Tennessee, Vanderbilt lead SEC transfer portal exodus

This is Transfer Portal time. As fun as we might make of certain players, we have seen a growing amount of ‘free agency’ running about as players have found it increasingly easier to move their careers to get more playing time.

Loyalty be damned! This is all about players wanted to get to the NFL Draft as soon as possible.

And quite frankly, good on ’em. Most of the players seem to go and play at Non-Power 5 schools, where they’ll get the chance to stand out more (it also helps that conferences like the AAC are beginning to get national attention (Memphis have 4 incoming players and SMU has three at the start of the process).

So far, 83 SEC Players are in the transfer portal. 32% of them are made up of Tennessee and Vanderbilt players.

So here are the numbers in terms of SEC Players (outgoing), highlighted by much-hated Tennessee QB Jarrett Guarantano.

Patterns-wise, we’ve noticed that no-one wants to stay around a team where there’s either a losing attitude or where a head coach has been recently fired or is on the hot seat. That’s why Tennessee’s at the top and Vanderbilt’s in second place. It’s also why Alabama is near the bottom. The middle-tier, with Georgia, Auburn and Texas A&M is interesting, but let’s be honest: All three schools have so much talent that a former four-star who can’t get in the team won’t exactly be missed.

 

  • Tennessee: 14
  • Vanderbilt: 13
  • LSU: 8
  • Missouri: 8
  • Auburn: 7
  • Georgia: 6
  • Texas A&M: 6
  • Florida: 5
  • South Carolina: 5
  • Arkansas: 4
  • Ole Miss: 4
  • Alabama: 2
  • Kentucky: 1

That is not to say that SEC schools don’t have players incoming, highlighted by Damarkcus Bowman, the former Clemson 5-star who decided to go and play for Dan Mullen at Florida and will play immediately in 2021.

So here’s the number of players incoming. Again, early indications have it that Mike Leach is definitely going to take in a lot of players from the ‘transfer market’, as will Auburn because of new head coach Bryan Harsin not having any recruiting (Note: TE Mark Carcaterra, a star player at OU, transferred during the Malzahn era), as well as Vanderbilt as it just fired Derek Mason.

  • Mississippi State: 3
  • Auburn: 2
  • Vanderbilt: 2
  • Arkansas: 1
  • Florida: 1
  • Kentucky: 1
  • Missouri: 1
  • Alabama: 0
  • Georgia: 0
  • LSU: 0
  • Ole Miss: 0
  • South Carolina: 0
  • Tennessee: 0
  • Texas A&M: 0