Amarius Mims explains decision to enter transfer portal, eventually come back to Georgia

More often than not, when a player enters the transfer portal, that’s the end of the relationship between him and the school he’s been at. In the case of Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims, that’s not necessarily true.

Mims, the No. 10 overall player in the Class of 2021 out of Bleckley County, entered his name into the portal on April 10th. Georgia was in the middle of spring practice with G-Day quickly approaching. Meanwhile, Mims was on the road visiting Florida State. But after going to Tallahassee and considering all of his options, it was back to Athens for the former five-star where he’s become a contributor to the Bulldogs’ early-season success in 2022.

“I would say, as a freshman, I came in highly recruited just wanting to play. I would say I’ve matured mentally from freshman to sophomore year, and I realized, going into the portal wasn’t the best for me,” Mims told media members in an availability on Monday. “So coming back my sophomore year, Georgia was the best place for me, developing me.”

One might imagine that Mims’ coaches and teammates at the time might not be too happy with him deciding to pack his bags and leave town in the middle of spring practice. But according to Mims, that wasn’t the case. They wanted to give him the time, not force anything on him all the while expressing that if he were to want to come back, there would still be a place for him in Athens. And that’s exactly what happened. Less than 10 days after entering his name into the portal, his name was officially removed and he was once again a Bulldog.

“The hardest part for me was just the mental part of it. ‘Am I sure this is what I want? Am I sure this is what I want to do? I’ll be moving to a different state.’ I’m from the state of Georgia and I just thought that right here at the time that was too much,” Mims said. “I knew that if I stayed here through and stayed true to what coach Smart said, I’ll be good.”

“I went and experienced the portal, but there’s nothing like Georgia so I came back,” he added, summarizing it all.

In coming back, Mims knew that it’d be a challenge to get on the field. Georgia was still returning its starting right tackle of the previous two seasons and had a left tackle that helped them win the National Championship last season in Warren McClendon and Broderick Jones respectively. That didn’t change during his time in the transfer portal. But Mims admitted that his mindset changed. Rather than worrying about playing time, he saw the opportunity for development behind McClendon and Jones. The way it’s worked out since, he’s even gotten some of that playing time he was looking for in the first place.

“I knew Warren and Broderick were probably going to be the starters, so I knew coming back, I would learn from them and that was the most important thing,” Mims said.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to play or not,” he continued. “With me actually getting meaningful snaps and being in the lineup early, I’ll say the hard work I put in from April to now, it didn’t go unnoticed.”

It certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed. In fact, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was asked about Mims on Monday too. He too can tell that there’s a difference in Mims now.

“I think he’s got more confidence in going into the game in a more meaningful moments. He’s extremely athletic and talented. We’ve really stressed to him how much he can improve in his run game and his pass game and his knowledge of the game,” Smart said. “The only way you get better at that point is to go play and he’s getting to play quite a bit in the last three games. We want him to continue to do that. Really the conditioning level of these games outside in the heat have allowed us to play three guys and stay fresh at the position.”

Whether Georgia’s rotation at tackle continues remains to be scene, but Mims is definitely more mature because of it. Despite not starting, he’s taking a starter’s approach to things, watching more film, learning his role and embracing being the sixth man of the Georgia offensive line.

“It was at first but with the help of my teammates, it makes it easier,” Mims said when asked if it was hard to get used to his new role, not as a starter but still as a contributor. “Them talking to me have saying they’ve got my back, it’s going to be good, everything’s going to be alright, you’re going to mess up. With them telling me that, I have all the confidence in the world.”

“Definitely I’m just maturing, realizing that I have an important role,” Mims added. “When I’m out there, I’m expected to not have any fall off from Warren or anybody else. They expect me to go in, have their backs and I know they’ve got my back … I feel like from a mental standpoint I’m out there with the ones. I feel like once I get in there should be no fall off. I feel like if we keep this rotation going it will be even better.”