Washington defensive lineman enters transfer portal

Washington defensive lineman Sam Taimani is in the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned. He reportedly shared his intentions on Thursday.

Taimani, who has two years of eligibility remaining, started 10 of 12 games for Washington this season. In his three full years with the Huskies, he had 71 total tackles, including 28 solo tackles, with two passes defended and two tackles for loss. His best year was this season when he had 43 total tackles.

He was a four-star recruit out of high school and ranked as the No. 26 defensive tackles from the class of 2018, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Because he took a redshirt and has another year of eligibility due to COVID-19, Taimani will have two years of eligibility remaining wherever he decides to transfer.

Washington went 4-8 this season and underwent a coaching change mid-year. Former Huskies coach Jimmy Lake was fired last month, and Fresno State coach Kalen DeBoer is coming in to replace him.

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.