Oklahoma football: ESPN ranks 3 Sooners among top-50 transfers in portal era
By Chip Rouse
I’m not sure college head coaches, like Oklahoma football’s Brent Venables, fully embrace the transfer portal as a prime recruiting tool, but they certainly are keen to the perils of ignoring it.
Transfers have always been a part of college sports, but over the last five years it has become a revolution. More than 2,000 players were part of the transfer process a year ago, and at least that many are expected to move through the transfer portal this offseason.
ESPN recently posted an article by staff writer Bill Connelly on its ESPN+ platform (subscription required) ranking the top-50 college football players from the transfer portal era.
Three Sooners are listed among the top 50 that have transitioned through the transfer portal in the five years it has operated in its present form and two from OU are ranked in the top 10.
Beginning in 2021, players who entered the transfer portal for the first time were granted immediate eligibility at their new school instead of having to sit out one year before being permitted to play. When that change was implemented, the transfer process exploded.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts, who transferred to Oklahoma ahead of the 2019 season, is the highest ranked Oklahoma player at No. 8 on a list that is headed by another quarterback, Joe Burrow of LSU by way of Ohio State. Perhaps not that surprising, given the importance and impact of the position, quarterbacks hold down the first 10 spots in the ranking, including No. 9 Dillion Gabriel of OU.
In all, 18 quarterbacks are ranked among the top 50 transfers in the portal era (2018-23).
Punter Michael Turk, who played at Oklahoma for two seasons after transferring from Arizona State prior to the 2021 season, is the third Sooner ranked among the top 50 transfers. The former All-Big 12 selection brings up the tail end of the ranking at No. 50.
Oklahoma has always welcomed transfers as part of the program. In fact, several recent Sooner All-Americans were products of the transfer process. Former OU quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray came to Norman as transfers from Texas Tech and Texas A&M, respectively. We all know how that worked out. Both ended their collegiate careers as Heisman Trophy winners and become No. 1 overall picks in the NFL Draft.
Sooner fans will also remember the names Dede Westbrook and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, both of whom were outstanding wide receivers and transferred to Oklahoma after beginning their careers at other schools.