
With a little over a week gone in the open transfer portal window, Mizzou has experienced both the ups and downs of college football’s new era, where players can change teams in the blink of an eye.
If the transfer portal before 2021 was an average merry-go-round, it’s present-day version is like the “Trabant” from The Sandlot. One second, a team could be having the time of its life, enjoying the breeze and waving its arms in the air. The next second, that same team could become violently ill and feel the negative effects of moving in circles incredibly quickly.
Since the transfer portal opened on Dec. 9, it has expectedly flooded with names from all over the country. With Mizzou facing increased roster turnover compared to last season, it was expected that Eli Drinkwitz & Co. would be active in the portal, which treated the Tigers quite nicely last season.
In 2023, Mizzou saw 19 players transfer out of the program; none of them, however, were projected to have prominent roles in 2024. The program also brought in 17 transfers; several of them, from Nate Noel to Zion Young, became instant contributors to an eventual nine-win regular season.
This time around, however, the Tigers have been hurt more by outgoing transfers. True freshman defensive end Williams Nwaneri, the top-ranked player in the class of 2024, entered the transfer portal on Dec. 10 with a no-contact tag, which indicated that he likely knew where he was going before he left Mizzou. Sure enough, it was announced on Dec. 13 that Nwaneri had committed to Nebraska, reuniting with high school coach Jamar Mozee, who’s a senior football assistant with the Cornhuskers. Three days later, true freshman running back Kewan Lacy, who flashed high potential on just 25 carries in 2024, transferred to Ole Miss the same day it was announced he’d entered the portal. Defensive lineman Jaylen Brown and linebacker Brayshawn Littlejohn also entered the portal.
On the surface, Nwaneri and Lacy’s transfers came as a surprise to at least some. Nwaneri’s prestige coming out of Lee’s Summit North High School was undeniable; however, his path to substantial playing time wasn’t crystal clear on paper, as Young, Eddie Kelly Jr. and Jahkai Lang all made impacts, albeit at varying levels.
Lacy, on the other hand, not only showed promise, but he it seemed like he was primed to take on a larger role in 2025. With Noel and Marcus Carroll’s eligibility expiring, Lacy’s competition would’ve at least consisted of two returners (Jamal Roberts and Tavorus Jones) as well as two incoming freshman (Marquise Davis and Brendan Haygood).
“It is what it is,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “And if someone wants to go, there’s the great John Wooden line: ‘love you dearly, miss you greatly.’ We’ll be alright, and they’ll be alright too. They’re all really good players.”
This was the sharp end of the sword pillaging MU instead of helping it. The early departures of key players invoked a sense of panic into many who followed Mizzou football. As the chaos increased, Drinkwitz took to Twitter/X to calm any nerves that were present amongst the fanbase.
Naw! STP https://t.co/3UnAWXNQp8
— Eliah Drinkwitz (@CoachDrinkwitz) December 16, 2024
“I would just caution everybody, including Mizzou Twitter, that it’s really going to be okay,” Drinkwitz said. “We value production over potential, and that’s going to be a key driving force for us and the decisions we make with player acquisition and player development.”
As of Wednesday night, Drinkwitz’s words have been backed up by actions, as he and the rest of the staff proved once again that what the portal can taketh can also giveth. Mizzou has landed six transfers — wide receiver Kevin Coleman (Mississippi State), safety Santana “Beans” Banner (Northern Illinois), linebacker Josiah Trotter (West Virginia), linebacker Mikai Gbaynor (Nebraska), defensive end Langden Kitchen (Northwest Missouri State) and running back Ahmad Hardy (Louisiana-Monroe).
Not only were the Tigers able to rectify some losses either due to the NFL Draft, expiring eligibility or the transfer portal, the five players they’ve acquired were all major contributors to their respective teams for at least one season. Coleman came 68 receiving yards shy of 1,000 for the season. Banner recorded 54 total tackles and an interception against Western Michigan. Trotter made almost 100 total tackles and corralled a sweet toe-tap interception against Oklahoma State. Gbayor had 49 total tackles, six of which were for a loss. Kitchen had 8.5 tackles for loss (three against Central Oklahoma) and 5.5 sacks for the Bearcats. Hardy ran for 1,351 yards last season and recorded 13 rushing touchdowns; he crossed the century-mark on the ground in seven of 12 games.
What makes the commitments of Trotter and Gbaynor especially interesting is that, for at least one moment in time, Trotter and Gbaynor seemed extremely connected to their teams, and there were tangible examples of such.
“You know when they need you and when they like you,” Trotter told West Virginia Mountaineers on SI on his original commitment to WVU. ‘That’s the biggest thing, especially as a recruit. You want to go where you’re needed, not just where you’re liked or even wanted, too. I knew that (West Virginia) didn’t just want/like me. They needed and wanted me, and that was something that just really set them apart from everybody else.”
Trotter also mentioned a culture that attracted him to Morgantown, even if the Mountaineers weren’t exactly early in recruiting the Philadelphia native.
“West Virginia came in a lot later on, kind of after I got all of those big schools, and I never thought I would honestly be here until Coach (Jeff) Koonz reached out and texted me pretty consistently,” Trotter said. “I wasn’t the recruit to really look at logos and how big a school was. I wanted to go somewhere that really wanted me for me, and I fit with the scheme, the culture, and I could make an impact. He kept reaching out, I took a visit and I fell in love with it, the scheme, the coaches, the area, how the fans treated the team … what the WV logo really meant to West Virginia.”
Finally, Trotter threw out a pair of Mountaineer greats whose path he wanted to follow.
“I love seeing how Karl Joseph, Tavon Austin and a lot of those older dudes really made an impact on this team and this state,” Trotter said, “and I wanted to be able to do that.”
Those were all very heartfelt words that seemed to indicate a genuine desire to play for West Virginia — that was until the universe threw a curveball. Head coach Neal Brown was fired on Dec. 1 after six seasons in Morgantown and was quickly replaced by Rich Rodriguez, who’d helped lead the Mountaineers to national prominence in the 2000’s. Trotter entered the portal three days after Brown was fired and will now pave a new path in Columbia with three years of eligibility remaining.
Over in Nebraska, it also seemed like Gabyor had a strong sense of connection to the Cornhuskers. It showed in Week 2 before NU’s game against Colorado, when Gbayor told reporters that “you couldn’t compare” Colorado quarterback Shadeur Sanders and Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola.
“Dylan is a different man,” Gbayor said.
His comments drew the ire of some television personalities, believing that Gbayor intentionally took a verbal shot at Sanders. Whatever his motivations were, at the very least, he was publicly supporting his quarterback.
What Gbayor may have made a little more clear, however, were his intentions on the opening kickoff.
“Hit them hard from the start. I’m going to be running down on (the) kickoff. You’ll see me down there,” Gbayor said. “They’re going to need two guys to block me. I want them to know that. That’s how we coming down there.”
While those words were big, the hit he laid on the opening kickoff might’ve been bigger.
Damn, Mikai Gbayor wasn’t messing around.
That’s what backing up your words looks like.
What a story this kid is. Didn’t play a single snap his first two seasons at Nebraska. Rhule, White and Dvoracek show up and he’s an All-Big Ten caliber LB and missile on special teams. pic.twitter.com/sBpmmRvv48
— Steve Marik (@Steve_Marik) September 8, 2024
However, Gbayor wasn’t done with proclamations during that media session.
“This team is hungry. We put in a lot of work over the offseason. We worked our tails off,” Gbayor said. “For another team to come in here, thinking that they gonna run through us or it’s gonna be sweet, good luck to them. I wish them the best.”
After laying the smackdown on the opening kickoff, Gbayor somehow stood on business even harder. He finished with six total tackles, one tackle for loss and one pass defended that helped Nebraska to a 28-10 domination of Colorado. Sanders also had arguably his worst game of the season, completing just over 60% of his passes for 244 yards and a touchdown with one interception. He was also sacked six times; on the other side, Railoa completed 23 of 30 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers.
Let ‘em know @MGbayor ️ pic.twitter.com/Z6If2SZogX
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) September 9, 2024
Gbayor not only stood up for his team’s quarterback, but the rest of his teammates as well. And now, he will have a new quarterback to stand up for, one who could easily be coming from the transfer portal, too.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mizzou will be Coleman’s his fourth school in four years — his previous stops were Jackson State, Louisville and Mississippi State. He certainly isn’t the only one in the portal to make more than two stops on his collegiate journey: defensive tackle Bear Alexander, who entered the portal after two years at USC, flexed his right arm that featured a Georgia tattoo (his first school) on a visit to Penn State. The idea of being able to switch schools so easily might seem absurd to some, but that’s part of the reality that those involved with the sport, whether they’re on the inside or outside, won’t be able to avoid.
The portal also has obvious negatives for all involved, though. Some players, like former Penn State quarterback and current Mizzou target Beau Pribula, are put in a bind with the way college football’s calendar is structured. The window for players to enter the portal is open from Dec. 9-28. In the case of Pribula and Maalik Murphy last season at Texas, they were essentially stuck, even though transferring was an effective option for both — Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning were returning in 2024 for the Longhorns, and Drew Allar announced on Monday that he was returning to Happy Valley in 2025. Pribula and Murphy’s teams were competing in the College Football Playoff, but not only was the portal window open during that time, the longer they waited, the likelihood of open options dwindling decreased.
Both players publicly admitted that the overlap of the transfer portal window being open and the CFP was far from an ideal situation. It’s one of the several criticisms many have had about the portal since it became what it is today.
“Do not be mad at the players one bit. This whole situation is not their fault at all,” Drinkwitz said. “Don’t hate the players. Hate the game.”
All that’s to say this: longstanding relationships and perceived commitments to schools can be uprooted quickly because they can be like never before. It’s simply a byproduct of a new age of college football, even if part of it is deeply flawed. Players are simply taking advantage of a system that has granted them unprecedented individual freedom. That’s both helped and harmed Mizzou — the program has experienced a heavy dose of both in a span of less than two weeks.
“Until there’s people that are in charge, we’re wasting our breath,” Drinkwitz said when asked about potential improvements that could be made to the portal. “You just gotta adapt to it.”
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