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It appears that Georgia will be without transfer running back Dante Dowdell for an extended period time. Sources tell DawgsHQ that Dowdell was in an ATV incident late this spring in his home state of Alabama.
Kirby Smart spoke with reporters in Tampa at SEC Media Days on Tuesday where he stated that he isn’t sure when the senior tailback will return.
“I don’t know when he’ll be back, Smart said. “He had an off-campus accident back home during our break, and we’re praying for him and his family. We expect a full recovery, but the outlook right now is we’re waiting to see. We’ll go day to day with him and see. So I hate that for him and his family, but he’s a great kid. It’s been tough. A lot of our players have been over there to see him. It’s just one of those really tough situations.”
Smart stopped short of confirming that Dowdell was on an ATV at the time of his incident, stating that he’s not sure how to define the apparatus and that he’s not sure if it had four wheels or two. In fact, the Georgia head coach didn’t want to go into too much detail out of respect for the family.
“[It was] serious enough that he’s gone from two hospitals,” Smart said. “He’s in our state now, so hoping for a full recovery and trying to respect his family and their feelings and everything.”
Dowdell joined the Georgia football program out of the transfer portal in January. He was an objective bright spot in the G-Day spring scrimmage with seven touches for 69 yards and a touchdown while playing for both the Red and Black teams. Prior to that, he spent a year at Kentucky, a year at Nebraska, and a year at Oregon.
“You can’t really beat them, if you want to go to the NFL, that’s the place to be,” Dowdell told DawgsHQ when he committed to the Bulldogs.
At Kentucky, he carried the football 112 times for 560 yards and three touchdowns, averaging five yards per tote. He was lethal for the Wildcats in the fourth quarter this season, rushing 18 times for 219 yards.
He spent the 2025 season at Nebraska, where he showed a tremendous nose for the end zone. He racked up 614 yards and 12 touchdowns on 143 carries. The 6-foot-2, 227-pound Dowdell spent the 2023 season at Oregon after signing with the Ducks out of high school.
As a prospect, Dowdell was highly regarded by the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a weighted average of the four websites that published recruiting rankings at the time. He was rated as a four-star prospect and ranked as the No. 139 overall player in the country. When the cycle finished, Dowdell was ranked as the No. 8 running back in America and the No. 4 player in Mississippi.
Dowdell was expected to be part of a three-headed monster at Georgia in 2026. The Bulldogs return each of their top two leading rushers in Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens. Frazier led the way with 173 carries for 947 yards and six touchdowns. He also had 16 catches for 116 yards and a score. Bowens at 103 totes for 526 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.
The Bulldogs also have second-year tailback Bo Walker, third-year speedster Dwight Phillips, and true freshman Jae Lamar at the position.
