Former Baylor DB Lorando Johnson commits to Arkansas

Lorando Johnson, a cornerback who just finished his sophomore season at Baylor, is officially out of the transfer portal. That’s because, per his Twitter page today, he announced his commitment to his new program which will be Arkansas.

The tweet came with a photo of him with head coach Sam Pittman while repping his new colors.

O pic.twitter.com/p0CrFkdbzY

— PrinceSnaxx (@lorandojohnson) January 6, 2023

Johnson played for the Bears over the last two years. In total, he recorded 20 tackles, five pass deflections, a forced fumble, and half a sack.

Johnson played high school football at Lancaster in Texas, where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 361 overall recruit and a Top-35 CB in the 2020 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Arkansas lost 24 players this cycle in the portal, which is near the top of the nation. Of those players, eight of them were from the secondary. As the fifth player to commit to the Razorbacks out of the portal, this was a big one as Johnson will fill a position that’s much needed for the program at the moment.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored.

A player’s individual entry in the database includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.