, who would you get? and why?
EW
January 10th, 2010
4:40 pm
Kirby has one question that hangs over him: Can he do it without Saban?
The logical decision is to go to a place you are comfortable and show you can.
Krogunner
January 10th, 2010
4:42 pm
jack bull, tag off the red and black tinted glasses. I would be happy to be in the chick fillet bowl next year and that is just sad.
tw3a
January 10th, 2010
4:43 pm
I actually in a way like Grantham. NFL experience equals attractive thought for recruits. Especially coming from the Dallas defence
jack bull
January 10th, 2010
4:43 pm
GO DAWGS!!! just ignore the lunatic fringe,,,they know not what they are talking about..or else they wouldn’t be where they are in life right now…
Krogunner
January 10th, 2010
4:45 pm
jack bull, just to name a few…Meyer, Saban, Miles, and that’s just in the SEC.
jack bull
January 10th, 2010
4:46 pm
not that i am being the grammar police or anything, but “tag” and “chick fillet” just explained a whole lot to me…
GO DAWGS!!!
oh yeah, anybody on here a season ticket holder?
collegeballfan
January 10th, 2010
4:48 pm
If Carroll leaves Sou Cal for the Seahawks, will Richt be called to interview for the USC job? I say yes he will be called & he will politely decline the interview.
jack bull
January 10th, 2010
4:49 pm
that’s okay,,i think i would rather have my twin boys playing for Mark Richt.. or maybe Pete Carroll.. but not any of those cry babies, you know, the ones who lose their cool when things don’t go their way and start throwing things and pitching a temper tantrum.. but that’s just me..
ajc is slow
January 10th, 2010
4:49 pm
oh yeah, anybody on here a season ticket holder?
Sure am!
tw3a
January 10th, 2010
4:50 pm
totally with you jack bull
tw3a
January 10th, 2010
4:50 pm
49 years
Sweet Home Alabama
January 10th, 2010
4:50 pm
Dawg man YOU GOT too midgets ,a tight end and another joe cox coming in.matt stafford is only in the history books.dawgs you are no longer relevant,join the ACC AND compete.
jack bull
January 10th, 2010
4:51 pm
gotta go, bring on Travis Jones for DC, well, one can only hope, i guess….
GO DAWGS..
Urban Meyer
January 10th, 2010
4:51 pm
Rennie is good enough to be second team for us. Good luck in the pros! I guess he’s tired of coming to Jacksonville for the annual dog training exercise.
jack bull
January 10th, 2010
4:52 pm
12 years here, still kinda young, ya know…
Good Dawg
January 10th, 2010
4:52 pm
jack bull, go away with your little “grammar corrections”. it’s one thing to be a good Dawg fan and another to be blind. In case you didn’t see Carroll is going back to the NFL.
Krogunner
January 10th, 2010
4:54 pm
collegeballfan, nobody wants Richt. your comment is too funny!
Rope Dawg
January 10th, 2010
4:55 pm
jack bull should be a Tech fan!
Thirty Points to your Twenty-Four Points
January 10th, 2010
4:58 pm
Best of luck Rennie!
Damn Good Dawg!
Rope Dawg
January 10th, 2010
5:00 pm
Rennie =4th Rounder
Dawg in Bama
January 10th, 2010
5:00 pm
All over talk radio here this p.m Alabama officiala will make Smart one of the highest paid asisstants and he stays.
GaGator
January 10th, 2010
5:03 pm
I hate to think what may happen in the state of Georgia if Smart turns UGA down.
I don’t think there would enough Prozax in the USA to bring ya’ll out of your depression.
Happydawg
January 10th, 2010
5:03 pm
Best of luck Rennie, you are going to do well in the Pros. Thank you for playing for the dawgs and I’ll be rooting for your success.
GaGator
January 10th, 2010
5:14 pm
While UGA and Richt are agonizes over the DC that they desperately need, the Gators are kicking the mutts in the butt. Check this out at ESPN recruiting
One for the Ages
Having the nation’s top-ranked class doesn’t appear to be good enough for Urban Meyer and the Gators. This year’s class is starting to look like one of the best ever. And they are not finished yeet.
Curran says he « Football on the Brain
January 10th, 2010
5:17 pm
[...] Curran says he By cousinwalter Leave a Comment Categories: Uncategorized Curran says he’ll leave UGA for NFL draft [...]
Sources Say
January 10th, 2010
5:18 pm
CMR agent has been contacted about the open position at USC
Rope Dawg
January 10th, 2010
5:23 pm
Sources Say, and Elin is rumored to be reconsidering her marriage with tiger. they may work it out…NOT. she is snow skiing in the Swiss alps! Nobody wants Richt!
swampjacket
January 10th, 2010
5:28 pm
As a UGA Hater, I love to see Curran go! He’s one of the two or three best defensive players in the SEC. I actually loved watching him play…Great energy and has his nose in on every play! Definitely a strong safety in NFL!
George
January 10th, 2010
5:29 pm
That;s Elins’ twin in the swiss alps fyi… Kirby to Athens. Done… Have I been wrong yet??? Nope.
Trojan Man
January 10th, 2010
5:33 pm
Sources Say, no thanks! Keep your coach. As much as I’d like to return to mediocrity I think we can do a little better than that. USC doesn’t need a Bible thumping, Bowden wanabee hypocrit. We’ll hire Del Rio, Riley or Jeff Fisher. I don’t think you need to be worried about someone stealing your coach cause noone wants him! Better be worried about that Gator Train! They’re even getting some of our recruits now.
Heywood Jablome
January 10th, 2010
5:40 pm
Rennie was not supposed to announce his decision until tomorrow. He moved it up to today because we will have another press conference Monday afternoon…..Just sayin’……
superDawg
January 10th, 2010
5:42 pm
Rennie good luck and take care of your family.The Dawg nation will miss you.
Sources Say
January 10th, 2010
5:53 pm
Trojan man – your rigtht USC does not need a coach who does not cheat, has integrity, and keeps his word. I guess its back to being a middle of the road PUK 10 team for USC.
DawginOH
January 10th, 2010
5:55 pm
Dear GaGator and other Dawg haters: I love how y’all say that UGA is so irrelevant and yet constantly come on our blogs to trash our football team. If we’re so irrelevant, why are y’all here? As much as I hate your football team, the University of Florida is a great school so why don’t you and your other FL buddies learn to represent it in style and go to a Gator blog to discuss YOUR football team? If you can’t stand hearing about UGA sports, I think you picked the wrong state to live in, my friend. Head back to Florida if you can’t handle the locals discussing news relevant to their team. I am a proud graduate of the University of Georgia so I go to ajc.com to check up on news relevant to MY team. If you need help finding a Gators blog, I’d be happy to take a few seconds and send you the results of my Google search.
Keith
January 10th, 2010
5:59 pm
Of course he is going pro. All thugs care about is money and not helping their team or getting a college degree. Funny how most white players stick around longer then the brothas.
Trojan Man
January 10th, 2010
6:00 pm
DawginOH, a little jealous of a certain school to the south?
atl xmen
January 10th, 2010
6:03 pm
uga will be just fine as long as uga has richt..he is top 5 coach and his record proves that. once he wins 2 or 3 nc in the next 7 or so years he will number one. and he would have done it the right way. i wouldnt take one coach over richt. i know that gator fans on here are acting like dawg fans are hoping uga will not have richt as a coach in hopes of fla hiring him when meyer quits again. no real uga fan will say fire mark richt thats how you can tell the real dawg fan post from a gator posing as a dawg fan post.
uga is not going anywhere we have the talent and the coaching all we need is a little luck and that is coming really soon. fla will be down for the next few years and ala will be too after next year..by that time uga will have nothing but upper classmen playing against the sophs and freshmen of ala and fla..
its great to be a georgia bulldog fan knowing your coach wont be quitting on you..fla and ala cant say that…
Rop Dawg
January 10th, 2010
6:07 pm
atl xmen, you’re killing me. surely that was a joke, right?
P. Bull Terrier
January 10th, 2010
6:11 pm
Don’t be surprised if Rennie ends up becoming a very good NFL linebacker. I’ve watched him play since he was in the 9th grade and at every level he continues raise the bar and exceed expectations. As a Senior in high school he owned the field, but he was still just a mid-level prospect and didn’t generate much excitement when he committed to UGA. Critics said he was too small to be a linebacker in the SEC and not fast enough to play safety. It didn’t take long for him to prove that he could, in fact, play linebacker in the SEC and could play the position better than most of the linebackers in the country.
Some players are blessed with all of the right stats and measurements on paper, but never really do much on the field. Rennie is one of those who doesn’t measure up to the ideal, but just simply gets it done on the football field. The NFL is a big step, but I’d be surprised if he’s not successful.
Krogunner
January 10th, 2010
6:12 pm
I am a real Georgia fan and I say Fire Mark Richt! There is a difference between being loyal and being blind. Nobody does less with 4 and 5 Star recruits than Richt. The day we get rid of this guy is the day we start competing with Florida and Bama. Urban Meyer has 2 National Titles in 5 years, Saban 1 in 3 years and Richt has 0 in 9. That is more than luck. Wake up and recognize reality atl xmen.
Krogunner
January 10th, 2010
6:13 pm
Plus I am not much into spending the holidays in Shreavport!
dawgdip
January 10th, 2010
6:14 pm
If you ever strapped on the helmet and played between the hedges, you would not ask why any x-dawg would want to come back.
GaTruth
January 10th, 2010
6:14 pm
GaGator is more on target than we’d like to admit. What coach, or player for that matter, would want to come to UGA with all the fans on the AJC who do nothing but BIT@H! You bit@h about Richt (who leaves Dooley in the dust – if Vince hadn’t lucked into ($$$) Herschel he wouldn’t have had ANY national championships. How much coaching does it take to run Herschel 40 times a game?) You bit@h about 18-21 year old players when you whiners didn’t see a down of AAAAA football. You constantly proclaim the “fact” that Smart is about to move, when the only thing you know for sure is that your drunk brother-in-law has a friend down at “the plant” that heard a toothless Waffle House waitress who overheard a trucker that drove through Tuscaloosa four years ago, say that Kirby Smart remembers playing in Athens. Why don’t you all sit back, take one minute to realize how little you know, how stupid you sound when you proclaim some fact that you DON’T know for certain, how negatively YOU impact recruiting, and then start focusing on making comments to would make a coach or player WANT to go to UGA? When you constantly BIT@H, you reveal your lack of testosterone and make us seem like the North Avenue Trade School whiners. Give it a rest!
DawginOH
January 10th, 2010
6:14 pm
Trojan Man- Just annoyed at how fans of a certain school to the south can’t find a better use of their time. I came here to read what other readers thought about Rennie Curran going pro. What’s your excuse? Good luck, Rennie! We’ll miss you. DGD!
savannah dawg
January 10th, 2010
6:16 pm
Georgia has offered Kirby Smart a contract for 700,000 per year for three years. Now all we have to do is wait on his answer.
Rick
January 10th, 2010
6:25 pm
DawgPound—There are no guarantees in life. How do you know Smart could have a 2+ mil head coaching job?
Stop eating your own poop, its affecting your mindless BRAIN…
dogdownsouth
January 10th, 2010
6:27 pm
3rd or 4th round pick maybe lower doesnt have the size , speed looked for in Middle linebacker for the NFL will probably be a Special Teams Standout for some teams think Via Sikehema Eagles that type
dogdownsouth
January 10th, 2010
6:30 pm
GaGator signing day is FEB 3 the truth will come out before then about Myer will not be back this is one of the Greatest Con Jobs that UF is playing with these kids cause if they told the truth about Urban the Recruits would be leaving in Droves!!!!! after Signing Day Urban will anounce his medical condition is worse than expected. By that time the recruits will be stuck to there committments