Had a little extra time on my hands this morning, and thought it would be nice to go over our recent transfer portal movement with a comparison of transfers of who’s left the team and their replacement/probable replacement. So here we go:
1. Transfer: DT Daquan Newkirk / Replacement: DT/NT Tony Fair - pretty even swap here, though I think Fair is better suited for what we need at NT in this defense.
2. Transfer: Edge OLB Jarren Handy / Replacement: Edge OLB Andrew Leota - Both guys have 3 years left to play and I love Handy’s upside, but to this point you have to say this is an upgrade as Leota has been more productive on the field than Handy.
3. Transfer: CB Marco Domio / Replacement: CB Dre Miller - With Domio pretty much being an unknown after playing very little last season due to injury, adding an All Big 12 DB in Dre Miller is a major upgrade over this loss. Both have two years of eligibility left to play.
4. Transfer: DT Jay Hardy / Replacement: Marcus Harris - Both guys have 4 years left to play, but to this point Hardy has been injured pretty much for a whole year and is essentially an unknown at the college level. Meanwhile Harris produced 27.5 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss last season for the Jayhawks, and at this point is a proven upgrade over Hardy.
5. Transfer: S Chris Thompson Jr. / S Donavan Kauffman - I think both of these guys are extremely talented, but I’m going to give the edge to Kauffman because of his knowledge of the scheme and position versatility to play both Safety and Nickel, whereas Thompson was purely a box Safety.
6. Transfer: QB Chayil Garnett / QB TJ Finely - TJ Finely has produced and won games in the SEC, Chayil Garnett got beat out by Grant Loy, this is a slam dunk upgrade and it’s not even close.
7. Transfer RB DJ Williams / RB Jordon Ingram - Because Ingram is a virtual unknown at this point on the college level, you have to give the edge to DJ here. This is the first transfer replacement scenario where Auburn likely hasn’t upgraded at the position, at least not on paper anyway.
8. Transfer: Edge OLB Big Kat Bryant / Edge OLB Dylan Brooks or TBD - While typically replacements on this list are reserved for other transfer players, Big Kat was a super Senior and thus his departure was anticipated before long before the extra eligibility rule came into play (natural attrition). That said Big Kat was a second team All SEC performer who collected 4 sacks last season and has 4 years worth of experience competing in the SEC. Brooks is a talented but raw freshman who’ll need time to develop. The upside is high but he’s not the player Big Kat is right now. This is another loss for Auburn, but I like the upside of Brooks and we’ll see if this loss looks like a win 2-3 years down the road. I’m also still following to see if we add another pass rusher here from the transfer market as there is one from Virginia Tech we seem to be tracking.
9. Transfer: OG Kamar Bell / OT Brady Ward - Ward comes in as a walk on Offensive Tackle from Ole Miss at a position of need, Bell is a young prospect that that was buried on the depth chart at Guard, because of the dearth of young OTs that we have on the roster and the glutton of OGs, this is seen as a win in my eyes.
10. Transfer CB Kamal Hadden / CB Ro Torrence - Hadden was a good Juco CB that definitely had some promise had he stayed at Auburn and developed. Torrence is a physical specimen who was just named Juco defensive player of the year and fits a very important role as a press man CB and matchup player against detached TEs and large WRs in the slot. I see this as an upgrade, but I guess time will tell with Hadden just up the road in Tennessee.
11. Early NFL Draft Entry: NB/S Christian Tutt / NB or S Bydarrius Knighten - oddly enough I’m going to call this a draw. Tutt was a 2 year starter and 3 year contributor to an above average SEC defense, but his actions and attitude the last year on the team were not in line with the expectations Harsin requires of his players, and thus his parting was inevitable. Knighten has made plays and been a very good player on the FCS level, but the SEC is a significantly larger stage than he’s ever played on. However he’s a great young man that got a reputation as a great teammate whose looking for a larger platform to help get him to the league. Both players would have had only 1 year to play, so this feels like a pretty even swap.
As of now, it appears as though Auburn utilized the transfer portal to upgrade the roster and replace most of the transfers we’ve lost to this point. Big question marks remain at OT and WR, but as more transfers come into play we can revisit this and see if Auburn is still winning the portal, but I like what we’ve done to this point.
(edited to account for the recent changes as we head to the important July 1st date)
1. Transfer: DT Daquan Newkirk / Replacement: DT/NT Tony Fair - pretty even swap here, though I think Fair is better suited for what we need at NT in this defense.
2. Transfer: Edge OLB Jarren Handy / Replacement: Edge OLB Andrew Leota - Both guys have 3 years left to play and I love Handy’s upside, but to this point you have to say this is an upgrade as Leota has been more productive on the field than Handy.
3. Transfer: CB Marco Domio / Replacement: CB Dre Miller - With Domio pretty much being an unknown after playing very little last season due to injury, adding an All Big 12 DB in Dre Miller is a major upgrade over this loss. Both have two years of eligibility left to play.
4. Transfer: DT Jay Hardy / Replacement: Marcus Harris - Both guys have 4 years left to play, but to this point Hardy has been injured pretty much for a whole year and is essentially an unknown at the college level. Meanwhile Harris produced 27.5 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss last season for the Jayhawks, and at this point is a proven upgrade over Hardy.
5. Transfer: S Chris Thompson Jr. / S Donavan Kauffman - I think both of these guys are extremely talented, but I’m going to give the edge to Kauffman because of his knowledge of the scheme and position versatility to play both Safety and Nickel, whereas Thompson was purely a box Safety.
6. Transfer: QB Chayil Garnett / QB TJ Finely - TJ Finely has produced and won games in the SEC, Chayil Garnett got beat out by Grant Loy, this is a slam dunk upgrade and it’s not even close.
7. Transfer RB DJ Williams / RB Jordon Ingram - Because Ingram is a virtual unknown at this point on the college level, you have to give the edge to DJ here. This is the first transfer replacement scenario where Auburn likely hasn’t upgraded at the position, at least not on paper anyway.
8. Transfer: Edge OLB Big Kat Bryant / Edge OLB Dylan Brooks or TBD - While typically replacements on this list are reserved for other transfer players, Big Kat was a super Senior and thus his departure was anticipated before long before the extra eligibility rule came into play (natural attrition). That said Big Kat was a second team All SEC performer who collected 4 sacks last season and has 4 years worth of experience competing in the SEC. Brooks is a talented but raw freshman who’ll need time to develop. The upside is high but he’s not the player Big Kat is right now. This is another loss for Auburn, but I like the upside of Brooks and we’ll see if this loss looks like a win 2-3 years down the road. I’m also still following to see if we add another pass rusher here from the transfer market as there is one from Virginia Tech we seem to be tracking.
9. Transfer: OG Kamar Bell / OT Brady Ward - Ward comes in as a walk on Offensive Tackle from Ole Miss at a position of need, Bell is a young prospect that that was buried on the depth chart at Guard, because of the dearth of young OTs that we have on the roster and the glutton of OGs, this is seen as a win in my eyes.
10. Transfer CB Kamal Hadden / CB Ro Torrence - Hadden was a good Juco CB that definitely had some promise had he stayed at Auburn and developed. Torrence is a physical specimen who was just named Juco defensive player of the year and fits a very important role as a press man CB and matchup player against detached TEs and large WRs in the slot. I see this as an upgrade, but I guess time will tell with Hadden just up the road in Tennessee.
11. Early NFL Draft Entry: NB/S Christian Tutt / NB or S Bydarrius Knighten - oddly enough I’m going to call this a draw. Tutt was a 2 year starter and 3 year contributor to an above average SEC defense, but his actions and attitude the last year on the team were not in line with the expectations Harsin requires of his players, and thus his parting was inevitable. Knighten has made plays and been a very good player on the FCS level, but the SEC is a significantly larger stage than he’s ever played on. However he’s a great young man that got a reputation as a great teammate whose looking for a larger platform to help get him to the league. Both players would have had only 1 year to play, so this feels like a pretty even swap.
As of now, it appears as though Auburn utilized the transfer portal to upgrade the roster and replace most of the transfers we’ve lost to this point. Big question marks remain at OT and WR, but as more transfers come into play we can revisit this and see if Auburn is still winning the portal, but I like what we’ve done to this point.
(edited to account for the recent changes as we head to the important July 1st date)
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