Transfer portal roundtable: Best QB fits, exoduses at OU, Ohio

It was an extremely busy very first day of the college football transfer period. More than 1,000 players have actually gone into the transfer portal.Some high-profile teams saw substantial departures. The Oklahoma Sooners and Ohio State Buckeyes saw their starting quarterbacks elect to leave. 4 Power 5 teams(Purdue, Vanderbilt, NC State and Cincinnati )saw double-digit players choose to transfer.And that’s only considering that the portal opened at midnight on Monday.What was the most unexpected move? Where could the quarterbacks best fit? Our college football experts weigh in: Jump to: Conference takeaways What move on Monday surprised you the most?Tom VanHaaren: Quarterback Dillon Gabriel going into the website was an interesting move. He followed offending planner Jeff Lebby from UCF to Oklahoma, and Lebby simply got the head training job at Mississippi State, however I thought there would be a chance that Gabriel would complete things out at Oklahoma. He is an extremely productive quarterback who will likely have several alternatives that may include following Lebby once again to Mississippi State, or possibly Florida State. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, however with restricted eligibility remaining, it would have made good sense to stay put.Editor’s Picks 1 Related David Hale: No, there are not a surprises

in the portal period, and it’s difficult to fault anybody for evaluating their market value. However if the 2022 transfer class set the bar for success in a brand-new home with Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr., Caleb Williams and others, the 2023 cycle didn’t actually have too many winners. DJ Uiagalelei had the highest Total QBR of any player who moved after last season, and he’s now in the portal again.Many of the greatest names the last time around– Devin Leary, Jeff Sims, Phil Jurkovec

, Sam Hartman, Brennan Armstrong, Payton Thorne, Tanner Mordecai– ended up the year as something between average and straight-out bust. So, while I’m not stunned by anyone delving into the website, I’m a bit surprised there weren’t more huge names who saw the outcomes of 2023 and chose the grass isn’t always greener.What is a QB fit that might make sense?VanHaaren: Cameron Ward could be a terrific fit at Florida State.

With Jordan Travis moving on, the Seminoles are going to need a new quarterback. Ward was 5th in passing backyards this season amongst all FBS quarterbacks with 3,735 yards, No. 18 in passing goals with 25, and he also had eight hurrying touchdowns for Washington State. He’s currently had a ton of success and would assist keep Florida State on the track it’s on today at the championship level. FSU backups Tate Rodemaker and Brock Glenn played in the final 2 games of the season due to Travis’leg injury. Ideally, coach Mike Norvell want to continue developing quarterbacks within the system, however if Ward is interested, this could be a fantastic match. Brock Vandagriff was when committed to play for Lincoln Riley at OU. Would he go to play for him at USC? Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire Paolo Uggetti: As USC searches for a possible replacement for Caleb Williams, it’s noteworthy that a previous Lincoln Riley devote just entered the portal. Georgia’s Brock Vandagriff was as soon as devoted to play for Riley at Oklahoma. Plenty has altered since then, however perhaps a reunion of sorts might be in the cards for Riley and Vandagriff. In 3 years at Georgia, Vandagriff tossed just 21 passes for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns, however as a previous four-star hire with a lot of potential, Riley and USC could be the ideal match to renew his college career.Who’s an under-the-radar transfer that could make a huge impact?VanHaaren: We have actually seen many Ivy League transfers this offseason, and one name that has actually stood out is Harvard defensive

take on Thor Griffith. He’s a 6-foot-2, 320-pound lineman who had 55 overall takes on, 11 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks this season. He’s a senior, has a lots of production and experience and has actually currently started to pick up offers from Michigan State, Oregon State, Cal, Minnesota, UCLA and a handful of others. Disruptive interior defensive lineman are valuable, and Griffith has a lot in his favor entering into his transfer process.Chris Low: Tight end Justin Joly led UConn with 56 catches and 578 receiving backyards and was among the intense areas for the Huskies in a 3-9 season. The 6-3, 232-pound junior still has two years of eligibility remaining and posted on social media Monday early morning that he ‘d been used by Tennessee soon after officially entering the portal. The Vols had a close-up view of Joly this season. He caught 8 passes for 89 yards in UConn’s 59-3 loss to Tennessee in November. David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Dave Wilson: If we’re simply going off examination performance history, Indiana’s Brendan Sorsby might be worth enjoying. Why? Due to the fact that 2 years ago atthis time, 2 of Tom Allen’s quarterback potential customers, Michael Penix Jr. and Josh Hoover, both ventured somewhere else– Penix to become a superstar at Washington, where he’s led the Huskies to a No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff and Hoover, who turned from his Indiana commitment to TCU and was thrust into starting duty this year as a redshirt freshman and had five 300-yard games after Chandler Morris was injured.A couple of years earlier, another former Allen starter, Peyton Ramsey, who lost his beginning task to Penix, went to Northwestern where he was the 2021 Citrus Bowl MVP and a third-team all-Big 10 selection.Conference takeaways ACC The ACC’s QB pecking order is going to look a lot various in 2024. Not only is the league losing Jordan Travis and, almost certainly, Drake Maye– the leading 2 QBs in 2023– however with the departure of Riley Leonard and Tyler Van Dyke, the biggest name returning for next year might be Georgia Tech’s Haynes King. UNC already made its move to change Maye, adding former Texas A&M and LSU starter Max Johnson.Florida State and Louisville would be welcoming landing areas for a QB, though both programs likewise have younger players they want to see develop. NC State, too, revealed flashes of its offending capacity in the latter phases of the season, and after the departure of MJ Morris, the Wolfpack will remain in the marketplace, too. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Boston College and Clemson figure to be the only schools who aren’t searching for a new starter, and they might even be in the marketplace for another veteran to offer insurance coverage for their more youthful QBs.– Hale Huge 12 Oklahoma, which was the model of stability for two decades, simply lost its third beginning quarterback in three years to the transfer website. Provided, 2 of them divided when Lincoln Riley did– Spencer Rattler, who had actually been benched in favor of Caleb Williams, to South Carolina, and Williams with Riley to USC.

Gabriel supplied an instant jump-start for Lebby’s offense, but with Lebby gone, it looks significantly like it’s the start of the Jackson Arnold age in

Norman, under brand-new co-OCs Seth Littrell and Joe Jon Finley.But the league as an entire saw a QB shakeup. Will Howard, who led Kansas State to conference championship in 2015, is going out as Avery Johnson appears to be the future starter, Texas Tech’s Tyler Shough, who began 13 games in Lubbock after moving from Oregon, is on the move, and league newcomer Utah lost both of its backup QBs, Nate Johnson and Bryson Barnes, with Webcam Rising returning next year.– Wilson play 1:30 Herbstreit and McAfee amazed by Kyle McCord going into transfer portal Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee discuss their confusion about Kyle McCord going into the transfer portal and leaving Ohio State.Big 10 Ohio State was the Big Ten group with the most motion on Monday, as quarterback Kyle McCord, receiver Julian Fleming, running back Evan Pryor, linebacker

Reid

Carrico and protective backs Ryan Turner, Kye Stokes and Cameron Martinez all went into the transfer portal.McCord made the most significant waves of the day, considering he was the beginning quarterback and went 11-1 this season. The quarterback play wasn’t as much as what Ohio

State anticipates, however, and it now seems likely that the coaches will want to the transfer website for help for next season. Ward is one name that the Buckeyes might go after with Ward moving from Washington State. In spite of an effective season, Ohio State lost for a 3rd time to Michigan, and the staff is now retooling to attempt to construct the very best roster it can for the 2024 season.– VanHaaren Pac-12 Quarterbacks, quarterbacks and more quarterbacks. The conference of quarterbacks this previous season may be going away, but its previous teams will be back on the quarterback carousel now that portal season has actually officially arrived. Oregon State’s Aidan Chiles, Washington State’s Cam Ward and Utah’s Bryson Barnes joined their Pac-12 counterparts Dante Moore and

DJ Uiagalelei, who currently announced they would be entering the portal, as quarterbacks leaving their respective teams.Meanwhile, USC head coach Lincoln Riley stated Monday the Trojans will be looking into the website to add a minimum of one quarterback in the wake of Caleb Williams ‘anticipated NFL departure and every previously mentioned group, however Utah(Webcam Rising revealed he will return next year), will also likely be aiming to add a quarterback in the coming weeks. With several high profile quarterbacks like Dillon Gabriel, Kyle McCord and Will Howard likewise in the website, look for several of the soon-to-be-former Pac-12 teams to be in the mix.– Uggetti SEC More motion is sure to happen in the SEC, as some big-name players are biding their time before searching for brand-new homes and bigger deals. It wasn’t a surprise to South Carolina that receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells officially entered his name in the website on Monday after waffling over the last few weeks. The preseason All-SEC selection informed the training staff recently he was likely heading that way after

an injury-plagued season that saw him play in three games and capture three passes. Naturally, he revealed the week before the Clemson game that while he wasn’t going to play in that game, he would be back with the Gamecocks for the 2024 season. However in the new world of NIL/portal, he altered his mind again and is on the move.He’s not the only SEC receiver that will draw some attention in the portal. Vanderbilt’s Will Sheppard, after 4 strong seasons with the Commodores, is headed somewhere else. He leaves as the school’s seventh-leading receiver all-time with 2,067 profession getting yards. He captured 17 touchdown captures over the last 2 seasons. It wasn’t a good day(or season)for Clark Lea and the Commodores, as 13 players are in the portal, including one of their most promising young players. Freshman receiver London Humphreys is leaving after capturing four touchdowns and ranking 2nd to Sheppard as Vanderbilt’s leading receiver. The Commodores, who finished 2-10, will be starting over in their passing game.

All 3 of their quarterbacks who took a snap in 2023 will not be back.– Low