Zach Calzada officially commits to Incarnate Word out of NCAA transfer portal

Following a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, former Texas A&M and Auburn quarterback Zach Calzada has officially committed to Incarnate Word, the school announced on Wednesday afternoon.

It is the second transfer in as many seasons for Calzada, who joined the Tigers this past season after three years with the Aggies. Unfortunately, Calzada did not see any action in his lone season at Auburn before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury.

The year prior in 2021, Calzada took over as the starter for Texas A&M a couple games into the year. He finished with 2,185 yards passing, 17 touchdowns and just nine interceptions, leading the Aggies to an 8-4 finish. His biggest moment of the season came as he quarterbacked A&M to a 41-38 upset of then-No. 1 Alabama, throwing for three touchdowns.

Zach Calzada ranks as the No. 24 quarterback according to On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings. He played high school football for Lanier in Buford, Georgia, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 430 overall recruit in the 2019 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Calzada is set to join an Incarnate Word team that competes in the Southland Conference and advanced to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs this past season before falling to North Dakota State. He is likely to take over as starter as the Cardinals hoped to improve upon their 12-2 finish for next season.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

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.

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.