Three predictions for the winter transfer portal window
Rivals rankings director and transfer portal analyst Adam Friedman has a trio of predictions on Michigan’s attractiveness in the portal, USC’s top transfer priority, and Colorado’s level of activity in the portal.
1. MICHIGAH WILL BE A TRANSFER DESTINATION FOR OFFENSE.
Bryce Underwood flipping to Michigan on Thursday sent shockwaves through the recruiting world and the Wolverines are already seeing an uptick in recruiting momentum. Regardless of how Michigan finishes its 2025 recruiting class, expect the Wolverines to garner significant interest from top playmakers via the transfer portal.
Michigan has a path to quickly return to form next season as long as the team gets average play from the quarterback position – something that is expected when Underwood arrives on campus. There are players around the college football world who have been keeping a close eye on Underwood and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see some of them transfer to Michigan to play with him.
2. AT LEAST TWO DEFENSIVE TACKLES WILL TRANSFER TO USC.
USC has a lot of work to do to return to the College Football Playoff conversation. The move to the Big Ten has been difficult for the Trojans but they don’t have too many holes left to plug to get back to being a contender. One area that needs to be fixed: the run defense. Lincoln Riley has never been known for having a stout defense but USC can’t win in the Big Ten with such a poor run defense. Coming into Saturday’s games, USC ranked 13th out of the 18 teams in the Big Ten in average rushing yards allowed, rushing touchdowns allowed, and average yards per rush.
Since Riley arrived at USC, the Trojans have signed a trio of three-star defensive tackles and currently hold commitments from two more three-star defensive tackles in the 2025 recruiting class. There have been a few defensive tackles to transfer in during the Riley-era, like headliners Anthony Lucas and Bear Alexander, but only Lucas seems to have panned out.
If USC hopes to contend for championships, they need to address their run defense and the first way to fix that is to add big bodies on the defensive line.
3. COLORADO WILL ADD MORE TRANSFERS THAN ANY OTHER POWER FOUR PROGRAM.
Not exactly going out on a limb here since Colorado has taken more than 40 transfers in each of the last two years. Deion Sanders made it clear he wants to bring in players who can play right away. That means transfers because there are very few high school prospects who arrive in college with the physical traits to play immediately. Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders and nearly every other starter for Colorado transferred there so look for the Buffs to reload via the portal.
Sure, Colorado just landed a commitment from five-star Julian Lewis, the program’s quarterback of the future, and very likely have a few other highly-ranked high school commitments on the way but Deion Sanders has signed a total of 34 high school prospects in the two classes as head coach of the Buffs. There won’t be many more commitments from high school players and Colorado will turn their full attention to adding instant contributors from the transfer portal.
