Virginia starting offensive lineman enters transfer portal

Virginia’s offensive line just took a big hit. One of its starters is in the transfer portal.

Ryan Swoboda, who’s started for the Cavaliers for the last two seasons, went into the portal on Thursday, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

Virginia offensive lineman Ryan Swoboda, a starter the last two years, has entered the transfer portal, @on3sports has learned

https://t.co/St4ensmRGU

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 16, 2021

Swoboda came to Virginia from the Class of 2017 and has anchored the Cavaliers’ offensive line the last two seasons. He’s a big part of Virginia’s pass protection, which allowed Brennan Armstrong to throw for 404.5 yards per game this season — a mark that ranked second in the nation.

Last year, he won ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week honors once and helped Virginia become the No. 1-ranked offensive line in the ACC. However, the line took a step back this year, allowing six sacks per game compared to two sacks per contest in 2020.

Virginia recently hired Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott as its next head coach. He’ll replace Bronco Mendenhall, who’s resigning after the Cavaliers’ bowl game. Mendenhall has taken Virginia to bowl games in four of the last five years, including the Fenway Bowl this season.

He amassed a 36-38 record over his six seasons in Charlottesville, including a 6-6 mark this season. In 2019, Mendenhall led Virginia to an ACC championship and an Orange Bowl appearance.

Virginia is gearing up to take on SMU in the Fenway Bowl Dec. 29 at 11 a.m. ET.

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.