Auburn wide receiver Tar'Varish Dawson announces intention to enter transfer portal

Auburn wide receiver Tar’Varish Dawson, Jr. announced his intention to enter the transfer portal on Wednesday afternoon, according to an announcement he made on his Twitter page. Check out the announcement below.

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— Tarvarish Dawson (@TarvarishD) October 26, 2022

This season for Auburn, Dawson played in four games, hauling in two catches for 30 receiving yards.

His statement he posted to social media reads:

“First I wanna say thank you god for even letting me do something nobody in my family did. I wanna thank Coach Ike for believing in me and always fighting for me, he knows everything I been going through and I love him for being there and for me. I appreciate Harsin and Auburn for giving me an opportunity to play in Jordan Hare Stadium. I wanna thank my teammates for being there for me, always kept a smile on my face when I’m with them. I had fun playing with you guys. I had fun in the locker rooms, and we always made sure we check on each other outside of football and that’s what I loved the most.”

“That’s a real family I just wish things could’ve been a little different on the football field. It hurts to leave but I really do thank you guys, I mean that from the bottom of my heart. So, with that being said, I will be entering the transfer portal with three years of my eligibility,” Dawson wrote.

In the 2021 recruiting cycle, Dawson was rated as the No. 31 defensive back in the nation and a four-star prospect, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings. Dawson suited up for the Lehigh Lightning (Lehigh Acres, Florida) and hauled in 28 catches for 690 receiving yards as a senior. He also flashed his excellent ball skills with seven interceptions his senior season, including a pick-six.

Dawson becomes the second Auburn pass catcher to announce his intention to hit the portal in two days, joining tight end Landen King. With the rumors of uncertainty surrounding the job security of their head coach Bryan Harsin, it wouldn’t be surprising to see plenty of other Auburn players enter the transfer portal in the next few weeks. It should be noted that whenever the Tigers decide to make a coaching change, that any Auburn players that have entered their names in the portal can withdraw from it and choose to remain with the new coaching staff, whomever that ends up being.

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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.

On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this article.