Lincoln Riley meets with Kansas State QB Will Howard
Lincoln Riley has already begun his recruiting work in the transfer portal. On3’s K-State Online insider Derek Young has reported Riley traveled to Manhattan, Kansas, Saturday morning to meet with former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard.
WeAreSC can confirm the visit took place Saturday morning.
Young provided details to WeAreSC in what he says was a brief visit saying Riley was “in and out”.
Young also says Howard met with Miami and Wisconsin earlier in the week.
Howard entered the transfer portal on Monday, November 27 as a graduate transfer. He has one season of eligibility remaining.
In four seasons with the Wildcats, Howard completed 59 percent of his passes while throwing for close to 5,800 yards and 48 touchdowns. He served as a part-time starter in 2022 and took over as the Wildcats’ QB1 in 2023, leading them to an 8-4 record.
USC will be replacing 2022 Heisman winning quarterback Caleb Williams in the 2024 season as he moves onto the NFL. Currently on the roster is redshirt sophomore Miller Moss and former five-star true freshman Malachi Nelson.
In the 2023 season, Moss played in three games, completing 71.9% of his passes for 309 yards and one touchdown. He also had two carries for 19 yards and two touchdowns.
Nelson appeared in one game, with one completion on three attempts. Nelson preserved his redshirt, so he has four years left available to play.
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.
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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.
