Stanford starting linebacker transfers to Pac-12 rival

Former Stanford Cardinal starting linebacker Gabe Reid announced his transfer destination on Wednesday afternoon. He officially committed to one of their in-conference rivals, the Utah Utes. In four seasons with Stanford, he racked up 168 tackles, 30.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, one forced fumble, and five pass deflections.

The announcement he posted to Twitter is below.

It reads: “I want to formally thank each of the coaches who have recruited me during these last few months. It has truly meant so much. Thank you Stanford for countless amazing experiences over the years on The Farm. I want to express my gratitude to all my loved ones for supporting me along the way. And I’m finally thankful for a Heavenly Father watching over and guiding my path. With that being said I’d like to announce that I’m committing to THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. Can’t wait to spend my last year playing college football back home alongside my brother Karene!!”

In 2021, he finished fourth on the team with 62 tackles, including 33 solo tackles. He led the team in tackles for loss this season. On Oct. 8, he notched 2.5 tackles for loss and a career-high 10 tackles against No. 22 Arizona State.

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.