BREAKING: Texas A&M lands former five-star UNC cornerback Tony Grimes

Texas A&M has landed a much needed commitment from prized University of North Carolina cornerback transfer Tony Grimes.

After both expected and unexpected departures from the secondary in the past few weeks, Texas A&M adds a former five-star prospect to the defense, one that has the ability to step in immediately and be a major contributor.

In his three seasons at UNC, Grimes played in 31 games, accumulating 97 total tackles, 19 pass deflections, one sack, one interception, and one forced fumble.

Grimes played high school football at Virginia Beach (VA) Princess Anne, where he was a five-star prospect. He was the No. 19 overall recruit in the 2020 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

After COVID relief for the 2020 season, Grimes has two seasons left to play at his next school. He can play immediately in 2023 since this is his first transfer.

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 starts with the 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.

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 However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship is no longer valid. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school does not have to cover their scholarship.

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 for a “do not contact” tag on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want contact from schools unless they initiate the communication.