Wait, he plays there now? A guide to college football’s biggest 2026 transfers

A new college football season is here, and unless you’re a degenerate (complimentary) who spends their summer posted up on various message boards and trawling for depth charts, you might be asking yourself one question: Why are all these household names on different teams all of a sudden?

Welcome to life in the era of the transfer portal, where rosters at even the bluest of blue-blood programs turn over at a rate that’s nearly impossible to keep track of. Which is why we’re here to help, with an exhaustive guide to all of the biggest transfers who changed teams this offseason — and what impact they could have on conference and College Football Playoff races.

Where college football’s biggest transfers will play in 2026

QB Sam Leavitt/OT Jordan Seaton, LSU

Really, you could dedicate an entire column just to the haul Lane Kiffin brought with him to LSU — a whopping 44 transfers in all, including instant impact players at just about every position on the field. If this is going to produce a title contender on the field in year one, though, it starts with Leavitt and Seaton, who are tasked with reviving an offense that had stagnated under Brian Kelly.

Leavitt’s 2025 season was cut short due to injury, but it wasn’t that long ago that he looked like the next big thing, pushing Texas to the brink in the CFP while at Arizona State. He’s a good enough passer, and he’s the sort of mobile gamer that Kiffin has found success with in the past. His life will also be made much, much easier by the presence of Seaton, the jewel of LSU’s offensive line haul who could well hear his name called in the top 10 of next year’s draft. He did thankless work at left tackle for Colorado the last two years and could be ready for a serious coming-out party.

EDGE Princewill Umanmielen, LSU

Oh, and the defense is loading up, too. Kiffin didn’t manage to pry away Trinidad Chambliss or Kewan Lacy from Ole Miss, but he did convince Umanmielen to come with him to Baton Rouge. Coming off a nine-sack season last year, LSU will be counting on him to become one of the very best pass rushers in the entire country.

WR Cam Coleman/RB Hollywood Smothers/RB Raleek Brown, Texas

Say this for Arch Manning: If he doesn’t get it done this year, it won’t be for lack of help. In addition to a veteran offensive line that features arguably the best tackle in the country in Trevor Goosby, Steve Sarkisian went shopping this winter, landing maybe the most dynamic weapon in the portal in Coleman along with two proven Power 4 backs in Smothers and Brown.

Coleman is the headliner, a former five-star recruit with all the physical tools in the world whose relatively pedestrian numbers (he’s yet to crack 750 yards in a season) so far are a bigger indictment of Auburn’s passing game than anything else. But Smothers is a home run waiting to happen, while Brown put up more than 1,000 yards for an Arizona State squad that didn’t have much else going on offensively last year.

QB Darian Mensah/WR Cooper Barkate, Miami

Mensah threw for nearly 4,000 yards at Duke last year, over 1,000 of which went to Barkate, who transferred from Harvard and immediately became one of the better wideouts in the ACC. You can understand why Mario Cristobal picked this duo to replace Carson Beck and two of the Canes’ top three pass-catchers from their run to the national title game, even if there are still questions to be answered about how they’ll perform on the biggest stages against the best competition — questions they simply didn’t have to answer in Durham.

EDGE Damon Wilson II, Miami

Mensah and Barkate are the buzziest names, but you could make a pretty convincing argument that Wilson is the most important transfer to Miami’s title hopes this season. The Canes are loaded on offense; they’re going to score points in bunches almost no matter what. But their CFP run last year was propelled by an overwhelming pass rush, and with Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor now off to the NFL, Cristobal turned to Wilson — who tallied nine sacks at Missouri in 2025 — to fill the void. Is he ready for his close-up?

QB Josh Hoover/WR Andrew Marsh, Indiana

To say that Curt Cignetti has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to talent evaluation would be maybe the understatement of the century. With Fernando Mendoza and wideouts Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt all off to the NFL, the Hoosiers pivoted to Hoover and Marsh in the portal, and it’s not hard to see how this might result in serious fireworks.

Hoover isn’t nearly as robotically efficient as Mendoza was (nor is he as athletic outside the pocket), but he’s a true gunslinger who could really take off if Cignetti’s fanaticism about stamping out mistakes can get him to cut his interceptions a bit. Marsh, meanwhile, is a breakout just waiting to happen, a freak athlete who showed serious flashes across two years at Michigan State but was held back by a truly dreadful passing game. Add potential All-American Charlie Becker to the mix, and you’ve got a stew going.

QB Drew Mestemaker/RB Caleb Hawkins/WR Wyatt Young, Oklahoma State

Every year, at least one school hires a new head coach who promptly takes most of his previous team with him to his new home. This year, that school is Oklahoma State, which is bringing in not just Eric Morris but also the entire infrastructure of what was one of the most dynamite offenses in the country last year at North Texas. The tip of the spear is Mestemaker, a former walk-on now garnering serious NFL buzz, but workhorse Hawkins and slot maven Young also put up video-game numbers in 2025. If the offensive line can hold up, the Pokes can go from also-ran to competitive in the Big 12 overnight.

DJ Lagway, Baylor

Lord help me, I’m ready to get hurt again. Lagway’s stock is in the toilet right now, but I know what I saw when he was making jaw-dropping throws in the SEC as a true freshman, and I’m willing to believe that the general dysfunction of the Billy Napier era — and Lagway’s inability to stay healthy — contributed to his flaming out at Florida. Now the pressure’s off a bit at Baylor, where he teams up with an OC in Jake Spavital who’s authored some very fun offenses in the past. Don’t be surprised if he finally puts it all together.

Byrum Brown, Auburn

Elsewhere in the “new coach importing his offense” department: Alex Golesh takes over at Auburn after putting up a whole bunch of points at South Florida, and he’ll be bringing the man responsible for most of those points with him to the Plains. Some questions remain about whether Brown can throw the ball at an SEC level, especially after video of his, uh, “wonky” throwing motion surfaced during spring ball. But he’s the size of a linebacker and ran for over 1,000 yards last year; my guess is this will work out just fine.

LB Rasheem Biles, Texas

Offense wasn’t the only place where Texas splashed some cash this offseason. They also made Biles a priority in the portal, and it’s not hard to see why: He’s one of the most unique players in the country, a linebacker with a safety’s build (and a safety’s athleticism) who stuffed the stat sheet to a comical degree at Pitt last year (100 tackles, 4.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and two picks). He faces some questions about how his size will hold up in the SEC, but he’s a game-wrecker when he starts flying around.

LB Christian Alliegro, Ohio State

It’s fitting that we put these two linebackers back to back, because both were targeted by Ohio State and Texas in the portal. Rather than the Columbus native Biles, though, the Buckeyes opted for Alliegro, who battled injury last season but still managed to put up 49 total tackles and four sacks. He comes with three years of Big Ten experience under his belt, but will Ryan Day regret passing up on the local kid with the outlier physical traits? We’ll find out in Week 2, when OSU heads down to Austin.

S Koi Perich, Oregon

Poaching a star safety from the Big Ten worked so well with Dillon Thieneman last year that Dan Lanning went right back to the well for 2026. Perich comes from Minnesota, where he burst onto the scene with five picks in 2024 and followed that up with 82 tackles in 2025. If he’s ready to fill Thieneman’s shoes right away, Oregon will have everything it needs to once again be one of the better defenses in the country.

WR JJ Buchanan/EDGE John Henry Daley, Michigan

Kyle Whittingham stepped into a mess of a situation at Michigan and immediately settled things down, not only keeping most of the Wolverines’ stars (Bryce Underwood and Andrew Marsh foremost among them) in Ann Arbor but also bringing some major talent with him from Utah.

Daley is coming back from a ruptured Achilles, but prior to that injury he was one of the best edge rushers in the country, putting up 48 total tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks and two forced fumbles in just 11 games. Buchanan, meanwhile, has been the talk of Michigan’s camp, a contested-catch monster at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds who averaged over 16 yards a catch as a freshman last year. If the Wolverines are going to make a Playoff push in year one under Whittingham, they’ll need both to be stars.

CB DJ McKinney, Notre Dame

We already know that Notre Dame’s secondary will be a strength this season, with Leonard Moore and Christian Gray back at corner and Adon Shuler and Tae Johnson at safety. The one spot left in the lineup, though, could determine how high the Irish’s ceiling truly is. McKinney oozes NFL potential, starting the last two years at Colorado and earning preseason All-Big 12 honors prior to the 2025 campaign. If the lightbulb comes on for him this season, this could be a historically awesome pass defense.

LB Austin Romaine/EDGE Trey White, Texas Tech

Texas Tech rode the best transfer class in the country to arguably the best defense in the country last season, but the thing about living through the portal is that once you get on the treadmill it becomes very hard to get off. So, with stars like David Bailey and Lee Hunter off to the NFL, Joey McGuire and Co. once again went out and spent some money, bringing in several enticing players who profile as day-one starters. The best of the bunch are Romaine, a tackling machine at Kansas State, and White, who had a combined 19.5 sacks over the last two years at San Diego State.

WR Ian Strong, Cal

In the nine games in which Strong was healthy last year, he averaged 84 yards per contest, including 100-yard efforts against both Iowa and Washington. He looks the part of a future pro at 6-foot-4, and now he goes from Rutgers to Cal, where sophomore sensation Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele will be throwing him passes. JKS has the potential to become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2028 draft, and he and Strong could surprise a whole lot of people — and defenses — this season.