Kentucky linebacker enters transfer portal

When Kentucky takes on Iowa in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, they will be down a player from their 2021 roster. 

Linebacker Marquez Bembry has entered the transfer portal, per On3’s Matt Zenitz. 

Bembry arrived at Kentucky in 2019 as a sophomore after playing at Jones County Junior College in Mississippi. He made his first start in 2020 and finished the season with 27 tackles. The 6-foot-3, 232-pound defenseman recorded stats in just six games this season and amassed nine tackles. His best performance of 2021 was three tackles against Mississippi State.

The reserve linebacker largely sat behind Kentucky’s two leading tacklers and linebackers, Jacques Jones and DeAndre Square. In total, seven linebackers on the Wildcats defense recorded more tackles than the junior college transfer.

Bembry is from Stone Mountain, Ga. and was a high-level four star recruit out of junior college. According to On3, he was the No. 50 prospect nationally, No. 5 edge rusher and No. 8 recruit in the state of Mississippi.

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.