One of Pitt’s seniors has decided to play his final year of eligibility elsewhere.

Linebacker Brandon George announced Monday afternoon that he will be entering the transfer portal. A member of the recruiting class of 2019, George played in each of his first three seasons but took a redshirt in 2022 due to injury, allowing him to return as a redshirt senior in 2023.

He will go into the portal with one year of eligibility remaining due to the Covid year, and he’ll play in 2024 as a super senior.

“I’d like to start by saying thank you,” George said in a social media post. “Thank you to everyone at Pitt for giving me the opportunity to play the sport I love and earn a degree from a great university. I want to thank the coaching staff for believing in me, the training staff for patching me up, the equipment staff for always having us prepared, and the strength staff for everything they’ve done for me.

“I will ALWAYS be a Pitt Panther.”

In five seasons at Pitt, George recoded 117 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, two sacks and one interception.

2023 was his most active and productive season. He played in all 12 games and logged a career-high 296 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. George made 49 tackles and 4.5 tackles for loss - both career bets - as well as one sack and his lone career interception.

George mostly played middle linebacker during his career, and that position will be vacant at Pitt heading into 2024. Shayne Simon was the starter there in all 12 games this past season, but he is out of eligibility, leaving open the middle linebacker spot moving forward.

Pitt does have two veterans (Bangally Kamara and Solomon DeShields) as well as a solid group of young players (redshirt freshman Kyle Louis and freshmen Jordan Bass, Rasheem Biles and Braylan Lovelace) all with eligibility to return for 2024, although none of those players lined up at middle linebacker in the past.

George is the first scholarship player to announce his intentions to enter the transfer portal this offseason.