Craig HaubertJan 23, 2026, 07:30 AM ETClose National recruiting analyst and analyst for ESPNU More than a decade of college and pro coaching experience. Graduated from Indiana and Nebraska-OmahaFollow on X
play0:29Ethan Grunkemeyer airs it out for 53-yard touchdown passEthan Grunkemeyer connects for 53-yard TD pass
play1:00Ian Strong makes impressive TD grab on Rutgers’ opening driveIan Strong’s nice catch in the end zone is ruled a touchdown, giving Rutgers an early 7-0 lead over Northwestern.
Has the Big Ten become the dominant conference in college football? (0:57)Dusty Dvoracek says the Big Ten has regained its place as the top conference in college football after winning three consecutive national championships. (0:57)
Ethan Grunkemeyer airs it out for 53-yard touchdown passEthan Grunkemeyer connects for 53-yard TD pass
Ian Strong makes impressive TD grab on Rutgers’ opening driveIan Strong’s nice catch in the end zone is ruled a touchdown, giving Rutgers an early 7-0 lead over Northwestern.
Ian Strong’s nice catch in the end zone is ruled a touchdown, giving Rutgers an early 7-0 lead over Northwestern.
College football’s lone transfer portal window for the 2026 season has, for all intents and purposes, closed. Thousands of players entered and programs across the country vigorously filled needs — and in some cases radically overhauled their roster. Even in a condensed two-week window, the movement left behind a wake of change.
Some programs prioritized retention and leaned more heavily on traditional recruiting, a path that can still produce winning results. Regardless of approach, the portal touches every program.
While roster movement isn’t over — players who entered the portal prior to last week’s deadline are still free to sign in the coming days and weeks — the fervor has died down, allowing us to examine which programs best utilized the portal to strengthen their roster for the upcoming season.
LSU knew hiring Lane Kiffin would invite plenty of scrutiny, but also plenty of big fish in the transfer portal. Kiffin lived up to his reputation as a dealmaker by securing multiple top players in the portal.
Nailing a transfer portal class can alter the trajectory of a program. Just ask Texas Tech, which dominated the portal in 2025, then reached the College Football Playoff. The Red Raiders were once again among the most prolific teams — and spenders — in 2026. They landed Brendan Sorsby, the top-ranked quarterback on the market. A three-year starter, Sorsby’s track record, improvisational skills and dual-threat athleticism give Texas Tech a higher ceiling than it had with Behren Morton.
The Red Raiders have some work to do to simply maintain their momentum. They need to replace 24.5 combined sacks between pass rushers David Bailey and Romello Height, their leading tackler at linebacker (Jacob Rodriguez) and their leading tackler in the secondary in Cole Wisniewski.
To do so, coach Joey McGuire leaned on a familiar blueprint. The headliner is top-10 transfer Mateen Ibirogba (No. 8), a versatile defensive lineman from Wake Forest, and he’s joined by a pair of ultra-productive Group of 5 defensive ends in Trey White (San Diego State) and Adam Trick (Miami-Ohio). Inside linebacker Austin Romaine comes over from Kansas State, where he had one of his best outings of the year against Texas Tech when he had eight tackles and a sack in Week 10.
Few programs have taken advantage of the portal like Indiana, and coach Curt Cignetti stuck to his blueprint again for 2026 by prioritizing starting experience at positions of need to coalesce around a new quarterback.
Josh Hoover doesn’t have the physical upside of other top-ranked transfer quarterbacks, but he has enough arm strength and accuracy to push the ball vertically in Indiana’s system if he can keep his turnovers in check. He has a ready-made No. 1 wide receiver in Nick Marsh. The Michigan State transfer is Indiana’s highest-ranked portal addition because of his 6-foot-3 frame, speed and big-play ability. Expect him to step into Elijah Sarratt’s role seamlessly.
Elsewhere, Joe Brunner comes over from Wisconsin and is a coveted experienced plug-and-play OL. Boston College running back Turbo Richard is a great scheme fit at a position that will lose two trusted seniors. Defensively, Indiana restocked with Tobi Osunsanmi (Kansas State), AJ Harris (Penn State) Joshua Burnham (Notre Dame), Chiddi Obiazor (Kansas State) and Joe Hjelle (Tulsa) — a group that arrives with 162 combined games of college experience.
Texas’ transfer portal class checks every box. The Longhorns landed one of the top prospects in wide receiver Cam Coleman to create one of the sport’s more exciting receiver pairings alongside Ryan Wingo. Coleman’s ceiling rivals any receiver in the country.
They also overhauled their running backs room, landing Hollywood Smothers (NC State) and Raleek Brown (Arizona State). Their overlapping skill sets and three-down ability should allow them to function seamlessly as a tandem.
Ohio State fielded college football’s most feared defense during the regular season, and its most prominent portal additions focused on reloading defensive coordinator Matt Patricia’s group.
The Buckeyes hope they can coax a bit more production out of a pair of Alabama transfers: defensive lineman James Smith and outside linebacker Qua Russaw. At 6-foot-3, 310 pounds, Smith has great size, active hands and the versatility to move around the defensive line, though his play didn’t grade out as favorably in 2025 compared to 2024. Russaw is a one-time five-star prospect with some physical markers that jump on tape, but staying healthy and productive has been a struggle.
They’ll also need to replace a major hole left by the departure of Caleb Downs. Florida State transfer Earl Little Jr. has some of the same rover-style tendencies that made Downs so impactful around the line of scrimmage, and don’t be surprised if Duke transfer Terry Moore outperforms his portal pedigree if he can get healthy in 2026. He has tremendous closing speed and great instincts on the back end.
Matt Campbell needed to attack the portal with roster defections and having inherited an almost nonexistent 2026 recruiting class. He won’t have trouble establishing culture and identity in State College. Penn State’s new coach brought nearly two dozen transfers with him from Iowa State as he assembled a portal class approaching 40 players during a dizzying stretch of roster movement.
Quarterback Rocco Becht is the nucleus of the group. He started 39 games for Campbell at Iowa State and Penn State will entrust the offense to him, including checks at the line, because he’s a quick processor who is also comfortable using his mobility to extend plays when protection breaks down.
While Becht is the headliner, Marcus Neal was a disruptive hybrid safety-linebacker in Campbell’s defensive scheme. Penn State’s top nine transfers all arrive via Iowa State, but Campbell also went outside his program, including landing running back James Peoples from Ohio State, where he averaged 5.6 yards per carry in a part-time role behind breakout freshman Bo Jackson.
Fair or not, one of the major subplots to Pete Golding’s first offseason in Oxford was how he would respond to the roster movement that followed Lane Kiffin’s departure for LSU. Ole Miss’ class lacks the same star power, but it’s plenty deep.
Golding landed multiple top-100 caliber portal prospects and reshaped his secondary, headlined by Florida State transfer Edwin Joseph, a long, rangy safety with impressive ball skills who is strong in run support, plus hard-hitting Georgia safety Joenel Aguero.
Young, projectable offensive tackles are a premium in the portal, and Golding landed freshman Carius Curne from LSU no less. The Rebels also brought in untested yet ultra-talented dual-threat quarterback Deuce Knight, who was out of Mississippi and could be thrust into a starting role if Trinidad Chambliss’ lawsuit against the NCAA seeking another year of eligibility fails.
Kentucky hasn’t finished in the top half of the SEC since 2022, so one strong portal class alone likely won’t flip the script in Lexington. Still, new coach Will Stein clearly received the institutional support to make an instant splash and outperform several SEC peers the Wildcats are chasing in the standings.
Stein has a great track record with quarterbacks and prioritized Notre Dame transfer Kenny Minchey. Minchey hasn’t played much, but the former four-star has polish, mobility and some creativity even when off script.
Kentucky also prioritized offensive line reinforcements to address one of the SEC’s least imposing passing offenses. Lance Heard earned All-SEC honors at left tackle with Tennessee, Coleton Price started 31 consecutive games on Baylor’s interior line and Tegra Tshabola was a two-year starter at Ohio State. That collective experience should help stabilize the offense and give Minchey a much-needed runway during his first extended stretch of college playing time.
Kyle Whittingham’s first plunge into the portal at Michigan was largely successful. He retained enough talent to avoid a mass exodus and landed three top-50 transfers. Defensive end John Henry Daley, one of several transfers to follow Whittingham to Ann Arbor, is by far the most impactful. He’s a plug-and-play contributor who has a mean streak against the run. Daley’s arrival could take some pressure off incoming five-star defensive end Carter Meadows to make an immediate impact.
Smith Snowden was a two-year starter at cornerback for Whittingham at Utah. Michigan’s class also has some younger transfers with upside and plenty of runway, including tight end JJ Buchanan (Utah), wide receiver Jaime Ffrench Jr. (Texas) and offensive guard Houston Ka’aha’aina-Torres (Nebraska). Michigan also landed SC Next 300 prospect Salesi Moa, who originally signed with Utah last month but has jumped to the Wolverines and can develop at WR or in the secondary.
Michigan even revamped its quarterback depth behind Bryce Underwood, bringing in both Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi (Colorado State) and Colin Hurley (LSU).