Recruiting News and Notes

Welcome to “Recruiting News and Notes,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly information clearinghouse, a spot for assorted bits of Purdue news, analysis and so on and so forth, intended for GoldandBlack.com members and GoldandBlack.com members only. We do respectfully ask that you please do your best to keep proprietary info shared here within the confines of this site.

PURDUE FOOTBALL

• The staff welcomed 11 transfer portal targets for OVs starting Jan. 1. The lone no-show: South Alabama CB Amarion Fortenberry.

Purdue transfer portal official visitors: Jan. 1-3

*commitment

Pos. Player	Former school	Purdue visit
TE Christian Earls*	UNLV/JC	Jan. 1-3
CB Tony Grimes	UNLV/Texas A&M/North Carolina	Jan. 1-3
DL TJ Lindsey	Auburn	Jan. 1-3
FB Christian Moore*	UNLV/Kansas State	Jan. 1-3
DE CJ Nunnally	Akron/JC/Jackson State	Jan. 1-3
LB Mani Powell	UNLV/Arkansas	Jan. 1-3
OL Hank Purvis*	UNLV	Jan. 1-3
CB Tahj Ra El*	Memphis/Old Dominion	Jan. 1-3
CB Ryan Turner	Boston College/Ohio State	Jan. 1-3
OL Mason Vicari*	UNLV	Jan. 1-3
S Crew Wakley	BYU	Jan. 1-3

🚂… @BoilerFootball pic.twitter.com/6mx4qlqAAo

— TJ Lindsey (@TjLindsey_) January 2, 2025

• Another 10 portal OVs are expected on campus from Jan. 3-6. Among the known anticipated visitors:

Pos. Player	Former school	Purdue visit
DT Tavian Coleman	Texas State	Jan. 6
WR Jacob De Jesus	UNLV/JC	Jan. 3-5
DE Harvey Dyson	Texas Tech	Jan. 3-5
LB Cole Kozlowski	Colgate	Jane. 3-5

The staff already has commitments from 10 portal players.

• Will Barry Odom lure another QB from the portal? It already has netted two: Arkansas’ Malachi Singleton and UCF’s EJ Colson. Singleton has three years of eligibility; Colson four.

Purdue also will welcome incoming freshman QB Garyt Odom. Bennett Meredith is the lone QB scholarship holdover from 2024, but it is believed he will graduate and depart in the spring.

Purdue would like to bring in a third portal signal-caller who could compete with Singleton and Colson but it may have to settle for a developmental arm to fill out the depth chart.

• Jan. 13 is an important date for transfer portal arrivals, as that is the first day of Purdue’s spring semester. (Players are still students, right? I jest.) Transfers need to be enrolled by then … or typically within a week grace period.

• The transfer portal closed on Dec. 28. The final number of Boilermakers who entered: 37.

Purdue portal departures (22)

Pos. Player	New school
CB Botros Alisandro	Old Dominion
S Koy Beasley	Miami (Ohio)
TE Drew Biber	Minnesota
OL Anthony Boswell	Toledo
NT Cole Brevard	Texas
QB Ryan Browne	North Carolina
QB Marcos Davila	Nebraska
WR Jahmal Edrine	Virginia
TE Tayvion Galloway	Middle Tennessee
OL Jalen Grant	N.C. State
CB Tarrion Grant	Texas Tech
DE Will Heldt	Clemson
RB Elijah Jackson	Ball State
S Joseph Jefferson	Western Michigan
LB Yanni Karlaftis	Northwestern
TE Max Klare	Ohio State
OL Mahamane Moussa	Louisville
WR Shamar Rigby	Oklahoma State
CB Derrick Rogers	Florida Atlantic
WR Leland Smith	San Jose State
S Dillon Thieneman	Oregon
WR Jaron Tibbs	Kansas State

Purdue players who withdrew from portal (7)

Pos. Player

WR Arhmad Branch

CB Kyndrich Breedlove

DL Jamarius Dinkins

WR Tra’Mar Harris

LS Nick Levy

DE Jamari Payne

S Sterling Smith

Purdue players still in portal (8)

Pos. Player

S Anthony Brown

P Keelan Crimmins

CB Nyland Green

DL Damarjhe Lewis

DL Jeffrey M’ba

OL Aaron Roberts

WR CJ Smith

OL DJ Wingfield

There will be a spring portal window open for 10 days from April 16-25, 2025. Don’t expect as much movement then, but Purdue surely will see some coming and going in the wake of spring football.

Purdue portal entries by position

Position	Portal entries
Quarterbacks	2
Running backs	1
Receivers	7
Tight ends	3
Offensive line	5
Defensive line	6
Linebackers	1
Defensive backs	10
Specialists	2
Total	37

• A raft of analysts are on board: Neal Posey (QBs); Ronnell Perkins (DBs); Ty Rocconi (DBs); James Brown (special teams); Neal Renna (linebackers); Daryl Lydon (d-line).

Perkins and Brown came from UNLV; Rocconi from Memphis; Posey from UCF; Renna from Akron; Lydon from Arkansas.

• Ethan Baxter is on board as assistant GM, while Brad Odom is director of recruiting. Both worked at UNLV. Brad Odom is Barry Odom’s older brother.

PURDUE BASKETBALL/RECRUITING

• Purdue has elite point guard Tay Kinney lined up for an official visit this month. Not sure on the date yet. There’s going to be a lot of money for him out there, but he is a very serious basketball person who has loved Purdue, and perhaps the revenue-sharing landscape can level the playing field there some.

That said, we have no idea what Purdue’s rev-share presentation to these 2026s is.

• Bo Ogden is supposed to visit for the USC game. He was injured earlier this season and may have moved some things around, but Purdue and Texas would seem to be strong with him. The early read was he was more than willing to leave Austin, where his dad is on the Longhorn staff, but when push comes to shove, he still would have to do it.

• Trey Thompson remains on the clock, as the next domino we’d expect to fall for Purdue, which would love to wrap him up ASAP. Probably only a matter of time here before Tennessee really pushes. It has offered but doesn’t seem to have cranked it up yet. Purdue is the only school that used an official visit on him early, and that meant something.

If Purdue gets Thompson it would be as a 4/5 combo much like Raleigh Burgess and Caleb Furst were, but they’d still likely try to take another big.

We’ll see what Purdue’s scholarship/roster numbers look like in the spring. There are guys on this team now who are going to want to play who may not have an easy path next season. And Purdue will absolutely look for another guard in the portal this spring. Our sense right now is that a healthy Daniel Jacobsen and improved Raleigh Burgess might suffice as additive elements to the frontcourt, but that could be a portal option, too, if the right ass-beating center presents himself.

MORE: GoldandBlack.com content hub: Welcome to the Barry Odom era | Who is coming from the portal?