ATHENS, Ga. — Khalil Barnes didn’t have much time to sit around once he decided to enter the transfer portal.

After three seasons at Clemson, the Athens-area native suddenly found himself being recruited again. Only this time, the process moved considerably faster than it did when he was coming out of high school.

“It was kind of like a sped-up high school process,” Barnes said. “No schools are calling and telling you, ‘Man, you got an offer.’ It’s just like, ‘Hey, we want you. Do you want to come here?’”

Barnes said his phone stayed busy during that first day. He had an agent helping him and his family navigate the process, but Barnes still had to figure out what he wanted from his next school and do it quickly.

There wasn’t much incentive to drag out the decision. Wherever Barnes landed, he knew he would have to learn a new defense, adjust to a different coaching staff, and get comfortable with a new group of teammates.

“The next day, same thing like high school,” Barnes said. “It was just all sped up because you don’t want to wait a minute and get there late because you are going to have to start over with everything that’s going on. So it wasn’t as hectic as people probably think, but it was a lot.”

Eventually, that process brought Barnes right back to where it all started.

Growing up a Georgia fan

Long before Barnes played college football at Clemson, he grew up watching Georgia.

His grandmother worked as a caterer at Peaches, a restaurant in Athens, and Barnes remembers being around the Bulldogs’ program during Mark Richt’s tenure. There were trips to Georgia practices and opportunities to be around the field while the team warmed up.

“I for sure grew up a Georgia fan,” Barnes said. “My grandma actually, I don’t even know if any of y’all know, but there was a restaurant called Peaches back in the day, and she was a caterer.”

Once Barnes became a college prospect himself, those allegiances had to take a back seat.

He eventually stopped openly claiming Georgia as his team around his sophomore year of high school as his recruitment began to take off.

“But, nah, growing up, that’s all I knew,” Barnes said.

Barnes ultimately signed with Clemson, where he spent three seasons before deciding to make a change.

When Georgia became his destination out of the portal, Barnes returned to his hometown with plenty of college football already under his belt.

Clemson experience carries over

Georgia didn’t bring Barnes in simply because of his ties to the area.

The Bulldogs were getting an experienced defensive back who had already played several roles in a college secondary. That background has helped Barnes settle into Georgia’s defense without needing much time to catch up.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart pointed to Barnes’ experience at Clemson as one of the reasons his transition has gone smoothly.

“High level of maturity,” Smart said. “He was well-coached where he was. Very scheme diverse. Very intelligent picking things up. He’s been a good leader and a constant for us and consistent in his performance.”

Georgia cornerback Demello Jones has seen many of the same things since Barnes arrived.

“[He brings] a lot of experience, a lot of snaps at the other school that he was at,” Jones said. “The physicality of him, he already had it. Just great instincts, great tackler.”

Barnes spent much of last season playing deep safety at Clemson, but playing closer to the line of scrimmage isn’t foreign to him.

He repped primarily at nickel during his freshman year and early in his sophomore season at Clemson. That experience has come in handy as Barnes has worked at STAR in Georgia’s defense.

There has also been enough similarity between the two defensive systems to make learning Georgia’s terminology a little easier.

“It hasn’t been that big,” Barnes said of the transition. “There’s a lot of carryover in the language that the two coaches spoke, so it’s been smooth.”

Barnes has also found similarities in the way Clemson and Georgia operate away from the X’s and O’s.

Both programs have placed an emphasis on retaining players and building relationships inside the locker room. Barnes said the connections he has found since arriving at Georgia aren’t something manufactured for public consumption.

“I think the biggest one is just the true connection that we have,” Barnes said. “Everybody on the team, it’s not just the social media videos. It’s true.

“We really do love each other, spend a lot of time with each other outside the field. I think that when you do run a program like that, it shows on the field.”

From Swinney to Smart

Barnes also has a unique perspective on the men running the two programs.

He spent three seasons playing for Clemson coach Dabo Swinney before joining Smart at Georgia. While Barnes hasn’t been around Smart nearly as long, he has already noticed some common ground between the two coaches.

For Barnes, much of it comes down to their attention to detail that players might otherwise overlook.

“Just how much they put into their team,” Barnes said. “There’s no question as to why they’re successful. You see why. They focus on a lot of the little things, stuff that probably goes over a lot of our heads. They’re really zeroing in on.”

Barnes has already learned what it is like to have Smart’s attention on the practice field, too.

It didn’t take long.

Barnes joked that he made it through his first couple of practices before Smart found something to correct. During a Saturday morning practice, Barnes said he apparently didn’t even stretch correctly enough to escape notice.

“He was on me during stretch lines,” Barnes said.

Back home in Sanford Stadium

For all the football adjustments Barnes has made since leaving Clemson, there was one part of his Georgia debut he couldn’t quite prepare for.

Walking into Sanford Stadium as a Bulldog felt different.

Georgia opened its season against Tennessee State on Sept. 5, giving Barnes his first opportunity to wear the red and black in a game at the stadium he grew up around.

During Georgia’s walkthrough before the opener, the moment caught up with him.

“The first one, we played Tennessee State. It was a little emotional,” Barnes said. “We came back and did the walk-through before because I was trying to, like, I guess I wasn’t really thinking about it, but it got me a little bit.”

A week later against Western Kentucky, some of the emotion had worn off. Barnes said the second game felt more normal as he settled into his new surroundings.

Still, there is nothing particularly normal about how Barnes ended up here.

He left the Athens area to begin his college career at Clemson, spent three seasons with the Tigers, and entered a whirlwind transfer process without knowing exactly where it would lead.

It led him home.

“The story is just kind of crazy how you can come back full circle, be like, literally where my whole family is from,” Barnes said.