Former North Texas TE Var'Keyes Gumms commits to Arkansas

Former North Texas TE Var’Keyes Gumms has committed to Arkansas out of the NCAA Transfer Portal, he announced via social media. Gumms also had offers from the likes of Oregon, Colorado, Arkansas, California, Utah and West Virginia.

The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder had a solid redshirt freshman season for the Mean Green. Gumms finished the season with 34 catches for 458 yards and 5 touchdowns.

On3’s Matt Zenitz recently spoke to an anonymous Power Five personnel director, who described what makes Gumms stand out from the rest of the non-power conference tight ends.

“I think you’ve seen that kind of tight end really excel in today’s football world,” a Power 5 personnel director said. “I think he’s a versatile athlete. He’s good with the ball in his hands. He’s not the most natural pass catcher, but he does the job, gets the ball in his hands and I think he’s really good after the catch. He’s athletic. He’s thick to where he’s not getting bumped off his routes, especially for a younger dude. You don’t see that a ton with guys in their first couple years of college. 

“I think he’s got a while to go in the run game (as a blocker), but I do like that he’s a really good athlete who you can flex out in multiple positions and really you can scheme him to get open. I think a guy like that you can disguise it in certain ways with how you align him and give him the ball in some really good situations and favorable matchups.”

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. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry 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.

Track transfer portal activity

While the NCAA transfer portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement.

If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Consensus recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and senior national college football reporter Matt Zenitz’s Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.