Arkansas Razorbacks defensive end Dorian Gerald returns, withdraws name from transfer portal

Arkansas Razorbacks football received some excellent news on Friday involving the transfer portal. Defensive end Dorian Gerald, who entered the portal earlier this offseason, has withdrawn his name and will remain in Arkansas. The Razorbacks end made the announcement with this statement from his social media account.

“After many nights of prayers, and tons of support from my family, coaches and loved ones! I like to finish what I started!! I’ll be finishing my last year of football here at THE University of Arkansas!! WOO DAMN PIGGG,” wrote Gerald via Twitter.

Gerald had an up and down career at Arkansas after transferring from JUCO program College of the Canyons for the 2018 season. He played just 42 snaps before suffering a season-ending leg injury this year. The 6-foot-3, 265-pound South Carolina native had his best season in his first year with 21 tackles, but due to injuries, his time with the Razorbacks fell short of what his 22-sack JUCO career suggested. Two years ago, it was a strained artery in his neck that took him out.

Barring another injury setback, Gerald looks to be a force on the Razorbacks defensive line in the 2022 college football season.

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.