Northwestern Wildcats Linebacker Enters Transfer Portal

The redshirt-junior will be looking for a new home in the early transfer window.

Northwestern linebacker Kenny Soares Jr. in a college football game against Miami (Ohio) on August 31, 2024. | Photo: Northwestern Athletics

Spring practice is a great opportunity for college football coaches to evaluate what they have on their roster. Coaches can see how transfers mesh with their current players, get a first look at early enrollee freshmen and begin fitting athletes into their scheme.

For players, it's a chance for them to find out where they stack up on the positional totem pole. If they don't like where they sit and believe they could receive more playing time elsewhere, players can hop into the spring transfer portal window.

Northwestern linebacker Kenny Soares Jr. was the first to announce his departure after the opening week of spring practice. Soares said he was thankful for his time at Northwestern in a social media post on Tuesday evening and would be entering the transfer portal as a graduate student with two years of eligibility remaining.

Soares played in 24 games over the last two seasons, totaling 57 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, three pass breakups and a fumble recovery. However, Soares has largely been behind Xander Mueller, Greyson Metz and Mac Uihlein on the linebacker depth chart.

Mueller and Metz will graduate, but with Purdue transfer Yanni Karlaftis joining the roster, Soares may have felt his best chance to start at linebacker this fall was with another program.

Soares was a three-star prospect and the No. 5 high school player in Connecticut in the 2022 class. He was originally committed to the Colorado Buffaloes before flipping to Northwestern on National Signing Day.