RJ Godfrey left Clemson basketball for an SEC school. Here’s why he came back
After one practice, RJ Godfrey knew he’d made a mistake.
His departure from the Clemson basketball team had already been hard: Godfrey and Tigers coach Brad Brownell both readily admit they teared up during the April 2024 exit meeting when Godfrey told Brownell he was transferring.
Now Godfrey was at his new school, Georgia, and something was … off.
After UGA’s first official practice last fall, he called up an old Clemson teammate.
“I was like, ‘Man, what did I just do?’” Godfrey said Wednesday.
There wasn’t anything wrong with Georgia per se. Godfrey appreciated the chance to compete for a new team in a new conference, the SEC. He liked his coaches and his teammates. He learned a lot about himself and had a fine junior season.
But UGA wasn’t Clemson. And Clemson, Godfrey said, was home.
So when he transferred a second time, he didn’t make the same mistake
“There’s just something in these hills that makes you want to fall in love,” said Godfrey, who transferred back to Clemson for his senior year. “I’m just so grateful I had the opportunity to come back and play for the orange and purple again.”
A transfer decision driven by ‘rat poison’
Representing Clemson at the ACC Tipoff preseason basketball media event in Charlotte, Godfrey and Brownell both spoke openly and candidly about the forward’s roundabout journey — Clemson, Georgia, back to Clemson — and what it says about modern college basketball.
Godfrey’s departure from Clemson was a shocker, considering he’d just played a key role on the Tigers’ 2024 team that reached the Elite Eight for the first time in 44 years and only the second time in program history. He wasn’t a starter, but he was a key — and popular — rotation player.
Brownell and Godfrey’s exit meeting that spring was so awkward, so emotionally taxing that Godfrey still cringes at the mere thought of it. Brownell has described Godfrey’s decision to transfer as a “business decision” related to his potential name, image and likeness (NIL) earnings and playing time.
“He wasn’t leaving because of anything that happened to Clemson,” Brownell said Wednesday. “It was more other things that maybe people had gotten into his head.”
Godfrey didn’t disagree with that framing.
“That was definitely the stuff that was pulling me,” he said, adding that whispers of more money and more playing time at other schools in an unlimited transfer world “can mess you up. I think Kirby Smart calls it rat poison: Just listening to the outside stuff from other people. That stuff gets to you. It’s got a lot of people in the portal.”
Georgia made sense on paper for Godfrey (6-8, 230), who grew up outside Atlanta and is a UGA legacy. His father, Randall Godfrey, was an all-conference linebacker at Georgia in the 1990s before playing 11 years in the NFL.
He played more minutes, took more shots. But Godfrey found himself watching Clemson games – an early season overtime loss at rival South Carolina came to mind – and thinking to himself: “Man, I could be out there helping those guys.”
The feeling was mutual, according to Clemson senior guard Dillon Hunter.
“Honestly, it’s like he filled a void,” Hunter said. “Last year, we would always say, ‘Dang, man, what if RJ was here?’”
The road back to Clemson ran through Athens
Godfrey averaged 6.4 points and 3.8 rebounds while starting all 33 games for a Georgia team that won 20 games and made its first NCAA Tournament since 2015. Clemson won a program-best 27 games before a disappointing first-round NCAA loss as a No. 5 seed. When the portal opened, they found each other again.
Not that it was a surprise.
Godfrey had been talking with old teammates about coming back to Clemson for weeks. Once he officially entered the portal on April 1, his first call was from Clemson basketball director of recruiting Lucas McKay. His second call was from Brownell. He re-committed on April 4. No official visit needed.
“The second time, he didn’t really have to recruit me,” Godfrey said of Brownell.
Godfrey said he appreciated Brownell — and the Clemson basketball program at large — for welcoming him back into the fold. Brownell said it was never a question to him.
That’s partially because he knows Godfrey’s love for the team and the university, and partially because Godrey remains an ideal fit for this year’s Clemson basketball team: He’s a strong, bouncy forward who’s played on big stages and can also serve as a de facto veteran leader on a 2025 roster that features a whopping nine additional newcomers (five transfers, four freshmen), the most ever under Brownell.
“The vibe is just different when he’s around,” Brownell said.
Added Godfrey: “Clemson treated me right and well. To leave like that, it just broke me. … But things happen for a reason. I’m glad I’m back.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 2:42 PM.
