Ryland Goede had no interest in leaving Georgia before completing his degree.

He grew up a Georgia fan and had spent four years with the program, and despite the injuries and having multiple future NFL tight ends eating up his potential playing time, he wanted to finish what he started.

“There was no chance I was leaving before I saw it through,” Goede told The Transfer Portal CFB writer Brian Olson shortly after his commitment. “My parents raised me as ‘you start something, you finish it.’ So at no point was I at all interested in leaving before I graduated. I also didn’t want to leave before the national championship. I was set on finishing the season.”

Goede, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound tight end hailing from Kennesaw, Ga., entered the transfer portal on Jan. 12 — three days after the Bulldogs thrashed TCU 65-7 to clinch a second straight national title. The former four-star prospect from the 2019 class had a different factor playing into his decision than most transfers did — his fiancée.

Alexa Fortin, a setter on the Georgia volleyball team, had also entered the transfer portal upon graduation. According to Goede, Mississippi State was the first school to reach out to her, and while the couple wanted to explore the possibility of transferring to the same school, Mississippi State didn’t seem like the place to be.

“At the time, Coach Mike Leach was still the head coach, and I was like ‘Sorry baby, they just don’t use tight ends. They use the Air Raid offense,'” Goede said of his conversations with his soon-to-be bride. “Condolences to everyone that had a relationship with him. When this new staff came in, they were the one of the first schools to reach out to me.”

Within hours of returning home from the visit, Goede made his decision Monday to spend his final two years of eligibility as a Bulldog six hours west of Athens. Fortin announced her decision to transfer with him to MSU in a rare (future) husband-and-wife package deal through the transfer portal.

“One of my mindsets that my fiancée and I were praying through was just that God would make the decision very clear for us,” he said. “It just felt right immediately. The people of Starkville are so unbelievably kind and nice, and everybody was just so genuine. The coaching staff was really cool.”

On his visit, he had the opportunity to meet the new staff, including offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay, tight ends coach Mike Schmidt, and offensive line coach Will Friend. They made a very simple pitch to him after he learned about their vision through watching film for a couple hours.

“Their biggest pitch to me was, ‘listen, we need a tight end and you want to play somewhere. This is perfect.’ I spent the last four years under four different guys that will be in the league on active rosters [next year], and Brock Bowers is pretty dang good too. To learn behind those guys was just a blessing, and I feel like especially the last year and a half, I’ve developed to where I can play at this level.”

Goede appeared in 23 games over his four-year career at UGA and now has a chance to prove that he can play at a high level.

“I’m really excited to get there. The guys on the team are special,” he said.

You can watch the full interview below!