College football transfer portal winners and losers: Ohio State bulks up

The college football winter transfer portal window is closed, and it’s time to find out which teams used it best to build up and which others have more work to do ahead.

In the last week, there was not just a lot of jockeying for players but an expected shockwave sent through the sport when Nick Saban announced his retirement as head coach at Alabama after leading the Tide to an SEC title and a bid to the College Football Playoff.

Here’s how things shook out.

WINNERS

Miami

With Cam Ward’s decision to play one more year of college football before entering the NFL Draft in 2025, Mario Cristobal and his Hurricanes succeeded in landing the best available quarterback in the transfer portal. 

Ward was one of the best quarterbacks in the country last year, and he gives Miami the nation’s second-best returning passer (3,736) in yards for 2023 behind only UGA quarterback Carson Beck (3,738), who played one more game than Ward did. 

Along with receiver Xavier Restrepo, who caught 85 passes for 1,092 yards, the Hurricanes have the makings of one of the premier pass-catching combinations in the sport for 2024. 

Ohio State 

Not only did Buckeyes coach Ryan Day bounce back from losing his 2023 starter at quarterback, Kyle McCord, but he managed to land a grad transfer in Will Howard who has won something the Buckeyes haven’t since 2019 — a conference title. 

Howard, who is 6-foot-5 and 242 pounds, came off the bench last year to lead Kansas State past an undefeated TCU for the Big 12 title in 2022. In 2023, he quarterbacked the Wildcats to an 8-4 finish in the regular season. And he’ll have help.

Dynamic skill players Emeka Egbuka and TreVeyon Henderson chose to return rather than enter the draft or transfer. One of the most talented rushers in the SEC for the past two years, Quinshon Judkins, fills out a talented backfield.

Defensively, coordinator Jim Knowles will have the services of his two best cornerbacks in Denzel Burke and Jordan Hancock for one more season as the Buckeyes try to build a team that can beat the reigning national champion Michigan Wolverines for the first time in five years and, perhaps, claim a Big Ten title.

Ole Miss

Rebels coach Lane Kiffin pulled the only 247 Sports Composite five-star portal entry in defensive tackle Walter Nolen, and that would’ve been enough to warrant a win. But he kept going, and, in so doing, stacked a portal class that is the envy of those who seek to build through it.

Along with Nolen, former LSU running back Logan Diggs, former All-SEC wide out Juice Wells and former Florida edge rusher Princely Umanmilen lead the most talented portal class of the December-January cycle, joining as the Rebels are coming off their first 11-win season in school history.

Kiffin’s roster looks like one capable of reaching the SEC title game for the first time in Rebel history.

Oregon

Coach Dan Lanning lost one of the sport’s most prolific and efficient quarterbacks in Bo Nix and one of the Pac-12’s best wide outs in Troy Franklin, but countered through the portal by nabbing two quarterbacks who started games last year at the Power 5 level in former UCLA quarterback Dante Moore and Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

Gabriel led OU to a victory against Big 12 champion and CFP semifinalist Texas en route to a 10-win season before opting for the portal.

Joining Duck WR Tez Johnson — who caught 86 passes for 1,182 yards and 10 TDs — is former Texas A&M wideout Evan Stewart. Rated as the No. 1 player at his position in the 2022 recruiting cycle, Stewart will provide an able target down the sideline. 

The Ducks look like the team most capable of winning the Big Ten title in their first year among the four new members.

Florida State 

FSU coach Mike Norvell recruited out of the portal like he expects to contend for the CFP spot that was denied his perfect 2023 regular season Seminoles. And his team already looks a lot like the one the CFP selection committee dropped into the No. 4 spot ahead of FSU.

Joining former five-star and Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei are four former Alabama players including Roydell Williams, Earl Little, Malik Benson, Terrence Ferguson and Shawn Murphy.

Add former UGA edge rusher Marvin Jones, and the Noles are already building a foundation capable of defending their ACC crown.

Texas 

Coach Steve Sarkisian’s ability to keep Quinn Ewers for one more year is a win for the Longhorns. Losing five linchpin skill players in tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders and wideouts Jordan Whittington, Adonai Mitchell and Xavier Worthy felt like it might be tough to overcome, though. 

Then he added former Alabama wideout Isaiah Bond and Oregon State wideout Silas Bolden, and the Longhorns look like they will have offensive firepower enough to make noise in their first year in the SEC. With Jonathon Brooks headed to the NFL, keeping CJ Baxter and Johntay Cook fortifies what should be an explosive offense on the Forty Acres.

LOSERS

Alabama

With Saban’s retirement, a whopping 25 former Alabama players entered the transfer portal, including their top 2023 recruit on offense in tackle Kadyn Proctor and safety Caleb Downs.

Downs, the best defensive back in the country for me, is already being courted by programs across the country while Tide coach Kalen DeBoer and his staff do everything possible to keep him in Tuscaloosa.

But that’s just one player. The churning for the Tide will continue for nearly four weeks, and this with the transfer portal window being closed to all but three schools who have seen it remain open due to a head-coaching change.

The 2024 Alabama roster won’t look like the 2023 roster, and whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen.

Washington

The second domino to fall after Saban announced his retirement was for the national title runner-up Huskies as DeBoer chose to become head coach Alabama. And with him, 10 players rated three-stars or better by the 247 Sports Composite entered the portal.

The entire offense — all of it — that helped UW win the Pac-12 title has either entered the portal or opted for the NFL Draft.

New Huskies coach Jedd Fisch can’t do much about that either, with the same 30-day grace period being given to Huskies players as Bama ones. Fisch and his staff will have to go, well, fishing in the portal when it opens in the spring as he tries to build a competitive team for UW’s first Big Ten season.

Arizona suffered a similar fate due to the exact same circumstances: the head coach leaving the program. While Brent Brennan will do everything possible to keep freshman All-American Noah Fifita a Wildcat, he’ll be a quarterback in high demand after leading Arizona to a 10-win season and an Alamo victory against Oklahoma.

Colorado

While Deion Sanders succeeded in adding yet another outstanding wide out in Lajohntay Wester, who caught 108 passes for 1,168 at Florida Atlantic last season, he’s still looking for offensive linemen capable of protecting star quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

He added five in this transfer portal class of 22: Houston’s IOL Tyler Johnson, UTEP’s IOL Justin Mayers, UConn’s Yakiri Walker, Indiana’s Kahlil Benson and FIU’s Phillip Houston. But we’ll have to wait until Aug. 31 to find out if these five feature on an offensive line that has to stand up against a Big 12 schedule and starts the season against FCS power North Dakota State on Aug. 31.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.

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