Assessing the latest on Juice Wells' recruitment in the transfer portal

Juice Wells is the best wide receiver available when it comes to the transfer portal so far. Now, a week after his decision to leave South Carolina, On3’s Pete Nakos has the latest on the former Gamecock wideout.

Nakos joined ‘Andy Staples On3’ on Sunday to discuss several portal targets including Wells. As far as teams that are interested in his services, he started with the Longhorns and Ducks. He also noted that the Volunteers may be fading fast.

“Texas is in the mix, Oregon is also in the mix,” said Nakos. “Tennessee was in the mix for a minute. It doesn’t seem like the Vols are really in it at this point anymore.”

At that point, Nakos then brought up Ole Miss as a potential option. After reporting that he would be in both Austin and Oxford this weekend, Wells only made it to The ‘Sip. While that doesn’t have much to do with a hint of disinterest when it comes to Texas, he did say that it says a lot about the Rebels considering how long he hung around.

“Talking to the OMSpirit’s Zach Berry on Sunday? Like, Juice Wells was still in Oxford at, like, noon eastern time, which is completely unheard of on official portal visits,” said Nakos. “A lot of those are, like, ‘I’m going to fly in, I’m going to have dinner with the head coach. I might handshake and say, ‘Have a great weekend”. Portal visits are very different than high school recruiting visits. To hear that Juice Wells was in town for so long is really eye-opening.”

“I reported it on Friday that he was going to Texas. I confirmed that with a source at Texas. Then things kind of – I don’t know if they broke off necessarily. Nothing about the relationship with Texas but he wasn’t in Austin this past weekend,” Nakos corrected. “I still see Texas kind of being in the cards there.”

Over four seasons at James Madison and South Carolina, Wells has caught 187 passes for 2,818 yards and 28 touchdowns. That included a breakout sophomore season with the Dukes in 2021 as well as his first with the Gamecocks in 2022 where he caught 68 passes for 928 yards and six scores.

An injury riddled last season held him out for the duration of the campaign this fall. However, that has had little impact on his status as the No. 1 WR and the No. 15 available player for transfer according to On3’s Portal Rankings.

It’s clear that Wells is highly-sought after receiver, assuming he’s healthy, for next season. That’s only question left to answer is where he’s going to end up after a handful of trips to check out some of the nation’s best programs.

“Juice Wells has that track record in the SEC that it seems like a lot of teams want to kind of grab and run with in 2024,” said Nakos.