Former Ole Miss defensive back JaKorey Hawkins announces transfer destination

Former Ole Miss defensive back JaKorey Hawkins officially announced his transfer destination on his Twitter page Sunday night. He’ll be suiting up for the Wyoming Cowboys next season.

How about them Cowboys?🤠🤙🏾 #RidefortheBrand #GoWyo #OneWyoming pic.twitter.com/CjcwCU00g6

— Jhawk🦅™️ (@_jhawk_23) January 17, 2022

Hawkins only appeared in two games last season, so the transfer news isn’t much of a surprise.

During the 2020 season with the Rebels, Hawkins tallied 28 tackles, three pass breakups, and two forced fumbles. He was also named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll during the fall of 2018 and the fall of 2020.

Coming out of high school, Hawkins was a three-star prospect in the On3 Consensus. The cornerback is a native of Montgomery, AL, and attended Robert E. Lee High School. Programs such as Auburn, Missouri, Minnesota, and South Carolina, were targeting Hawkins during his original recruitment.

Transfer portal background information for Hawkins, Ole Miss Rebels

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 Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this report.