Transfer portal breakdown: Arizona defends its turf, Oregon gobbles talent, UW needs linemen, Colorado loses skill and more

The spring transfer window closed last week for football and basketball players. While hundreds of names remain in the portal, the number of impact transfers has dwindled to the point that we feel comfortable drawing initial conclusions.

Some programs fared better than others.

(Please note: The assessment below does not take high school recruiting or NFL/NBA departures into account. Our focus is transfer portal comings and goings.)

Winner: Arizona football

New coach Brent Brennan and the Wildcats stand, in our estimation, as the biggest winner of the spring transfer cycle. Yes, they lost a handful of players, several of them to Washington. But the bigger story is who they retained: Quarterback Noah Fifita, receiver Tetairoa McMillan, linebacker Jacob Manu and cornerback Tacario Davis are not following former coach Jedd Fisch to Seattle. They are not seeking bigger and better deals in the SEC. They are not jumping to the Big Ten-bound schools in Los Angeles. They are the core four for a program well positioned to challenge for the Big 12 title and keep the momentum rolling. Given all the options available for the quartet and all the tampering that assuredly unfolded over these past four months — everybody tampers — this constitutes the best defense Arizona has played since Desert Swarm.

Loser: Washington football 

The Huskies were gutted by attrition in January, with loads of starters bolting for the NFL Draft or the transfer portal. While Fisch secured a starting quarterback (Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers), he has not reloaded the lines of scrimmage to the level required for UW to compete for a top-tier finish in the Big Ten. That’s particularly true on offense. According to the 247Sports database, the Huskies have added Enokk Vimahi from Ohio State, Logan Sagapolu from Miami and a few others since the coaching change. Consider us underwhelmed. (Neither Vimahi or Sagapolu was a regular starter for his previous team.) To be clear: We’ll reassess UW’s situation in a few weeks if additional linemen are secured. We suspect Fisch is still looking.

Winner: Oregon football

The Ducks have lost more than a dozen players to the portal since the regular season ended. We suggest disregarding  that number and instead focusing on seven players who have been added to the roster: quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma) and Dante Moore (UCLA), receiver Evan Stewart (Texas A&M), defensive tackles Derrick Harmon (Michigan State) and Jamaree Caldwell (Houston), cornerback Jabbar Muhammad (Washington) and safety Peyton Woodyard (Alabama). In other words, Oregon’s incoming transfer class is high on quality at key positions. The Ducks are loaded for Year 1 in the Big Ten.

Loser: Utah basketball

The emotional wallop is worse than the production lost in Salt Lake City with the departures of big man Keba Keita and guard Deivon Smith. Why? Because Smith was Utah’s floor leader (7.1 assists per game) and Keita left for the school down the road. One day after Utes assistant coach Chris Burgess bolted for a similar position at Brigham Young, Keita followed to Provo. The twin departures rocked Utah’s program and left behind the most bitter taste possible from the portal.

Winner: UCLA basketball

The Bruins needed a recharge after a disappointing season and found several pieces in the portal with USC wing Kobe Johnson, a strong defender, Oregon State forward Tyler Bilodeau, Oklahoma State big man Eric Dailey and Louisville guard Skyy Clark, who scored 36 points against N.C. State in the ACC tournament. Meanwhile, coach Mick Cronin was  able to avoid a mass exodus into the portal.

Loser: Arizona State football

ASU’s rough spring is no surprise given the challenges facing second-year coach Kenny Dillingham. The Sun Devils have lost quarterback Jaden Rashada, receiver Elijhah Badger, cornerback Ed Woods and a few others. Granted, they have acquired dozens of players from the portal since the end of the regular season, including presumptive starting quarterback Sam Leavitt (of Michigan State). But we see a net loss for ASU at this point. That said, Dillingham is doing quite well on the high school recruiting trail this spring.

Winner: Cal football

Our view of the Bears’ situation does not require much context or many sentences: Simply put, they managed to  retain the one  player they could not lose: tailback Jaydn Ott. All other comings and goings are secondary. Ott is the face of  Cal football, one of the top tailbacks in the country and a proxy for the trajectory of the program entering coach Justin Wilcox’s eighth season. Had he departed, the skies over Strawberry Canyon would have turned dark. Instead, the Bears have reason for optimism entering the ACC.

Loser: Colorado football

The Buffaloes have been active again this spring, both with player movement and social media disputes. Coach Deion Sanders managed to fortify his offensive line with a bevy of transfers from Power Five programs. But attrition at skill the positions has been severe with the departures of tailback Dylan Edwards and cornerbacks Omarion Cooper and Cormani McClain. And we view the upheaval itself as a detriment. Cohesion matters, especially up front.

Winner: Cal basketball

Second-year coach Mark Madsen is thriving in the portal yet again. One year after landing program-changers Jaylon Tyson, Jalen Cone and Fardaws Aimaq, the Bears have gobbled up Stanford wing Andrej Stojakovic, a former five-star prospect, productive Air Force forward Rytis Petraitis and two quality mid-major guards, Christian Tucker (UTSA) and DJ Campbell (Western Carolina). The newcomers should offset Tyson’s departure (to the NBA).

Losers: Washington State and Oregon State football

We have grouped the Cougars and Beavers together because heavy personnel losses on both campuses can be traced to the same source: The breakup of the Pac-12 and their uncertain futures in a two-team conference that had a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West. Both starting quarterbacks (OSU’s DJ Uiagalelei and WSU’s Cam Ward) departed when the portal opened in late 2023. But the attrition since April 1 is substantial, as well: The schools have gained three players (combined) and lost 22, with OSU tailback Damien Martinez’s exit as the most significant. Few players still available are capable of making material improvement to either roster

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