McCollum highlights a trio of new GT portal entrants

Georgia Tech's leading receiver for the 2022 season, Nate McCollum was one of three Yellow Jackets to enter the transfer portal on Friday afternoon. Joining McCollum were backup offensive guard Paula Vaipulu and backup safety Derrik Allen.

With those departures, the Jackets have 21 available scholarships for the 2023 signing class both via high school targets and transfer portal targets. The Jackets' have 14 commits for the 2023 class as of Friday.

McCollum headlines the group coming off a 60-catch season taking over for Kyric McGowan who graduated after the 2021 season. Despite his impressive numbers, McCollum only received All-ACC Honorable Mention after the season. The Jackets are expected to continue to recruit McCollum to remain with the program. He played in 29 games over three seasons with 10 starts including nine this season at the slot receiver position.

Vaipulu started 10 games over the last two seasons at left guard almost exclusively taking one snap at left tackle this season. He logged 601 snaps over the last two seasons but struggled with his blocking logging the lowest PFF numbers of any regular rotation lineman the last two seasons. Vaipulu played in 11 games this season with four starts at left guard due to injuries to Pierce Quick, Paul Tchio and Joe Fusile and he played in 20 games over the last two seasons after redshirting in 2020.

Allen started the first two games of the season at strong safety, but the emergence of LaMiles Brooks into an All-ACC safety at that same spot pushed him into a backup role most of the season. From week four on he only played 79 snaps on defense over six games after averaging 38+ snaps in the first three games of the season. The former Notre Dame transfer will be looking for his third school, but he leaves Tech with a degree and his departure was not a surprise. During his Tech career, Allen played in 31 games over three seasons with three starts.