Ben Yurosek doesn't fit Georgia's transfer mold, but fits right in at UGA

ATHENS, Ga. — Ben Yurosek might not fit the mold of most Georgia transfers, but he’s fitting in just fine with the Bulldogs. The Stanford graduate arrived in Athens early this summer after finishing up his degree in Palo Alto. With just one year of eligibility remaining, it would make sense for him to have one foot the door already. However, according to his coaches, he’s bought in to Georgia’s culture and trying to accomplish something special.

“I think one thing that Coach Smart does a great job is, he is very selective about who he brings in. Sometimes it might look like we’re not as ‘active’ in the portal as other people, but there’s a reason for that. There’s a culture and a standard here, and he is very selective about who he brings in because locker room dynamics are important,” Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley said when talking about how the Bulldogs went about adding Yurosek. “You have to fit certain criteria, not just ‘How many catches did he have? How many yards did he have?’ It’s not just that. The person’s got to check out too.”

“To your point, yeah, it’s usually people that he knows and we’re very familiar with. Ben didn’t really fit that other than being older and if you look at our room, if we needed anything we probably needed a little experience in that room,” Hartley continued. “He’s a kid that’s played a lot at the major level of college football, and he was very productive. Couple of injuries here and there, but he was productive. You just know that coming from Stanford he’s going to be able to handle the high academic load that Georgia is going to give him, he’s going to be able to handle the NFL pro-style type of offense, it’s what they did there. Those things were already a given, and then you turn the tape on and he does run well, he does catch, he hits the physical attributes that you look for too. Even though we didn’t have a lot of familiarity with him, he didn’t play in our league, we didn’t know that much about him, we knew those other things and they checked the boxes for us.”

Smart’s selectivity more often than not has resulted in great fits. Impact transfers over the years have included the likes of Eli Wolf and Lawrence Cager (2019), Tre McKitty (2020), Derion Kendrick and Tykee Smith (2021) and most recently, Dominic Lovett in 2023. Of course Maurice Smith and JR Reed both were solid additions for the Bulldogs at safety, but both occurred in the pre-portal era.

This year, Georgia took its biggest class out of the transfer portal with double-digit commits including a pair of walk-on specialists. And while there’s a little bit of everything in the class – both instant impact players and depth pieces for down the road – Yurosek certainly is being looked to as one the Bulldogs are counting on right away.

“I’m excited. He’s very intelligent, very conscientious. I love the way he’s kind of approached the team,” Smart said. “I see him meeting guys all the time, talking to guys all the time. He’s not just here for like one quick season and roll. He’s invested, he wants to be part of something special.”

“You saw Ben make plays on the perimeter. You saw Ben make plays downfield. What I’ve seen of him now, I’ve seen those things … He didn’t go through spring practice. He’s a little bit behind, but he’s very intelligent. He’s done a great job of continuing to get in the playbook. We’re asking him to do things that maybe he didn’t do at Stanford. I’ve seen him accept that, accept that challenge,” added offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, who will be tasked with finding the best ways to use Yurosek. “He’s not worried about getting uncomfortable. If he doesn’t do something well, he’s going to work at it. You don’t see him making the same mistake twice, which is a good thing. Any time you add depth to your program is a good thing. Here’s a guy that’s played a lot of football. He’s here trying to figure out how we do it the Georgia way now and done a nice job so far.”

Yurosek, in a total of 34 career contests, caught a combined 108 passes for 1,342 yards and five touchdowns. He also added 114 yards on 14 carries including 11 this past season.