By: Nicholas Berault
The transfer portal has become one of the more impactful and entertaining new features in college football over the last decade, along with the establishment of the College Football Playoff and the amateur players being allowed to profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL) while playing in college. It has brought parity between players and coaches in terms of a player’s ability to leave a school at will, just like a coach receiving a more enticing offer from another school. The portal offers players a chance to test their game at a higher level after performing well outside of the Power 5 conferences, find a better fit for their skillset if the coaching staff who recruited the player gets hired away, increase their playing time at a school with less competition at their position, or switch to a school or location that is more comfortable for them to perform well. Last year’s edition of FBS free agency saw several examples of this, like defensive end Arnold Ebiketie garnering first team All-Big Ten honors for Penn State after transferring from Temple and wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson staring at Kentucky after leaving Nebraska to be closer to his family. With an even more star-studded class changing jerseys in 2022, let’s take a look at the standouts in this year’s transfer portal.
Three schools shared the group of five-star players who will be suiting up for a different team this season. Quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Jordan Addison will join forces in Los Angeles for Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans. Williams followed Riley from Oklahoma after a stellar freshman season in which he had serious Heisman hype before some late season losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State. Addison, who won the 2021 Biletnikoff Award as the top receiver in FBS college football, departs from the University of Pittsburgh program after an outstanding sophomore season in which his quarterback was a Heisman finalist and first round draft pick. Teaming up together at USC will give both players the chance to build on impressive starts to their college careers at a program undergoing a serious makeover.
The other five-star quarterback who will be playing for a new program in 2022 is Quinn Ewers. The top overall recruit in the class of 2021, Ewers left Ohio State after fellow freshman CJ Stroud’s first team all-conference season to return to his native Texas and play for the Longhorns. He was originally supposed to be entering college in 2022 before reclassifying after his junior season in high school at Southlake Carroll. Ewers opted to enroll at Ohio State and forgo his senior season before losing out to Stroud and eventually committing to Steve Sarkisian’s program. This afforded him the opportunity to reportedly sign well over $1 million in NIL deals that allow him to earn money during his time in college. As these deals become more and more lucrative, it has started to shape the direction in which top recruits go with their college decisions. It will be fascinating to watch this develop moving forward.
The remaining five-star players in this class both committed to the University of Alabama after two years at their original schools. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs left Georgia Tech to follow in the illustrious footsteps of the great Crimson Tide ballcarriers in the Nick Saban era. Gibbs racked up just shy of 2,000 all-purpose yards in two seasons for the Yellow Jackets while scoring 13 touchdowns in their run-heavy offense. Cornerback Eli Ricks arrives in Tuscaloosa after a strong start to his college career at LSU. The Tigers fired head coach Ed Orgeron and hired Brian Kelly from Notre Dame this past offseason. Saban is always prepared to open the door for talented players such as these two, and both will factor into the Tide’s chances to repeat as SEC champions and avenge a national title game loss to Georgia.
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In terms of the overall transfer portal landscape for this season, coaching changes dominated the top of the rankings for players who changed teams. The hiring of Riley at USC and replacement of him with Brent Venables at Oklahoma caused ripples across the country. 11 of the top 29 players who transferred, according to 247 Sports, did so as part of the fallout from this change. Williams and fellow quarterback Spencer Rattler both left Oklahoma for Southern Cal and South Carolina, respectively. This paved the way for quarterback Dillon Gabriel to assume the starting role for the Sooners in 2022 after transferring from UCF. Former Sooners receivers Mario Williams and Jadon Haselwood left the program, with Williams following Riley to USC and Haselwood committing to Arkansas. USC also landed receiver Brendan Rice from Colorado to form a monster pass-catching trio with Addison arriving from Pitt. When Caleb Williams committed to USC, quarterback Jaxson Dart announced he was transferring before landing at Ole Miss along with TCU-transfer running back, Zach Evans.
After the dust had settled, the final 247 Sports transfer rankings ended with USC at the top, Ole Miss in second, LSU third, Alabama fourth, and Oklahoma rounding out the top five programs. The shockwaves that are sent across the college football landscape when coaching changes are made, especially to the degree they were in 2021-22, will continue to cause upheaval in all the major conferences. While wildly entertaining to follow, it will be worth watching how schools, conferences, and the NCAA react to this trend in the near future.