Report: Florida quarterback Emory Jones plans to enter the transfer portal

The Gasparilla Bowl was Emory Jones’ last game in a Florida uniform. Jones told the Gators he plans to enter the transfer portal Friday, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

GatorsOnline reported Dec. 15 Jones intended to enter the portal after the bowl game.

Jones finished the regular season 10th in the SEC with 213.6 passing yards and 58 rushing yards per game this season. He was a big part of the Gators offense, accounting for 57.8% of the Gators’ total offense this year. He’ll have two years of eligibility left.

Florida parted ways with coach Dan Mullen prior to its regular-season finale against Florida State, and the Gators hired Louisiana coach Billy Napier in December to replace him.

Jones was a four-star recruit out of high school from the Class of 2018 and was the No. 11 quarterback from that class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Jones held offers from Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State, among others, out of high school.

His biggest game this year came against Samford when he threw for 464 yards and six touchdowns, ran for 86 yards and a touchdown and led Florida to a 70-52 comeback victory over FCS Samford on Nov. 13.

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.