Three days after announcing his plans to leave Georgia Tech as a transfer, former Yellow Jackets defensive end Jared Ivey was to enroll at Ole Miss Monday, according to multiple reports. Ivey became the 11th Tech player to put his name in the transfer portal since the beginning of August and the eighth since the end of the season (not counting running back Jamious Griffin, who withdrew his name and remains at Tech). Ivey, from North Gwinnett High, announced his plans to go into the portal on Friday.
Among the 11 transfers, Ivey was behind only All-American running back Jahmyr Gibbs in his on-field contributions to the team this past season as a highly utilized lineman for coach Geoff Collins.
After playing in nine of 10 games as a freshman in 2020, including starts in the final two games of the season, Ivey became a key piece of the defense in his second season. Ivey started 11 games at defensive end and was second on the defensive line in tackles with 32. His six tackles for loss were third on the team and first among linemen, just ahead of end Jordan Domineck with 5.5. Ivey’s 475 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, were most among Jackets defensive ends.
After he went in the portal, he quickly announced scholarship offers from Mississippi, Oregon and Miami. Tech plays Mississippi at Bobby Dodd Stadium Sept. 17 in the third game of the regular season.
Ivey and Domineck figured to be bookends at defensive end, a position group that has also lost assistant coach Marco Coleman, who has accepted an assistant coaching position at Michigan State. There were several ends who earned regular playing time in the 2021 season, including Kyle Kennard, Sylvain Yondjouen, Kevin Harris and Josh Robinson, but none as effective as Ivey. Keion White missed most of the season recovering from injury but could be impactful.
Tech’s influx of high-school signees and transfers includes two promising defensive tackles in K.J. Miles and Horace Lockett, but no edge rushers. Collins could look to the transfer portal for additional help.
Ivey was one of the main cogs in Collins’ ballyhooed 2020 signing class headlined by Gibbs and quarterback Jeff Sims. Ivey was one of four four-star prospects in the class, along with Gibbs, Sims and cornerback Miles Brooks. At 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, he fit the size and length profile that Collins has sought in building his defense.
