With conference play beginning in earnest this week, we have a good idea about what teams have hit on their transfer prospect evaluations and which ones haven’t. Let’s take another look at the top five teams from the 2024 transfer team rankings to see how well they’ve handled improving their roster.
ARIZONA STATE
Notable Arizona State transfers Raleek Brown, Cole Martin and Kamari Wilson have not played much at all but that hasn’t seemed to hurt the 3-1 Sun Devils much this season. Michigan State quarterback transfer Sam Leavitt won the starting job in the offseason but, with just three touchdown passes and two interceptions, he isn’t exactly torching secondaries.
Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham and his staff have brought in a lot of transfers who may not be overly impressive on an individual basis but they fit their role well on the team and the sum is certainly greater than the parts on their own.
COLORADO
Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes are one of the most divisive college football discussion points but one thing is clear: This Colorado team is much improved from last year and it hit on a lot of their transfer additions from this offseason. With more than 40 transfer additions, Colorado had the top-ranked transfer class in the 2024 cycle.
On the offensive line, transfers Justin Mayer, Phillip Houston, Tyler Brown and Kahlil Benson have played a lot of meaningful snaps and the sack numbers on Sheduer Sanders are much lower compared with last season.
Defensively, Colorado has kept four of its five opponents under 30 points this year, something it only did five times last season. B.J. Green II, Dayon Hayes, Samuel Okunlola, Nikhai Hill-Green and D.J. McKinney have all been major contributors through five games this season.
LOUISVILLE
Trying to build off a 10-win season last year, coach Jeff Brohm and his staff added more than 25 players from the transfer portal, including four-stars Caullin Lacy and Thor Griffith. Lacy was supposed to be the top receiver for the Cardinals this season but he was sidelined due to injury for the first four games of this season. Expectations were rightfully very high for him after posting 91 catches for 1,305 yards and seven touchdowns a season ago.
Alabama receiver transfer Ja’Corey Brooks has stepped up to fill the No. 1 receiver role. Meanwhile, Texas Tech transfer quarterback Tyler Shough has played well enough to get Louisville to 3-1. On the defensive side of the ball, Rutgers defensive line transfer Rene Konga is Louisville’s highest-graded defender. Harvard transfer Thor Griffith, a four-star defensive lineman, has not played or been as productive as expected. Brohm and his staff seem to have done well to solidify priority areas with players who may not necessarily have the talent to stand out on their own but they complement each other well.
OLE MISS
Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss finished with the No. 2 transfer class. Among their more than 20 transfer additions were seven top-100 transfer prospects, including five-star Walter Nolen and No. 21 overall prospect Princely Umanmielen. Both of them have lived up to the hype so far and Umanmielen, a transfer from Florida, leads the team in quarterback pressures according to PFF.
Linebacker Chris Paul Jr., a transfer from Arkansas, has the most sacks on the team. Isaiah Hamilton, a transfer from Houston, has also been a solid player for Ole Miss this season.
The high-powered Ole Miss offense added Juice Wells from South Carolina to its talented receiving corps but he hasn’t been as productive as many expected. Running back Logan Diggs hurt his knee in the offseason and has yet to play this season but Miami transfer Henry Parrish Jr. has filled that position nicely.
The offensive line transfers – Nate Kalepo, Diego Pounds and Julius Buelow – have had uneven performances this season and did not meet expectations when they played Kentucky this past weekend.
As a whole, it appears the transfers Ole Miss brought in during the offseason have taken on the personality of Kiffin and his team – talented but inconsistent.
TEXAS A&M
Mike Elko’s first season in College Station as the head coach is off to a 4-1 start. The season-opening 10-point loss to Notre Dame is in the rearview mirror and the Aggies have been stacking up wins despite having both Conner Weigman and Marcel Reed under center at various points this season.
The transfers Texas A&M brought in during the offseason have been playing a big role thus far. Defensive backs Will Lee and Dezz Ricks have been playing well but Nic Scourton, the crown jewel of Texas A&M’s transfer class, has been one of the defensive leaders.
Other than offensive linemen Ar’Maj Reed-Adams and Kolinu’u Faaiu, the offensive transfers the Aggies brought in haven’t exactly delivered but Elko and company should feel good about the number of transfer prospects who have already found success.
