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All-Conference RB enters college football transfer portal after 1,000-yard season

A standout running back and return specialist is now hitting the transfer portal.
Joe Cox|
One top 2025 running back is now entering the NCAA transfer portal.
One top 2025 running back is now entering the NCAA transfer portal. | Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Memphis TigersArkansas Razorbacks

While many of the top college football players are specialists, the transfer portal doubtlessly has a place for the multi-faceted star. One all-conference running back, who also excels as a pass catcher and kick and punt returner, is now putting his name into the portal.

In fact, this standout junior back actually earned all-conference honors both as a running back and a return specialist. But after the season, his coach has taken a new job and accordingly, this standout back is in the portal looking for a new home.

Memphis running back Sutton Smith is the player on the move. In 2025, Smith led the Tigers with 669 yards rushing and seven touchdowns. He also excellent as a punt and kick returner, taking back a kickoff for a touchdown. In four seasons at Memphis, Smith rolled up, 1,116 rushing yards, caught 44 passes, and used his return skills to finish his college career with over 2,000 all-purpose yards. In 2025, he was first-team All-AAC as a return specialist and third-team as a running back.

The 5'9" back hails from Marietta, Georgia. He did draw significant interest as a three-star high school recruit from teams as diverse as Louisville, Nebraska, Washington State, Maryland, Purdue, Houston, and Yale. But a month after Memphis offered Smith a scholarship, per 247sports, he committed to the Tigers and didn't waver on that commitment.

The biggest immediate question with Smith's transfer is whether he might following former Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield. Silverfield took the Arkansas job ahead of the Tigers' bowl game and might be able to use his former standout in his new job.

While Arkansas had an outstanding 1-2 running combo in RB Mike Washington (1,070 yards, 8 TDs) and quarterback Taylen Green (777 yards, 8 TDs), both are seniors, potentially leaving a vacancy for Smith to fill.

Arkansas also was unexceptional on kick and punt returns, scoring only on a blocked punt return in 2025. Smith could ceretainly factor into Arkansas and Silverfield's plans if he follows his former coach to Arkansas.

If not, given he ubiquity of the transfer portal, Smith still figures to have plenty of options. His hometown is near the campus of Georgia Tech, where a pair of standout runners just completed senior seasons. In any case, a multi-faceted standout is looking for a new home in the even-shifting world of college football.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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