Former Ohio State corner Sevyn Banks transfers to LSU Tigers for 2022 college football season
LSU landed a notable commitment in the college football transfer portal as former Ohio State cornerback Sevyn Banks pledged to the Tigers for the 2022 season.
Banks' addition comes as head coach Brian Kelly faces a major rebuilding project in the LSU secondary in his first offseason with the program.
Sevyn Banks at Ohio State
Banks started 15 games for the Buckeyes in his NCAA career, earning All-Big Ten Honorable Mention in 2020 after recording 23 tackles and defending six passes. He played just nine games last season with eight tackles and a pass defense after dealing with a hip injury.
Now, he enters a situation at LSU where he should earn immediate starting attention. LSU lost cornerback Derek Stingley to the NFL Draft and Eli Ricks transferred to Alabama this offseason, leaving the Tigers with just two returning scholarship cornerbacks on the roster.
Kelly has sought to replenish the position this offseason by signing two transfer defensive backs in Jarrick Bernard-Converse (from Oklahoma State) and Mekhi Garner (from Louisiana).
As a recruit, Banks ranked as a top 25 cornerback prospect and a top 250 player overall as a consensus 4-star member of the 2018 football recruiting class.
He attracted numerous offers, including LSU, before choosing Ohio State, which has been loaded at the cornerback position for the last several years, producing seven first-round NFL Draft selections at the defensive back position in the College Football Playoff era alone.
NCAA transfer portal
The NCAA created the transfer portal on Oct. 15, 2018. That decision has helped transform the game of college football by giving players an easier opportunity to change teams and direct their playing careers.
Players no longer require permission from their coaches in order to transfer. They just have to request that their school’s compliance department enter their name into the portal.
Names appear in the transfer portal in one or two days, and schools are free to contact transferring players without restriction thereafter.
Players that enter their name into the transfer portal don’t necessarily leave their schools. A player is free to take his name out of the portal at any time. But schools are not under an obligation to keep transferring players on scholarship once they put their names into the portal.
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