2023 College Football Transfer Portal: Spotlight on All-Transfer Team
Plenty of Quarterbacks, Receivers and Cornerbacks On The Move in College Football
Can Former Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman Take Notre Dame To the Next Level?
Like it or not, the transfer portal has taken over the college sports world. With that in mind, let’s look at how a 2023 College Football Transfer Portal team might look.
There has been even more chaos than normal during the offseason as first-year Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has followed through on his promise to dismantle the 2022 Colorado roster and replace the departing players through the transfer portal.
Colorado has the top-rated group of incoming transfers followed by Louisiana State, Auburn, Southern California, Ole Miss and Florida State. When looking at the college football odds, USC (+1400) is fifth and LSU (+1600) in the odds to win the national title.
Among the players who transferred during the offseason, current Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman has the best odds to win the Heisman Trophy as he is priced at +1600. Counting Hartman, six of the top nine players in the current odds to win the Heisman Trophy.
Plenty of high-profile transfers should be in action in Week 1 of the College Football schedule with Notre Dame a 20.5-point favorite against Navy, Miami (Florida) favored by 17 points against the other Miami team, Michigan a 36-point favorite versus East Carolina, Colorado a 20-point underdog against Texas Christian while LSU is favored by three points against Florida State.
Here’s a look at the all-transfer portal team based on the 247sports.com database
Quarterback – Sam Hartman, Notre Dame
The nod in the 2023 College Football transfer portal quarterback spot could easily have gone to Devin Leary, the former North Carolina State QB who is now at Kentucky. However, based on the database, Hartman (a three-year starter at Wake Forest) gets the nod after throwing for 94 touchdowns in his four seasons with the Demon Deacons.
Running Back – Carson Steele, UCLA
Steele led Ball State in rushing in each of his two seasons and is coming off a season with 1,556 yards and 14 TDs to go with 29 receptions.
Receiver – Adonai Mitchell, Texas
Mitchell is the No. 3 rated transfer after coming up with nine catches and 136 yards in six games for national champion Georgia. He is a player to watch when it comes to players changing teams in the 2023 College Football transfer portal.
Receiver – Devontez Walker, North Carolina
Eleven of Walker’s 58 catches in 2022 at Kent State went for touchdowns.
Receiver – Dominic Lovett, Georgia
Lovett stays in the SEC after averaging 15.1 yards on 56 catches as a sophomore at Missouri.
Tight End – Jaheim Bell, Florida State
The Florida native heads home after rushing for 261 yards and adding 25 catches at South Carolina in 2022.
Offensive Tackles – Dillon Wade and Jeremiah Byers
No tackles are in the top 25 in the transfer database. Wade, who goes from Tulsa to Auburn, comes in at No. 29 with Byers, who transferred from UTEP to Florida State, checking in at No. 34.
Interior Offensive Line – Javion Cohen, Avery Jones and LaDarius Henderson
Cohen is the top-rated offensive line transfer after heading from Alabama to Miami.
Jones makes the move from East Carolina to Auburn while LaDarius Henderson goes from playing for former NFL head coach Herman Edwards to Arizona State to Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.
Edge Rushers – Jordan Burch and Gilber Edmond
Burch grew up near the South Carolina campus. However, after having 8.5 tackles for loss in three seasons for the Gamecocks, he transferred to Oregon.
Florida State struck pay dirt with the arrival of edge rusher Jared Verse in 2022 and the Seminoles hope for more of the same from former South Carolina pass rusher Edmond.
Interior Defensive Linemen – Bear Alexander and Branden Fiske
After having nine tackles and two sacks as a freshman at Georgia, the 305-pound Alexander headed to USC. Fiske was rather disruptive in his final season at Western Michigan with 12 tackles for loss and six sacks. Now he is at Florida State.
Linebackers -Ernest Hausmann, Dasan McCullough and Francisco Mauigoa
One of the two double-digit tackle games for Hausmann as a freshman at Nebraska came against Michigan and now he will be joining the Wolverines as the only linebacker among the top-10 ranked transfers.
New Oklahoma linebacker McCullough recorded 49 tackles, four sacks and three pass breakups as a freshman at Indiana.
Mauigoa had 60 tackles, 3.5 sacks and returned an interception 95 yards for a score at Washington State. Now he joins former Oregon coach Mario Cristobal at Miami.
Cornerbacks – Travis Hunter, Denver Harris and Fentrell Cypress
This was the year to find a cornerback in the portal. Hunter, who followed Sanders from Jackson State to Colorado, is the top-ranked transfer in the country. Denver Harris, who went from Texas A&M to LSU, is right on Hunter’s heels with Fentrell Cypress, a former Virginia recruit who is now at Florida State, the No. 5-rated transfer.
Safeties – Ja’Had Carter and Davison Igbinosun
Ohio State added Carter, a former Syracuse standout who had three interceptions and a fumble recovery in 2022.
We cheated a little bit. With no other safety rated in the top 50, former Ole Miss cornerback is given one of the safety spots even though he will likely be a cornerback at Ohio State. If we went exclusively with a player expected to play safety, the nod would go to RJ Moten as he moves from Michigan to Florida.
Kicker – Caden Davis, Ole Miss
Davis only had one field goal for Texas A&M in 2022. He did, however, have 47 touchbacks on 56 kickoffs.
Punter – Ryan Sanborn, Texas
Sanborn averaged 41.7 yards per punt at Stanford last season. He doesn’t figure to be quite as busy in 2023 at Texas.
Return Specialist – Brian Battie, Auburn
Battie was fourth nationally with 659 kickoff return yards for South Florida in 2022.
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