Six SEC schools made the top 10 list of players lost to the transfer portal
With the portal season closed for 2022-23, grad transfers notwithstanding, it is time to look at which teams lost the most in terms of personnel during this cycle. A lot of ink has been given to what Deion Sanders has done, letting 56 players go from the Colorado program. However, as it does in nearly every sport and every list, the SEC had many schools in this top ten list. This is where they landed:
2.) Ole Miss with 33 transfers out
3.) Texas A&M with 31 transfers out
5.) Arkansas with 29 transfers out
6.) Florida with 26 transfers out
9.) Mississippi State with 23 transfers out
10.) Missouri with 22 transfers out
Lane Kiffin having Ole Miss second shouldn’t come as a great shock to anyone. He refers to himself as the “Portal King”. Still, with this much talent loss can they even contemplate jumping out of the mid-tier SEC West team that they have always been?
Texas A&M has to come as a bit of a surprise, considering they are ranked in the top 5 of every metric for recruiting classes in the last 5 cycles. I am not sure how great it is to land huge recruiting classes and lose such massive amounts to the portal. Jimbo Fisher should have that program secure by now, but he is coming off another anemic 5-7 campaign. What is going on out in College Station?
Arkansas 2022 season, in which they lost to Liberty,(who then contained Auburn’s new head coach Hugh Freeze) was a very down year. That might indicate why so many players hit the portal as they try to fix an atrocious defense. Who knows if the exodus is what Sam Pittman needed at this point in his tenure?
Florida needed to make some changes. Those changes needed to be good changes after Coach Napier led the Gators to a 6-7 season in 2022. However, They have made some questionable pickups in the portal. Add that in with the considerable losses in the same portal and you have to wonder how long the leash is for Napier down in Florida when Georgia keeps pounding out the national championships.
Mississippi State has gone through an unfortunate coaching change due to the death of Mike Leech. Arnett will likely get the ship righted eventually, but with that much talent leaving due to a coaching change and his inexperience as a head coach leaves very little hope that this portal has done anything but hurt Miss State.
Missouri has bettered itself and currently has one of the better teams they have had in over a decade…on paper. In reality, you have to question losing that many players to the portal that Eli Drinkwitz recruited. Is he not developing players? Is there a culture problem? Is he just now figuring out what type of players he needs to compete in the SEC going into his fourth season? The team currently looks decent, as previously stated, this many losses in the portal when it is your recruits does not make the coaching staff look good.
For perspective, Auburn, with a new coaching staff and a near complete rebuild, only lost 10 players to the Spring portal. None of which were crucial to the success of the football team. In total, on offense, they lost 8 receptions for 113 yards and one touchdown worth of production. On defense, they lost 30 tackles and 2 sacks produced over the last two seasons. T.J. Finley entering the portal on the final day inflates those numbers a bit. However, no one viewed him as a potential starter for 2023 so it is hard to quantify that loss.
The Tigers have had ten players depart from the program within the last few weeks, including three backup linebackers:
Quarterback TJ Finley
Wide receiver Tar'Varish Dawson
Wide receiver Landen King
Offensive lineman Colby Smith
Defensive lineman Jeffrey M'ba
Defensive lineman Tobechi Okoli
Defensive end Dylan Brooks
Linebacker Kameron Brown
Linebacker Desmond Tisdol
Linebacker Powell Gordon
Auburn has pulled in an impressive haul thus far during Hugh Freeze's first season on the Plains, currently sitting at No. 3 nationally in 247Sports' transfer portal class rankings.
You can check out our transfer portal tracker here. Stay up to date on all of the Tigers' commitments, departures, and prospects for key positions at auburndaily.com.
Related Stories
Auburn football reaches out to Oregon State quarterback Chance Nolan
Lane Kiffin is still talking about Auburn?
Auburn football's projected 2023 depth chart
Five quarterback battles Auburn fans should have their eye on
Tigers may be looking at different opponent for future spring games
Auburn basketball releases 2023-24 roster
Engage with Auburn Daily on Socials!
