Transfer Portal Thoughts: Missouri making moves, what to make of a mass exodus at USC, SEC plays Trading Places

The 2024 Early Signing Period kicked off Wednesday, but that didn’t slow down the news coming out of the Transfer Portal. In fact, National Signing Day only hastened more movement with more known quantities, as some schools prioritized landing veteran transfers over prep signees. 

Unsurprisingly, the SEC dominated Day 1 of the Early Signing Period, and the conference is cleaning up in the transfer portal, too. 

I’ve noted the early successes at Ole Miss and South Carolina, but Missouri is making major moves in the transfer portal as Eli Drinkwitz looks to keep the momentum going after the Tigers’ 10-2 season. 

Mizzou inked a Top 25 recruiting class Wednesday, and the Tigers also landed former 4-star edge rusher Darris Smith from Georgia.

A day earlier, Oklahoma offensive guard Cayden Green committed to the Tigers. The Lees Summit (Mo.) standout was a shocking portal entree after starting multiple games for the Sooners as a freshman in 2023, but the 6-5, 315-pound opted to transfer closer to home. Green is the No. 10 overall prospect in the On3 Transfer Player Rankings — and the No. 1 overall OL. Considering the Tigers are set to lose multiple OL starters to the NFL Draft, Green’s addition is huge for Drinkwitz’s program. 

In addition to Green and Smith, Drinkwitz also landed replacements for tailback Cody Schrader and corner Kris Abrams-Draine out of the portal. Georgia State tailback Marcus Carroll will play his senior season at Mizzou after rushing for 1,350 rushing yards (sixth-most nationally) and 13 touchdowns in 2023. Lastly, 4-star Clemson corner Toriano Pride, a St. Louis naive, transferred back to his home-state school.

While the the Tigers’ portal adds may not have the comparable volumes of other programs, the quality of potential plug-and-play starters is as good as any team in the country right now. Drinkwitz did an impressive coaching job this season, giving up play-calling and letting his coordinators cook. Now, he’s done his best work bringing more talent to Columbia to make sure the 2023 season was simply an outlier year. 

What to make of a mass exodus at USC

The Trojans have seen 17 players leave the program since the end of the year, and it’s a who’s who list of former headliner recruits with all sorts of stars next to their names. 

To whit:

Last one out the door in LA, please turn out the lights.

The volume of portal entrees at USC is wild. Notables:

5⭐️ DL Korey Foreman
5⭐️QB Malachi Nelson
5⭐️DB Domani Jackson
4⭐️WR Mario Williams
4⭐️WR Raleek Brown
4⭐️LB Tackett Curtis
4⭐️OT Michael Tarquin
4⭐️ CB Fabian Ross

— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) December 19, 2023

I received immediate pushback on my tweet from some USC faithful, with many noting that the majority of the players leaving the program were “busts,” “guys benched” or “not major contributors.” And they’re not wrong!

But I didn’t say the Trojans were losing all sorts of valuable players. I simply noted the volume was alarming. And it is.

Also a problem? That so many of these former 4 and 5-star recruits were either misevaluated or totally under-developed by USC’s staff. 

Korey Foreman was the No. 1 player in the country two years ago, yet the edge rusher barely made his presence felt with the Trojans. Domani Jackson was a 5-star corner who struggled mightily in Alex Grinch’s defense the last two years, and Lincoln Riley evidently didn’t believe Malachi Nelson was ready for primetime next season in the Big Ten — and this is a quarterback recruit who loyally followed Riley from Oklahoma to USC with multiple commitments. 

Riley has made mention multiple times this offseason plans to change “everything” about the way he runs his program, and while several quality defensive staff hires is a good start, how USC evaluates and develops talent needs to be at top of mind, too — especially if the Trojans plan on competing for Big Ten titles in the near future. 

The 17 transfers may not include a ton of lost production, but the volume of departures is notable because it isn’t as if the Trojans are replacing the “losses” with a loaded 2024 signing class. Guys like Foreman, Jackson, Nelson, Brown and Curtis were all seen as foundational pieces for the future, and instead, they’re simply prized signees who didn’t pan out. 

Only, USC didn’t ink a bunch of new splashy prized commits Wednesday. USC has the nation’s No. 18 class, signing just two Top 100 prospects — none on the defensive line. 

That’s not good enough, and it certainly isn’t the embodiment of a new supposed “defensive-first” philosophical change within the program.

Riley has used the transfer portal to plug holes at tailback (Mississippi State’s Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks), linebacker/safety (Oregon State brothers Easton Mascarenas-Arnold and Akili Arnold) and corner (Mississippi State corner DeCarlos Nicholson), and he has targeted Kansas State’s Will Howard as Caleb Williams’ heir apparent at quarterback. 

All good. But if USC hopes to seriously compete for the Big Ten in 2024, they have to be much better along the lines of scrimmage — on both sides of the ball. And to date, that’s mostly been a talking point this offseason rather than addressing what ails the program the most right now.

Trading Places in the SEC

While not exactly SEC on SEC crime, it has been interesting to see so many players switch programs within the conference so far during the 2024 transfer cycle. 

Naturally, Ole Miss’ haul — the Rebels have already landed top targets from Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and Mississippi State — has received the most acclaim, but other SEC coaches are also using prior recruiting connections or strong NIL packages to keep some of the better players in the league. 

Georgia swiped speedy wideout London Humphreys away from Vanderbilt, while a pair of Bulldogs’ defenders landed at Kentucky and Arkansas. 

Jamon Dumas-Johnson was one of the most productive players in the transfer portal, and the 2022 All-American landed with the Wildcats on Wednesday. The Maryland native started 24 straight games for the Bulldogs before suffering a season-ending injury this fall. While his spot was being pushed by a pair of 5-star freshmen in Athens, Dumas-Johnson gives UK a real upgrade at inside linebacker (8.0 sacks, 14.5 tackles for loss the last two seasons).

Meanwhile, Sam Pittman used his connections at UGA to land former 5-star linebacker Xavian Sorey for Arkansas. Sorey never lived up to his recruiting billing with the Bulldogs, but perhaps a fresh start and more playing time will allow him to showcase his skills. Arkansas also grabbed versatile Tennessee offensive lineman Addison Nichols out of the transfer portal on Tuesday. The Norcross Greater Atlanta Christian School (Ga.) product is another guy Pittman is familiar with dating back to his days at UGA’s OL coach. 

Elsewhere, Alabama grabbed defensive lineman LT Overton from Texas A&M, another blue-chipper from the Aggies’ historic 2022 signing class to exit the program. The 6-3, 265-pound edge player was recruited hard by the Tide out of high school, and now two seasons later, he lands in Tuscaloosa. 

The SEC’s game of Trading Places likely isn’t to stop anytime soon, either. 

The top-ranked player in the portal Walter Nolan is down to Ole Miss and Oregon, with the Rebels the rumored favorites to land the ex-5-star tackle from Texas A&M. Florida tailback Trevor Etienne is also considered a strong lean to Georgia at this point. 

Lastly, Aggies 5-star wideout Evan Stewart (finally) entered the transfer portal Wednesday, and the schools most mentioned around his transfer are, you guessed it, SEC programs like Alabama, LSU and Texas.