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College football’s transfer portal has shaped the 2026 season at every level, as the 21 transfers below have powered contenders such as Miami and UCLA while giving programs like Oregon State, Georgia State and Missouri State new building blocks.
Miami climbed to No. 1 in the AP poll this week for the first time since 2002 with Duke transfer Darian Mensah under center, and UCLA is 6-0 under first-year coach Bob Chesney with three transfers on this list.
Quick note before we begin: The players are not ranked below, the list is in alphabetical order
Last season’s Jerry Rice Award went to Braden Atkinson as the Football Championship Subdivision’s top freshman at Mercer, and he’s carried that production into Corvallis. He has 2,604 passing yards with 24 touchdowns and two interceptions for 5-2 Oregon State, which has him among the players who could be top targets this offseason.
Veteran cornerbacks kept Kaleb Beasley off the field at Tennessee, but Louisville has turned the former Vol into one of the ACC’s top ball hawks. He has five interceptions, including two against SMU that earned him Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week honors, and he credited both to “reading the quarterback.”
At Middle Tennessee last season, Muaaz Byard made 37 tackles. The younger brother of Chicago Bears safety Kevin Byard has 69 tackles this season for UAB, which signed him as one of 41 portal additions in January, 27 of them on defense under coordinator Todd Grantham.
Kentucky is 6-1 and tied for the SEC lead, and Florida transfer Jordan Castell’s four interceptions are a big reason why. He picked off John Mateer twice in a 21-13 win at Oklahoma, returning the second 41 yards for a touchdown with 1:17 left, against what first-year coach Will Stein called “one of the best defenses we’ll see all year.”
No running back in the country gained more yards last season than Cam Cook did at Jacksonville State, and he opened his West Virginia career with a 72-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. He has 833 rushing yards for coach Rich Rodriguez after the Mountaineers’ top rusher managed only 335 yards in 2025.
Xavier Esqillion set a Savannah State record with five sacks against Morehouse last season and left Division II with 21 sacks over two years. The Charlotte native has seven sacks and two forced fumbles for Georgia State.
When defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left Penn State for Tennessee, Xavier Gilliam followed him after managing a half sack in two seasons with the Nittany Lions. The 305-pound Maryland native has five sacks and 10 tackles for loss for a defense that held Alabama to 10 points and has the Vols looking like a legitimate SEC threat.
Virginia Tech is 5-2 since coach James Franklin brought Ethan Grunkemeyer with him from Penn State. Grunkemeyer has completed 72.9% of his passes for 1,984 yards with 15 touchdowns and two interceptions, and his 314-yard night at Maryland snapped the Terrapins’ 20-game nonconference winning streak.
Sione Hala began his career at Boston College and made 64 tackles at Weber State in 2025. The Los Angeles native has emerged as a leader alongside three-time captain Tano Letuli and has 69 tackles for San Diego State.
Once John Mateer arrived at Oklahoma, Michael Hawkins Jr.’s path to the starting job closed, so West Virginia built its up-tempo offense around him. He ran for 103 yards in his debut, becoming the first Mountaineers quarterback to throw and run for 100 yards in a game since Garrett Greene, and threw for a career-high 464 yards against Cincinnati last weekend.
Two interceptions in his UCLA debut at Cal earned Ta’Shawn James Big Ten co-Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Iowa State transfer has four interceptions, including a 39-yard pick-six at Maryland, for a defense that led the nation in interceptions entering the Wisconsin game.
“From the start, we came out, we punched them, and we just kept on going,” Wayne Knight said after UCLA’s win at Oregon. One of 10 James Madison transfers who followed Chesney to Westwood, Knight averaged 7.7 yards per carry with 10 rushing touchdowns through five games, and his goal-line score against Wisconsin kept UCLA unbeaten with backup Ty Dieffenbach starting for the injured Nico Iamaleava.
Minimal playing time at Oregon gave little hint of what Kingston Lopa would do at Cal, where the 6-foot-5 safety led the country with five interceptions after three games. His three-interception day at Syracuse included a go-ahead pick-six and gave coach Tosh Lupoi his first win as Cal’s coach.
A reunion with offensive coordinator Rob Ezell, who coached him at South Alabama, has revived Gio Lopez after a quieter year at North Carolina. The move gives him “a lot of comfort,” and he’s thrown for 1,946 yards with 17 touchdowns and one interception while ranking first among 262 qualified quarterbacks in Pro Football Focus’ overall grades.
Mensah threw for 401 yards and five touchdowns in his debut at Stanford, then went 153 passes before his first interception. His 326 yards and three touchdowns in the 43-35 win over Florida State set up the No. 1 ranking, and he trails only Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith in the Heisman Trophy race.
Oklahoma State went 1-11 in 2025, then coach Eric Morris brought Drew Mestemaker from North Texas, where he led the country with 4,379 passing yards. The former walk-on led a 39-31 upset of Oregon and has the Cowboys at 4-2, and Morris says he’s “just scratching the surface” of his ability.
Isaiah Myers caught two passes for 43 yards at Western Kentucky last season after earlier stops at Independence Community College, Charlotte and Purdue. The 6-foot-4 Cincinnati native has 796 receiving yards for Missouri State.
Before he played a snap at UCLA, Sammy Omosigho was named a permanent captain. The Oklahoma transfer earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors with 12 tackles, two sacks and two forced fumbles against Purdue, giving him a forced fumble in three straight games.
Osunsanmi missed the final six games of 2025 at Kansas State with an injury, and the Wichita native has stayed healthy for coach Curt Cignetti. He has seven sacks and entered the Ohio State game paired with Stephen Daley as the Big Ten’s top two sack leaders.
Jordan Seaton arrived as the portal’s top offensive tackle after 22 starts at Colorado and has protected quarterback Sam Leavitt at left tackle. The former five-star prospect from Washington, D.C., made the Outland Trophy preseason watch list and hasn’t allowed a pressure through six games.
Coach Lane Kiffin brought the portal’s top-ranked edge rusher with him from Ole Miss, and Princewill Umanmielen led LSU with two sacks in a 51-10 opening rout of Clemson. The Austin, Texas, native has eight sacks, and after that opener he said, “You ain’t never going to play a perfect game, always room to get better.”
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