CHARLOTTE — RJ Godfrey is lending credence to the old adage that it’s never too late to come home.

After spending his first two seasons at Clemson, Godfrey abruptly entered the transfer portal after his sophomore campaign, just after he’d played a huge role in the Tigers’ run to the Elite Eight.

Godfrey was coming off the bench, basically serving in the role of that sixth man, and it was looking like he might be in the same position during his junior season had he stayed. He was in search of a starting role, and ultimately found one at Georgia, his father, Randall Godfrey’s, alma mater.

While Godfrey went on to start every game last season with the Bulldogs, and not that he regrets the decision, he quickly realized that his heart was still in Clemson and that maybe he had left for the wrong reasons.

“I think Kirby Smart calls it rat poison, just listening to outside stuff from other people. That stuff gets to you,” Godfrey said during the ACC Tipoff on Wednesday. “It’s gotten to a lot of people in the portal, a lot of people that I know, too.”

“Now that I’m older and experienced and went through it, I know what matters.”

Clemson head coach Brad Brownell admits that finding out Godfrey wanted to leave after the deep tournament run was difficult. At the same time, the head coach also knows those kinds of things are just part of today’s game, where the portal and NIL loom large.

“When RJ left, it was a very emotional time for he and I,” Brownell said. “Have always thought the world of him. It hurt me that he left, and I knew it was a really hard decision for him to leave.”

It also didn’t take long, once the season concluded, for Brownell to learn his former player might want to come back. Despite playing for Georgia, Godfrey was still spending a lot of time in Clemson.

When the time came, Brownell and his staff leaped at the opportunity to bring Godfrey back home.

“He had spent a lot of time in Clemson, or at least some time in Clemson after games,” Brownell said. “He was close to a lot of guys on our team, especially Dillon. I just knew that he loved his Clemson experience. He wasn’t leaving because of anything that happened at Clemson. It was more other things that maybe people had gotten into his head.”

Photo courtesy of Nell Redmond/ACC Photo