Into The Transfer Portal: Notable Transfers And Where They Could End Up
Andrew Tineo
Posted On January 13
The infamous Transfer Portal has been the hot topic in College Football over the past 2 weeks. With this year being the first year of the Redshirt rule, I thought we would see a lot of high rated True Freshman leaving due to depth. But for the most part, it’s been highly touted back-ups or graduate transfers looking for the best place possible from a playing time perspective to finish their careers. Grad-Transfers has been a thing for quite some time, but Highly touted underclassmen leaving early is relatively new.
It all started when Justin Fields shocked the world and transferred from Georgia. It wasn’t the biggest surprise that he transferred. It was just the fact that a former 5 star and the #2 overall player In the 2018 recruiting class was basically back on the market. Some had him slated to go to a school like Auburn or Penn State. Others had him going to Oklahoma and had a good chance to win the starting job.
But instead, he shocked the College Football world and chose Ohio State as his landing spot. That choice alone, would spark some more interest around the program and was the beginning of many talented players looking for new destinations. With all of that being said, let’s take a look at the Notable players that have entered the Portal and the chances of where they land.
The entire situation at Ohio State has been very interesting these past couple of weeks. First with Justin Fields making the decision to transfer to The Ohio State. Dwayne Haskins would make the decision to declare for the pros, opening the door for both of them. Martell wouldn’t cower down from Fields though as he would go onto say that he would take Fields head on and would promise he’d have the starting job. Well fast forward to less than a week later, Martell’s name is now out there. Tate is currently in Morgantown for a visit to West Virginia. That seems to be the favorite at the moment, but there are other schools that are in the hunt for the former 5 star.
45% WVU, 30% Miami, 15% Penn State, 10% Others.
This has been the one player that has been looked at all year as a guy that would transfer at some point. He had the comeback against Georgia in the SEC Title game, that gave him some hope for some potential playing time. But it was all for not and now Hurts will be looking for a new home, his Senior year. One notable team that has been one to watch is Houston as he went to High School there. Oklahoma also seems to be a viable contender for the Highly Touted QB. Outside of those 2, no new outside information has come out, but those 2 teams are the ones to beat. One intriguing outside shot could be Florida State.
45% Houston, 30% Oklahoma, 15% Florida State 10% Others.
With Ian Book exploding onto the scene during the early portion of the year, Wimbush got pushed away to the side and now he is looking for options and there is one school he has his eyes focused on. He took a visit to UCF this past week and so far, is the only school he’s shown true interest in. Another school that would be a good fit would be a Syracuse or Northwestern. But UCF is the team to beat.
70% UCF, 30% Others.
Austin’s situation is definitely a head scratcher. With Kyler declaring for the Pro’s, there is only 2 real reasons why he decided to leave. 1. He wasn’t sure he could beat out Tanner Mordecai for the starting job. 2. OU wanted to look the transfer route and pick one up themselves. OU hasn’t had a QB that committed out of high school start a full season since 2014. With Kendall off the board, nothing specific has come out yet about him, so this is pure speculation. FAU to me, would be a prime landing spot as Lane Kiffin is an offensive Guru and they have some weapons on the outside. Other Non-Power 5’s like Boise State, USF, and Utah State could be options as well. One Power 5 school to throw in would be Syracuse. So these percentages are purely off what is in the post.
50% Others, 15% FAU, 15% Boise State, 10% Syracuse, 10% USF
Ben Hicks is one of the more underrated Non-Power 5 QB’s over the past couple of years. He’s thrown for 9,000 Yards and 71 Touchdowns in his 3 years starting at SMU. Currently, Arkansas looks like the favorite to land the Senior as he did take a visit recently. Teams that could also interest Ben would be going to Houston or go to the school he almost committed to in Texas Tech. But for now, it looks like Arkansas is the leader to land him. Also another note, Chad Morris is the guy that recruited Hicks to commit to SMU back when Morris was with the Mustangs.
Arkansas 70%, Houston 10%, Texas Tech 10%, Others 10%
Taj is very recent, so it’s hard to gauge what landing spots he’s looking for. Taj got buried on the depth chart and wasn’t the main featured back, even though he got carries. One I would look to right away is Florida State, where his former head coach, Willie Taggert is at. Griffin is from Georgia, so he is more than likely also looking for a school that will be nearby. Auburn is a heavy push during his recruitment. Florida and Ole Miss could other potentials, but for now FSU seems to be a likely landing spot.
Florida State 40%, Auburn, 25%, Florida 15%, 10% Ole Miss, 10% Others.
Juwan was set up for a breakout Junior Year after getting over 750 Yards his Sophomore Season. But was limited for the year and wants to finish his Collegiate Career in a brand new town. Some teams nearby that would seem to be favorites would be West Virginia and Boston College. A school to look out for though would be Baylor. Temple heavily recruited him and the HC is now at Baylor. Those 3 teams seem to be players for the 6-4 Senior, but since it is so early, there is no official news on where his first visits will take place and who will land the former 4 star out of New Jersey.
West Virginia 35% Baylor 30% Others 25% Boston College 10%
Image Credit: https://www.landgrantholyland.com/2018/9/12/17834740/ohio-state-football-tate-martell-my-column-apology
