Vanderbilt four-star freshman enters transfer portal

Vanderbilt defensive lineman Marcus Bradley entered the transfer portal on Monday, On3 has learned.

Matt Zenitz reported that Bradley entered the portal midway through his freshman season with the Vanderbilt Commodores. Bradley has tallied just two tackles for the Commodores, including one tackle for loss, and he’s appeared in only two games at Vanderbilt.

Bradley committed to Vanderbilt on Nov. 27, 2020, before the university fired then-head coach Derek Mason. Recruited by defensive line coach Jovan Haye, who was retained by first-year head coach Clark Lea, Bradley was tabbed a four-star recruit by On3, making him the only four-star in Vanderbilt’s 2021 recruiting class. Bradley was labeled the No. 6 overall defensive lineman in the 2021 recruiting class, and the No. 9 prospect in the state of Maryland.

Bradley appeared in Vanderbilt’s win over UConn and loss to Georgia, but he hasn’t played since. It appears as though Lea was keeping Bradley out of the rotation due to a disciplinary conflict.

“Marcus is a talented person and player that doesn’t quite have the behaviors and habits yet to be an active part of the program,” Lea said previously of Bradley, via 247 Sports. “Until he does, he’s going to have to grow and mature, and we support him in that. But part of changing and transforming an environment is transforming the habits and behaviors that make up that environment, and we have to be really clear on what the expectations are and what a high-performance culture looks like and feels like. We’re waiting on him to be a part of that.”

Bradley originally committed to Maryland, opting to stay in-state, but decommitted and switched his commitment to Vanderbilt. A Quince Orchard high school alumnus, Bradley saw his senior season cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2019 he logged 41 tackles, seven tackles for a loss and 3.5 sacks.

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.