Transfer OT Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson commits to Florida Gators

The Florida Gators have added a key transfer Sunday. And in doing so, they have started to address a major need.

Offensive tackle Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson, formerly of San Diego State, has committed to Billy Napier’s program. It came during his official visit to Gainesville.

Crenshaw-Dickson, who is listed in his San Diego State bio as being 6-foot-6 and 310 pounds, is the No. 14 OT in on On3 portal rankings. He also visited TCU, Louisville and Virginia Tech.

“It was an amazing visit,” Crenshaw-Dickson said. “The facilities are nothing that I’ve seen before. I really appreciate the coaches for giving me the opportunity to come out here and showcase what I’ve been doing on film. To come out and have a family staff — that’s how I feel like the coaches are — that was big for me to make my decision today.”

Crenshaw-Dickson was a three-year starter for the Aztecs. With that program, he started multiple games at both left and right tackle. 

Crenshaw-Dickson has one year of eligibility remaining.

“SEC football is the best football in college,” Crenshaw-Dickson said. bBeing able to play there and showcase my talent against guys who potentially will be draft prospects is something I want to take advantage of.”

Crenshaw-Dickson is Florida’s first transfer addition this cycle.

The Gators probably aren’t done recruiting offensive linemen in the transfer portal. They offered former Florida starting tackle Michael Tarquin, now at Southern California, on Friday.

The need is glaring. For Florida to move in a positive direction as a program, the offensive line has to improve in 2024. Crenshaw-Dickson at the least should challenge for a starting position.

Florida we coming #Gatornation pic.twitter.com/FiWHTrV18k

— Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson (@Brandon_CD56) December 17, 2023

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.