<\/p>\n
FILE – Eric Morris attends a news conference introducing him as the new head coach of the Oklahoma State NCAA college football team, Dec. 8, 2025 in Stillwater, Okla.<\/p>\n
Cliff Brun t\/AP Photo\/Cliff Brun t<\/p>\n
FILE – Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) runs past Houston linebacker Jalen Garner (36) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Oct. 25, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz.<\/p>\n
Ross D. Franklin\/AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin<\/p>\n
Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. (4) gestures to quarterback Darian Mensah during a practice session at their training facility, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Coral Gables, Fla.<\/p>\n
Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier<\/p>\n
Miami quarterback Darian Mensah speaks following a team practice session at their training facility, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Coral Gables, Fla.<\/p>\n
Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier<\/p>\n
Some of this season\u2019s top college football transfers simply followed their coaches from one school to another.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For instance, former North Texas coach Eric Morris took over Oklahoma State\u2019s program and now has 21 of his former Mean Green players, including 18 who were with him last season. That list includes Drew Mestemaker, who threw for a Bowl Subdivision-leading 4,379 yards a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew the whole time, Coach Morris was going to be a huge factor,\u201d Mestemaker told reporters regarding the choice of his new school. \u201cWherever he went, that was probably going to be where I was going.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mestemaker\u2019s process wasn\u2019t unusual.<\/p>\n
John Henry Daley, who recorded 11 \u00bd sacks at Utah last season, accompanied coach Kyle Whittingham to Michigan. New Penn State coach Matt Campbell\u2019s roster features about two dozen of his former Iowa State players, including quarterback Rocco Becht.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I think my main decision was just to come in to play for Matt Campbell my final year, just because I had built relationships with a bunchy of the guys here already,\u201d Becht said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to ruin any of those. A great coaching staff was brought here, and I wanted to be a part of that at a great university.\u201d<\/p>\n
Becht arrives at Penn State after throwing for 9,274 yards and 64 touchdowns with 27 interceptions at Iowa State as a three-year starter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that so many transfers are making this type of choice. They only need to look at Indiana\u2019s remarkable turnaround for evidence this can work.<\/p>\n
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Curt Cignetti brought 13 of his former James Madison players with him after taking over at Indiana. They helped set the tone for Indiana\u2019s extraordinary turnaround that included earning a College Football Playoff berth in 2024 and winning a national title last season.<\/p>\n
These transfers believe familiarity with their longtime coaches will help them in their new situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what you get with Coach Whittingham,\u201d Daley said. \u201cYou know that you get discipline. You know that you get hard work. We expect to win games. That\u2019s something that I love. He\u2019s got a very old-school mindset in that, we\u2019re going to come in, we\u2019re going to attack every single day and we\u2019re going to be tough. It\u2019s not always going to be easy, but it\u2019s going to be worth it. That\u2019s something I love that you don\u2019t find everywhere. And that\u2019s something I wanted to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a rundown of some other transfers who should make a major impact this season (former schools in parentheses).<\/p>\n
Texas WR Cam Coleman (Auburn)<\/p>\n
Coleman was rated as the nation\u2019s No. 3 overall prospect<\/a> in his high school class by 247Sports. He caught 93 passes for 1,306 yards and 13 touchdowns in two seasons at Auburn without getting the chance to play for a quarterback the caliber of Texas\u2019 Arch Manning. Coleman gained attention on social media last weekend when Texas posted a video of him making a phenomenal catch<\/a> in practice.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Indiana QB Josh Hoover (TCU)<\/p>\n Hoover takes over for Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, who led Indiana to a national title before going to the Las Vegas Raiders with the first overall pick in the draft. Hoover, a three-year starter at TCU, has thrown for 9,629 yards and 71 touchdowns with 33 interceptions. Hoover headlines a noteworthy Indiana transfer portal class, as he will be throwing to former Michigan State receiver Nick Marsh and will be handing the ball off to ex-Boston College running back Turbo Richard.<\/p>\n LSU QB Sam Leavitt (Arizona State)<\/p>\n Leavitt helped Arizona State earn a playoff berth in 2024 before a foot injury limited him to seven games last season. Leavitt, who began his career at Michigan State, has completed 61.4% of his career passes for 4,652 yards with 36 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also has rushed for 816 yards and 10 touchdowns. Leavitt will be working behind a line that includes Jordan Seaton, a former five-star recruit who started 22 games at left tackle for Colorado the last two seasons.<\/p>\n Miami QB Darian Mensah (Duke)<\/p>\n After leading Duke to an Atlantic Coast Conference title, Mensah entered the portal and joined a conference rival that played for the national championship last season. This is Mensah\u2019s third school in as many years, as he played for Tulane in 2024. Mensah has been productive at each of his stops and has completed 66.5% of his career passes. He threw for 3,973 yards with 34 touchdowns and just six interceptions at Duke after accumulating 2,723 yards passing with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions at Tulane.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Oregon S Koi Perich (Minnesota)<\/p>\n Perich was an Associated Press first-team all-Big Ten selection in 2024 and a second-team pick last season. He had 82 tackles for Minnesota a year ago. He\u2019s also versatile enough to contribute on offense and special teams. During the 2024 season, Perich became the first Bowl Subdivision freshman since 1976 to intercept five passes while also collecting over 100 punt return yards and 100 kick return yards.<\/p>\n BYU LB Cade Uluave (Cal)<\/p>\n Uluave comes to BYU after compiling 100 tackles \u2013 12 for loss \u2013 at Cal last season. He earned second-team AP all-ACC honors and was a first-team selection on the all-ACC team put together by the league itself. Uluave totaled 237 tackles \u2013 21 \u00bd for loss \u2013 to go along with six sacks and three interceptions in three seasons at Cal.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and <\/a>https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – Eric Morris attends a news conference introducing him as the new head coach of the Oklahoma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":970476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[127498,16784,67726,73942,3619,7,944,29970,33137,3720,49,48,83966,27878,27876,83964,83965,96501,120436,122564,94819,122422,127146,95241,116404,122423,12012],"class_list":["post-970475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football-top-transfers","tag-curt-cignetti","tag-drew-mestemaker","tag-eric-morris","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-james-madison","tag-jordan-seaton","tag-kyle-whittingham","tag-matt-campbell","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-33351-ap-online-analysis","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-product-40785-ap-indiana-sports-only","tag-product-40789-ap-louisiana-sports-only","tag-product-40792-ap-michigan-sports-only","tag-product-40804-ap-north-carolina-sports-only","tag-product-40807-ap-oklahoma-sports-only","tag-product-40808-ap-oregon-sports-only","tag-product-40809-ap-pennsylvania-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-product-40816-ap-utah-sports-only","tag-rocco-becht"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/970476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}