Oklahoma linebacker Jamal Morris announces transfer destination

Oklahoma linebacker Jamal Morris officially announced his transfer destination on his Twitter page on Saturday afternoon. He’ll be heading home and joining the Houston Cougars.

Truly Blessed And Ready For The Next Chapter. #GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/b4EB7naDqL

— Jamal Morris (@KinngMorris) January 15, 2022

Morris is from Houston and played his high school football at Fort Bend Bush. He announced his entry into the transfer portal on Dec. 14. The reserve linebacker had three tackles during the 2021 season in very limited action. In 2020, he had five tackles in limited snaps.

Coming out of Fort Bend Bush, he was rated as a four-star prospect by major recruiting services and was even named an Under Armour All-American. During his career there–he racked up nearly 200 tackles (34 for loss), three interceptions, and 5.5 sacks.

When he chose Oklahoma, he picked the Sooners over offers from LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, and others.

In transferring to the Houston Cougars, he joins other portal prospects such as: receiver Sam Brown, Joseph Manjack IV, Trimarcus Cheeks, and Brice Johnson.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal

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.