INDIANAPOLIS – College football is a sport steeped in tradition, from Michigan vs. Ohio State, to the Iron Bowl, to the Army-Navy game and to the beautiful view of the San Gabriel Mountains as the sun sets at the Rose Bowl. Another tradition in college football was that coaches and administrators had control over player movement, with the ability to deny transfers up until October of 2018, when the transfer portal was launched.
It's been a game-changer since, and nowhere was that clearer than at the Big Ten football media days last week. Of the Big Ten's 18 teams after the conference's West Coast expansion, 14 teams are expected to begin the season with a starting quarterback who has transferred at least once. Only four squads are expected to a have a home-grown starter.
"The biggest takeaway is, like always, you have to embrace change," said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, the dean of college football coaches who's starting his 26th season in Iowa City. "It is inevitable. It's part of what we do, and certainly it's part of college football right now.
" Only Michigan (junior Alex Orji), Nebraska (freshman Dylan Raiola), Penn State (junior Drew Allar) and USC (junior Miller Moss) have presumptive starters from within the program. Ferentz likely will start Michigan transfer Cade McNamara, whose 2023 debut season with the Hawkeyes was scuttled because of injury. Travel 300 miles north of Iowa City, and you'll find another Big Ten coach jumping headfirst into the transfer portal quarte.
