College Football

College football transfer portal: Winners and losers from the 2023 cycle

Published May. 19, 2023 7:14 p.m. ET

Deion Sanders’ roster overhaul at the University of Colorado has been the talk of the college football offseason.

The numbers are staggering: Over 50 players from last year’s roster have entered college football's transfer portal, with over 40 of them coming in the last month alone.

While there has been plenty of widespread criticism about how Sanders’ has gone about transforming Colorado's roster, FOX Sports college football analyst RJ Young questioned why so much negativity has been directed his way when this has been done at other schools in past years.

"It feels borderline unfair in the way that we're talking about how Prime has turned over the roster at Colorado when everybody who knows football will tell you that he didn’t have a choice," Young said on a recent episode of his podcast, "The Number One College Football Show With RJ Young." "That team was 1-11 last year. You’re not going to win football games with a team that’s not that talented in a Pac-12 Conference where you have to play the likes of USC, Washington, Oregon.

"There are over 400 players from Power-5 schools in the portal. Prime only needs nine now to get to 85 and were not even in June. What is this noise about? Can we give some of this same noise to say, USC, that has also turned over the roster over the past couple of years?"

When Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma to take over the head coaching position at USC back in November 2021, he immediately went to work, using the transfer portal as a tool to help build a roster that could be competitive in the Pac-12. Riley added 20 players via the portal in just over four months, including 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams, who of course came over with him from Oklahoma.

Riley and the Trojans were active once again this offseason in the portal, adding 15 transfers, many of whom are expected to be impact players for USC this upcoming season.

Young listed his top winners and losers from the transfer portal this past offseason, with both Colorado and USC landing in the "winners" column.

Here is a look at his complete list:

Winners:

Colorado Buffaloes

Key additions:
Travis Hunter (CB/WR, Jackson State)
Shedeur Sanders (QB, Jackson State)
Jahquez Robinson (CB, Alabama)
Tar’varish Dawson (WR, Auburn)
Willie Gaines (WR, Jackson State)
Derrick McLendon (Edge, Florida State)
Vito Tisdale (S, Kentucky)
Omarion Cooper (CB, Florida State)

Young on Colorado: "Obviously when you add Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter in the transfer portal, you’re winning."

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USC Trojans

Key additions:
Dorian Singer (WR, Arizona)
MarShawn Lloyd (RB, South Carolina)
Mason Cobb (LB, Oklahoma State)
Bear Alexander (DL, Georgia)
Anthony Lucas (Edge, Texas A&M)
Jack Sullivan (DL, Purdue)
Jamil Muhammad (LB, Georgia State)

Young on USC: "Eric Gentry didn’t go anywhere. I know he got injured last year, but he was an outstanding linebacker. The idea of that dude playing in the middle of that defense as opposed to the backend of your defense … that’s outstanding."

LSU Tigers

Key additions:
Denver Harris (CB, Texas A&M)
Darian Chestnut (CB, Syracuse)
Omar Speights (LB, Oregon State)
Aaron Anderson (WR, Alabama)
Mason Lunsford (OT, Maryland)
Ovie Oghoufo (LB, Texas)
Jakailin Johnson (CB, Ohio State)

Young on LSU: "Harold Perkins isn’t going anywhere. That’s a win in the transfer portal. Harold Perkins might be the best defensive player in the SEC."

Oklahoma Sooners

Key additions:
Dasan McCullough (Edge, Indiana)
Rondell Bothroyd (Edge, Wake Forest)
Walter Rouse (OT, Stanford)
Trace Ford (Edge, Oklahoma State)
Brenen Thompson (WR, Texas)
Jacob Lacey (DL, Notre Dame)

Young on Oklahoma: "Oklahoma added some studs on the defense line."

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Florida State Seminoles

Key additions:
Fentrell Cypress (CB, Virginia)
Jeremiah Byers (OT, UTEP)
Jaheim Bell (TE, South Carolina)
Keon Coleman (WR, Michigan State)
Braden Fiske (DL, Western Michigan)
Casey Roddick (OL, Colorado)

Young on Florida State: "Jared Verse didn’t go anywhere. That’s a dude that would have been a first-round draft pick had he chosen to come out this year."

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Key additions:
Sam Hartman (QB, Wake Forest)
Antonio Carter (S, Rhode Island)
Kaleb Smith (WR, Virginia Tech)
Javontae Jean-Baptiste (Edge, Ohio State)

Young on Notre Dame: "Sam Hartiman decided to move to South Bend, where it’s going to be him and … Marcus Freeman."

Michigan Wolverines

Key additions:
Ernest Hausmann (LB, Nebraska)
Drake Nugent (OL, Stanford}
LaDarius Henderson (OL, Arizona State)
Josaiah Stewart (Edge, Coastal Carolina)
Myles Hinton (OT, Stanford)
AJ Barner (TE, Indiana)
Jack Tuttle (QB, Indiana)

Young on Michigan: "Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards didn’t go anywhere. That is why you are winning. You’ve got two tailbacks who can start for anybody, anywhere, anytime. They decided ‘no, we want to stay here, we’ll run it back, we want to get back to the College Football Playoff a third time, we would like to beat up on Ohio State a third time, we would like to win a Big Ten championship a third time.’"

Losers:

Michigan State Spartans

Key losses:
Payton Thorne (QB, Auburn)
Keon Coleman (WR, Florida State)
Jalen Hunt (DL, Houston)
Jeff Pietrowski (Edge, Wisconsin)
Germie Bernard (WR, Washington)
Elijah Collins (RB, Oklahoma State)

Young on Michigan State: "They have a real problem at quarterback … I don’t want to sugarcoat that. You’re asking a lot of Noah Kim and Katin Houser if you think those guys are going to replace Payton Thorne, who ends up going to Auburn. Set aside Keon Coleman, a guy who had 798 yards and 58 passes caught as a sophomore."

South Carolina Gamecocks

Key losses:
Jaheim Bell (TE, Florida State)
Jordan Burch (Edge, Oregon)
MarShawn Lloyd (RB, USC)
Austin Stogner (TE, Oklahoma)

Young on South Carolina: "You lose Jaheim Bell, who was something like Deebo Samuel for them. He had 261 rushing yards because he had to play tailback when MarShawn Lloyd got hurt, and he also had 231 receiving yards. You look at him, yeah, you can find all kind of ways he’s gonna be outstanding at Florida State. Austin Stogner also chose to transfer back to Oklahoma, so both your top tight ends you’ve got to replace, and you’ve got to replace your starting tailback, that’s hard."

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Key losses:
Spencer Sanders (QB, Ole Miss)
Braylin Presley (WR, Tulsa)
Stephon Johnson (WR, Houston)
Dominic Richardson (RB, Baylor)
John Paul Richardson (WR, TCU)
Trace Ford (Edge, Oklahoma)
Thomas Harper (CB, Notre Dame)
Demarco Jones (CB, Tulsa)
Jabbar Muhammad (CB, Washington)
Mason Cobb (LB, USC)

Young on Oklahoma State: "It’s not like you just lost dudes … you lost dudes that everybody else wants. That’s tough. That’s just a lot to overcome there. I expect Mike Gundy will pull a rabbit out of his hat, because that’s all that Mike Gundy has been doing since he’s been the coach at Oklahoma State. He’s been doing a really great job at finding diamonds in the rough."