Safety Transfer Evan Williams Commits to Oregon

Dan Lanning keeps making his moves to this team. On Tuesday he added yet another transfer target to the team. This time one with a familiar last name.

Although Williams is not an uncommon last name, this one has direct ties to Oregon. Safety Bennett Williams has ran out of eligibility but his brother, Evan Williams will carry on the name. The former Fresno State star committed to Oregon following a visit over the weekend.

100% Committed!! Let’s get to work!! pic.twitter.com/bbWmgjPR3j

— Evan J. Williams³² (@evan_williams32) January 10, 2023

The 6-foot, 185-pounder has been a multi-year MWC all-conference selection. His experience will be a key addition for Oregon in the secondary.

Oregon did sign a strong group of defensive backs in the 2023 recruiting cycle. Tyler Turner and Kodi Decambra both expect to compete in the safety group specifically. The Ducks also signed defensive back Khyree Jackson from the transfer portal. The former Alabama defensive back expects to compete for a starting spot at corner.

The Ducks now have 8 commitments/signees via the transfer portal with Williams’ addition. I don’t expect Oregon is quite done working the transfer portal to fill holes on this roster.

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.