Tennessee linebacker Jalen Smith plans to enter NCAA transfer portal
Tennessee football is set to lose a key defender to the NCAA transfer portal as linebacker Jalen Smith plans to enter his name when things officially open on Monday, December 9.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound former Grayson High School standout played in 16 career games for the Vols in two seasons, maintaining a redshirt season in 2023 after playing in four regular season games plus the Citrus Bowl. He totaled 29 tackles with 1.5 TFLs with the Vols.
As a redshirt-freshman this past season, Smith’s role expanded as he played in 11 games with 25 tackles. Due to the injuries to Keenan Pili and freshman Edwin Spillman, Smith was apart of the four-man rotation for William Inge at linebacker for much of the season. He played a season-high 39 snaps at Georgia and logged 34 snaps two weeks before against Kentucky. Smith played at least 20 defensive snaps in seven games this season and 19 against Florida.
Tennessee has already lost three players to the transfer portal with Smith making it four and the first on defense.
Understanding the portal
The winter transfer portal window runs from December 9-28. The spring portal window runs from April 16-25.
Players don’t have to pick a school they are going to during those specific dates but those are the span of dates on when a player can enter the portal.
Those dates don’t apply to graduate transfers who can enter the portal whenever they wish. Also, if there’s a head coaching change, their players are granted an immediate 30-day window during which they can enter the portal.
Of note, any team playing in a game after Dec 28 (playoffs or regular bowl) gets a five-day window once season ends for those player to enter portal.
So, say a team loses in the College Football Playoff first round on Dec. 20-21? Their transfer portal window wouldn’t be affected as the regular window ends more than five days after that loss.
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Players who enter the portal in the winter window are trying to be somewhere for the spring semester.
For Tennessee the spring semester starts on January 21which is late compared to many schools around the country. Tennessee a year ago started a winter mini-term class that runs the first three weeks of January.
Vols have had success in the portal
The transfer portal can giveth and it can taketh away. For Josh Heupel it’s been much more of a positive than a negative for the Vols when you look at the 2024 season.
Left tackle Lance Heard has been a fixture on an offense line that has helped the Vols rush for over 2700 yards. Tight end Miles Kitselman has been a terrific portal grab because he is the leader of the tight end room. A room that also includes transfer Holden Staes.
Defensively, Jermod McCoy has been the best transfer Tennessee has gotten. McCoy is having an All-American season.
In total, Tennessee added 10 transfers for the current 2024 roster.
