Former Maryland, Kansas State linebacker Branden Jennings announces transfer to UCF

After going through the NCAA transfer portal process for a second time, Branden Jennings has finally settled on a destination. The linebacker announced he will be playing for head coach Gus Malzhan and the UCF Knights during the 2022 season.

Jennings played last year with the Maryland Terrapins as a true freshman but left the program in favor of the Kansas State Wildcats. By the time mid-April came around, Jennings reentered his name in the transfer portal for the second time in the same cycle. Now, the Jacksonville, FL native will return to his home state of play for UCF.

Coming out of high school, Jennings was ranked a four-star prospect by the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services. He was the No. 16 linebacker in the country and No. 122 overall.

Jennings played in eight games last season with Maryland, having 23 tackles, a tackle for loss, and a forced fumble. He left the program after the year finished and went through spring practice with the Wildcats.

Transfer portal background information for Branden Jennings, UCF

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.