Transfer Portal Thoughts: Ole Miss stays hot, Will Rogers' fit at Washington, Fran Brown lands QB Kyle McCord, where will QB KJ Jefferson end up?

We’ve officially hit the week where the Transfer Portal and Early Signing Period face-off like the Spiderman meme, with players across the county creating a flurry of news with commitments, decommitments, public pledges and late entries. 

Teams’ 85 scholarship spots are like gold, and prospects are gobbling up theirs in what figures to be the busiest week yet just before the holidays. 

After another weekend filled with official visits, all sorts of news was made Saturday and Sunday. My assessment that Ole Miss was loading up for the College Football Playoff looks correct with the Rebels landing Florida pass rusher Princely Umanmielen, the No. 3 overall transfer per On3, South Carolina wideout Juice Wells, the No. 15 overall transfer, Tennessee edge rusher Tyler Baron and Vols safety/nickel Tamarion McDonald over the weekend.

Then on Monday, the Rebels landed Mississippi State cornerback Decamerion Richardson, who was a key starter for the in-state rival Bulldogs the last two seasons.   

Ole Miss has On3’s highest-rated transfer player rating, and that number will only improve if the Rebels — who are seen as the current favorites — add Texas A&M 5-star Walter Nolen to the mix.  

Multiple impact pass rushers, a potential All-SEC wideout and perhaps the No. 1 overall player in the transfer portal? That Groove Collective is working overtime. It was just six months ago that Kiffin compared blind NIL deals to buying beach property in Destin without any knowledge of what the other homes in the area are valued at, and later balked at ranking the best boosters in the SEC.

“I am not about to start putting rankings out on boosters from top to bottom in the conference. God, I want to so bad, though.”

But Lane Kiffin continues to troll for a reason. Junior has something cooking in Oxford right. 

Elsewhere, here are some other transfer portal thoughts after an array of commitments and visits:

Will Rogers to Washington is a strange pairing 

I feel icky even questioning Kalen DeBoer here. The man has more offensive knowledge in his picky than I have at all, but color me confused with the Huskies’ decision to roll with former Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers as Michael Penix Jr. replacement in 2024. 

Rogers committed to Washington on Friday, giving the Huskies a veteran quarterback with plenty of big-game experience. Rogers has thrown for 12,315 yards in his career — second-most in SEC history and his TD-INT ratio (94-28) is almost identical to Penix Jr’s (93-32). 

But the fit is strange. Penix is a big-armed southpaw who pushes the ball vertically in DeBoer (and Ryan Grubb’s) system. Yes, Washington is very pass-happy, and so were the Bulldogs when Rogers was piloting Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense. But the Huskies aren’t running an Air Raid system, and now they’re going from a quarterback who throws bombs to the ultimate singles and doubles guy. 

Penix’s career ADOT (average depth of target) is 10.5, and he averaged 9.1 yards per attempt in 2023 (nearly a Top 10 number). 

Rogers has been a hard 6.5 yards-per-attempt passer his entire career, and his ADOT is 7.6. 

Needless to say, Washington’s offense is going to undergo a transition next season. Rogers doesn’t have Penix’s arm strength to hit the vertical shots, and he won’t have the luxury of throwing to Rome Odunze or Jalen McMillian, either. 

It will be very curious to see how the union between the two parties works, especially with Washington’s transition to the Big Ten next season. 

Fran Brown is already putting Syracuse on the map

I’m not sure how many folks know this, but Syracuse is practically in Canada. Late December is not loveliest time of year to visit upstate New York, and yet, new head coach Fran Brown has brought immediate juice to the program with several marquee transfer portal additions in the last week. 

The former Georgia secondary coach has assembled an all-star staff of up-and-coming African-American assistants, and now he’s added some legitimate talent to a baron roster, too.

Former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord looked signed, sealed and delivered to Nebraska a week ago, but instead, the ex-5-star recruit committed to the Orange on Sunday after visiting Syracuse over the weekend. McCord hasn’t lived up to his 5-star status, but he did throw for more than 3,100 yards with 24 touchdowns and six picks starting for the Buckeyes in 2023. 

McCord is an immediate upgrade at the position for the ‘Cuse, which hasn’t had a 3,000-yard passer since Ryan Nassib in 2013. He has some fresh weapons to work with as well, as Brown landed ex-Georgia wideouts Jackson Meeks and Yazeed Haynes. Meeks was expected to be a rotational piece for the Bulldogs in 2023 but battled injuries all season, while Haynes is a former 4-star recruit who can fly. 

Syracuse also added West Virginia linebacker James Heard over the weekend, a former 3-star recruit from New Jersey looking for a fresh start closer to home. 

Outside of McCord, none of these additions will make many waves nationally, but they are talent upgrades for Syracuse. Brown inherited one of the toughest jobs among all Power 5 programs, but he was considered among the best recruiters in the country for the Bulldogs.

He’s brought that same passion and vigor to Syracuse, saying in the intro press conference, “I’m going to recruit depth. I’m going to recruit difference-makers. I am really not afraid of no coach in the country.”

And Brown is already doing just that by landing multiple impact P5 transfers on the eve of the Early Signing Period.

KJ Jefferson’s future home should be interesting 

In what seemed like a formality for several weeks, KJ Jefferson officially entered the transfer portal Sunday, ending his run at Arkansas. 

The Razorbacks’ three-year starter denied initial reports he was considering leaving the program, but when Arkansas later added Boise State transfer quarterback Taylen Green, all signs pointed to an eventual exit. 

Jefferson had a down season in 2023, struggling to adjust to Dan Enos’ more pro-style style. He averaged just 7.1 yards per attempt — a career-low — and had just 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The 6-3, 245-pound bulldozer wasn’t as involved in the QB-designed run game, either, rushing for only 447 yards.

Jefferson was much more effective operating the old Baylor offense the two seasons prior. In 2022, he had 33 total touchdowns and five picks, completing 68% of his passes at 8.8 yards per attempt. 

Jefferson has an attractive skill set, but he needs to be in a very specific offense. Despite his wealth of experience, he’s not a plug-and-play starter at every program. Early in the process, Jefferson was rumored to land at South Carolina and that possibility still exists. Maybe Miami enters the picture of the Hurricanes miss out on Cam Ward?

The timing of all this is interesting because Jefferson entered the dance late compared to many of his counterparts, and in this game of QB musical chairs, spots are being grabbed seemingly every hour. 

Auburn still hasn’t added a QB to the roster, so perhaps there’s a fit there in Hugh Freeze’s QB-friendly scheme. A reunion with former Arkansas OC Kendal Briles at TCU would make some sense, but the Horned Frogs return both Chandler Morris and Josh Hoover. Perhaps there’s a program no one knows is in the market for a veteran quarterback. 

I’m curious to see how it all shakes out. Jefferson is similar in play style to Maalik Murphy, and the Texas QB transfer (who has three years of eligibility compared to Jefferson’s one) has already seen his options shrink (likely down to Duke or Oregon State unless a new school comes into play).