USC Adds First-Team All-Pac-12 Punter Eddie Czaplicki
Although the turnaround with the USC football program Lincoln Riley orchestrated was astonishing, there are aspects in need of upgrading this offseason. One of those areas that failed to meet championship-level production was the special teams.
On Saturday USC significantly upgraded it’s kicking game with the addition of first-team All-Pac-12 punter Eddie Czaplicki.
Czaplicki appeared in all 12 games for Arizona State in 2022, punting 49 times. He averaged 46.1 yards on those punts to lead the Pac-12. He also handled kickoffs for the Sun Devils, forcing 29 touchbacks on 55 kickoffs.
As one of the top punters in the Pac-12 and the FBS ranks, Czaplicki figured to draw plenty of interest in the portal and did. But he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay for the Trojans.
“Why not USC?,” Czaplicki said. “They had everything I’m looking for… great academics, incredible coaches and team culture… it’s the Mecca. Truly was my dream school to play for.”
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.
