Former Oregon linebacker Justin Flowe commits to transfer to Arizona

After entering the transfer portal earlier this month, former Oregon linebacker Justin Flowe has found his next career stop.

Flowe, a former 5-star recruit who was the second-highest-rated player to ever sign with Oregon, announced on Twitter Sunday evening that he has committed to transfer to the University of Arizona.

Earlier in the evening, Flowe posted a message to Twitter thanking the University of Oregon and officially announcing his intent to enter the portal with three years of eligibility remaining.

COMMITTED. BEAR DOWN ⛓🩸🐻 #ZONAZOO pic.twitter.com/6AZYzcmxwU

— Justin Flowe🧬 (@justin_flowe) December 19, 2022

In 10 games with the Ducks this season, he recorded 35 tackles, including 14 solo stops, and 2.5 tackles for loss.

Flowe was the No. 1 linebacker in the country in the class of 2020 and the second-highest-rated recruit in program history behind only Kayvon Thibodeaux. But his first two seasons in Eugene were derailed by injuries.

He racked up 14 tackles in Oregon’s season-opening win over Fresno State last September but suffered a foot injury during the game that wiped out the rest of his 2021 campaign.

The year prior, he tore his meniscus in the Ducks’ season-opening win over Stanford and missed the rest of the season.

Flowe resume football activities during spring ball and generated plenty of buzz as he headed into the 2022 season fully healthy. Along with sophomore Noah Sewell, Flowe was expected to form one of the top linebacker duos in the country.

But that didn’t quite go according to plan.

Flowe’s playing time this season has been sporadic. He played 34 snaps in Oregon’s season-opening loss to Georgia but has eclipsed the 30-snap mark just one time this year, according to Pro Football Focus.

During the stretch run of the season, Flowe hardly factored into the Ducks’ defensive gameplan. He played just six defensive snaps in their Week 11 loss to Washington, three snaps in their Week 12 win over Utah, and five snaps in their Week 13 loss at Oregon State.

Sewell led all Oregon linebackers with 601 total snaps this season, and Jeffrey Bassa was second at 582. Flowe finished the year with 178 snaps, which ranked 19th among the program’s defensive players.

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.