Georgia Tech losing key running back to transfer portal

Jamious Griffin, a former four-star running back for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, has officially re-entered the transfer portal on Wednesday afternoon, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned. He was rated as a four-star prospect in the 2019 recruiting class, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings.

Griffin was expected to compete for a significant role this season for the Yellow Jackets, following the transfer of electrifying running back, Jahmyr Gibbs, to the Alabama Crimson Tide. He was also expected to compete for more playing time since Jordan Mason decided to enter the 2022 NFL Draft. Griffin has changed his mind a number of times during the past few months on whether or not he was going to enter the transfer portal. In December, he announced he was transferring and entered the portal, picking up offers from California, Coastal Carolina, and Western Kentucky.

But then less than two weeks later, Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins convinced him to withdraw his name from the database, which he did on Dec. 15, the first day of the early Signing Day period. This week, Griffin decided to put his name back in the portal, making him the fourth Yellow Jacket to do so since Friday. It should be noted that his brother, Ja’Quon Griffin, recently decided to transfer from Georgia Tech to Coastal Carolina. As of today, Jamious Griffin became the 12th Yellow Jacket player to hit the portal since the end of the 2021-2022 season.

Jamious Griffin career stats

In the 2021-2022 season, he had seven carries for 23 rushing yards and no touchdowns. As a sophomore, the 5-foot-10, 210-pound tailback finished fifth on the team with 229 rushing yards and also added in two rushing touchdowns.

Griffin had a highly decorated career during his high school days for Rome High School (Rome, Georgia). He was named the 2018 Gatorade Georgia Player of the Year. Over the course of his career there, he racked up 7,549 all-purpose yards and 113 total touchdowns.

For constant updates on where all the different college football prospects are going this off-season, keep it locked into the 2022 On3 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.