College football free agency does not officially kick off until the transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, but planning for the eventful two-week period is well underway. Players are announcing their intentions as coaching staffs prepare a plan of attack. It’s a busy time for every college football program, but the intensity is amplified even more for first-year head coaches, like Kentucky’s Will Stein.

With every coaching change, there is significant roster turnover. You can expect some schools to change more than half of their roster as a coach tells the old players to kick rocks as he brings in new ones from the transfer portal.

Lane Kiffin was called the “Portal King” during his time at Ole Miss. The man has frequent flyer miles in college football free agency. One of his first hires in Baton Rouge was Eric Wolford. The former Kentucky assistant coach did not fix the Wildcats’ high school recruiting woes on the offensive line, but his intense style actually might help Kentucky this offseason.

You have to be a certain type of person to play for Eric Wolford. Not every LSU offensive lineman is gonna sign up for that. Kentucky needs offensive linemen. You know who is well acquainted with those LSU players who need a new home? Joe Sloan.

Kentucky needs five new starters on the offensive line. There are a few reserves from last year’s squad that may be ready to emerge as starters, but the Cats need players in the trenches. Plenty of Joe Sloan’s former LSU players will be available in free agency.

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LSU Offensive Linemen hitting the Transfer Portal

OT Carius Curne — A top 15 overall talent in the 2025 recruiting class who was evaluated as a guard, the Arkansas native started five games as a true freshman, splitting time at both left and right tackle. He showed plenty of potential and will be a hot commodity in the transfer portal. He has three years of eligibility remaining.

OT Tyree Adams — Adams earned a starting role at left tackle ahead of the 2025 season before an injury forced him to undergo season-ending surgery in November. The New Orleans native has two years of eligibility remaining.

IOL Coen Echols — Started the last eight games at left guard and played the third-most snaps on the offense. The former Texas A&M commit will be a true junior with two years of eligibility remaining.

C DJ Chester — LSU’s starting center in 2024 led the team in snaps, but was replaced by a Virginia Tech transfer this fall. He enters the transfer portal with two years of eligibility remaining.

OT Ory Williams — The redshirt freshman earned two starts at left tackle at the end of the season. He appeared in four games total and logged 150 snaps.

The LSU offensive line was far from a juggernaut for Sloan last fall. PFF gave the Tigers the worst run-blocking grade in the SEC after finishing at the bottom of the league in rushing yards per game (104). Even though the unit had plenty of imperfections, there are still players with plenty of upside and SEC experience who could find a second wind by following their old offensive coordinator to Kentucky via the transfer portal.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Texas Tech arrived to sunny skies and warm weather on Monday afternoon as the Capital One Orange Bowl staff rolled out the red carpet for the Red Raiders. A bevy of media awaited on the tarmac for first-impression interviews with seniors Behren Morton and Jacob Rodriguez, while organizers distributed Orange Bowl memorabilia before the team headed to its hotel along the Atlantic Ocean.

Texas Tech will begin its first full day in South Florida on Tuesday with a morning practice followed by College Football Playoff quarterfinal media day at Hard Rock Stadium, site of Thursday’s game against Oregon.

No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1, 8-1 Big 12) meets No. 5 Oregon (12-1, 8-1 Big Ten) at noon ET on New Year’s Day. ESPN will televise the game, with Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer in the booth and Stormy Buonantony and Katie George on the sidelines.

This will be the first time the programs have met in the Capital One Orange Bowl and the fourth meeting overall dating to 1991. It is also the first College Football Playoff quarterfinal in Orange Bowl history.

– TECH –

This isn’t isolated to mid-tier teams like Iowa State. Even former powerhouses are reeling from portal raids. USC, under Lincoln Riley, hemorrhaged 15 players after a disappointing 2025 season, including backups and starters seeking better NIL opportunities elsewhere. The Trojans’ losses exacerbate roster instability in a program once synonymous with West Coast dominance. Similarly, Florida State shed 25 athletes, UNC lost 15, and over 10 programs nationwide saw 20 or more departures, highlighting how NIL bidding wars amplify turnover at underperforming or underfunded schools. These exits often follow coaching changes or subpar seasons, with athletes prioritizing financial incentives over rebuilding efforts.

The fallout extends beyond regular-season rosters, contributing to a palpable lack of interest in the multitude of bowl games not tied to the College Football Playoff (CFP). With the transfer portal overlapping bowl season and NIL deals luring players away, non-playoff bowls have become exhibitions of depleted teams, rife with opt-outs and makeshift lineups. Players, now professionalized through NIL earnings, increasingly skip these games to avoid injury risks ahead of the NFL draft or to chase better opportunities via the portal, rendering many matchups unwatchable and irrelevant. This year alone, several 5-7 teams declined bowl invitations outright, including Iowa State and Notre Dame that also had a 10-2 winning record in 2025, signaling diminished prestige, while opt-outs have turned storied bowls into shadow versions of themselves. Viewership for non-playoff bowls remains robust in aggregate—Disney’s 33 such games averaged 2.7 million viewers last season, up from prior years—but fan sentiment and expert analysis point to growing apathy, with complaints that NIL and the portal have “demolished bowl season” by eroding competitive integrity. As one observer noted, these games hold “no interest” for teams anymore, fueling calls for reforms like paying players to participate or shifting the portal window post-bowls.

As the 2025 calendar winds down, the NCAA’s revamped transfer portal is poised to swing open on January 2, 2026, ushering in a condensed 15-day frenzy that closes on January 16, 2026, for most football programs. This single-window structure, a shift from previous dual periods to curb ongoing tampering and streamline chaos, includes extensions: Players from teams in the College Football Playoff national championship (set for January 19, 2026) get an extra five days from January 20-24, while coaching changes trigger separate 15-day windows starting five days after a new hire. Amid NIL’s financial allure, this upcoming portal period could accelerate roster volatility, with programs like Iowa State still reeling from pre-window announcements and others bracing for bidding wars.

Yet, in Texas—the epicenter of NIL spending—some programs thrive amid the chaos, leveraging deep-pocketed boosters to build fortresses against portal losses. The University of Texas (UT) boasts the nation’s top football NIL budget at $35-40 million for 2025, enabling net gains like edge rusher Colin Simmons from LSU and wideout Isaiah Bond from Alabama while minimizing outflows. Texas A&M follows closely with $51.4 million in total NIL revenue (football-dominant), adding 12 transfers like quarterback Marcel Reed despite some exits tied to NIL dissatisfaction. Texas Tech, spending nearly $30 million, turned the portal into a weapon with 15 additions, including quarterback Brendan Sorsby on a rumored $4 million deal, fueling a playoff push. SMU, raising $65 million for all sports via its Mustang Club, focused on retention bonuses to limit departures to just five, adding talents like edge Braden Carter and earning ACC buzz.

Contrast this with in-state rivals Baylor, TCU, and the University of Houston, where modest NIL resources expose vulnerabilities. Baylor ramped up to $15 million in NIL spending, adding 24 transfers to flip its roster, but still suffered heavy losses post-2025, prompting coach Dave Aranda to fight for key retentions like four critical players amid portal risks. TCU, also allocating around $15 million to football under Big 12 revenue sharing, balanced gains (e.g., experienced quarterbacks) with lumps from departures, reflecting the portal’s double-edged sword in a new era of $20.5 million caps. Houston, with unspecified but lower NIL figures, bolstered its roster with 15 transfers and 30 overall additions, yet faces ongoing portal needs after a 4-8 season, lacking the financial firepower to consistently outbid elites.

This Texas divide underscores NIL’s inequality: Wealthy programs like UT and A&M buy stability and stars, while others like Baylor and TCU scramble to plug holes, often becoming feeder systems. As the transfer portal window in 2026 looms, college football’s soul hangs in the balance and talk of reform is already in the air.

For over a decade, Dave Clawson built Wake Forest into one of the steadiest football programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference, crafting a developmental model that produced seven consecutive bowl appearances.

Clawson’s approach to making the Demon Deacons a fixture in North Carolina’s college football landscape was deliberate: recruit under-the-radar prospects, develop them patiently for two or three seasons, then rely on experienced upperclassmen to carry the program.

As the transfer portal and NIL opportunities reshaped college football, that model became harder to sustain. After back-to-back 4-8 seasons, Clawson resigned, citing a rapidly changing landscape and acknowledging he could no longer give the job everything it required.

Wake Forest suddenly faced a reset as a coaching change, roster turnover and evolving expectations left the program searching for direction. When Jake Dickert, former coach at Washington State, arrived in Winston-Salem ahead of the 2025 season, optimism was cautious at best.

What followed was one of the ACC’s most striking turnarounds.

In his first season, Dickert — the North State Journal’s 2025 Coach of the Year — restored stability and belief, guiding Wake to an 8-4 record and a return to bowl eligibility.

Capping off Dickert’s debut season, the Demon Deacons (8-4) will face SEC representative Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-7) in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Jan. 2 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

In their 2025 campaign, the Deacs tied for the most victories among all FBS programs in the Carolinas, underscoring the program’s rapid rebound. Wake Forest defeated two teams ranked at the time, including a road victory at Virginia (the Cavaliers’ only home loss of the season) and a home win that snapped SMU’s 20-game regular-season conference winning streak.

After back-to-back losses in September, Wake responded by winning six of seven games before closing the regular season with a loss at Duke; the Deacs finished 4-4 in ACC play.

On the field, Dickert leaned on a blend of experience and toughness. Graduate transfer quarterback Robby Ashford brought leadership to an offense that had struggled for consistency in recent seasons, while senior running back Demond Claiborne anchored the ground game and emerged as a physical focal point in key moments.

Defense again proved to be the program’s backbone. The Demon Deacons ranked sixth in the ACC and 38th nationally in scoring defense, finished top five in the league in total and passing defense, and did not allow a touchdown against either Virginia or North Carolina.

Dickert’s impact extended well beyond Saturdays.

Before the season, he overhauled Wake Forest’s recruiting and scouting infrastructure, assembling a 10-person staff dedicated to identifying talent and building depth in a new era of college football. The early returns have been promising.

During the recent National Signing Day, Wake Forest announced a 30-player 2026 recruiting class — the highest-ranked in program history — currently inside the national top 50. The class includes one four-star and 29 three-star recruits, signaling a shift toward broader talent acquisition and immediate competitiveness.

Dickert’s efforts were rewarded following the regular season. On Dec. 2, Wake Forest Vice President and Athletics Director John Currie announced that Dickert had signed a long-term contract extension.

“Jake Dickert has proven himself to be one of college football’s rising head coaches and one of the truly special leaders in the ACC,” Currie said. “He has galvanized our locker room, our campus, and our community. Coach Dickert is exactly the type of leader who inspires players, and he and his family fit seamlessly into the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem community.”

Dickert echoed that sentiment, pointing to long-term investment as central to Wake Forest’s direction.

“Our family could not be more grateful to call Wake Forest and Winston-Salem home,” he said. “Over the last 11-plus months, our staff and student-athletes have embraced a new process of being ‘Built in the Dark.’ When John approached me a few weeks ago about the university’s desire to further invest in our program, I was both humbled and energized.”

“This commitment ensures that our staff has the stability, resources and support necessary to continue elevating Wake Forest football,” Dickert added. “I’m proud of this team, our staff and our seniors who built the foundation for this new era, and excited for what’s ahead. There has never been a better time to be a Demon Deacon.”

While roster turnover remains a reality, Wake Forest’s trajectory is still heading upward. With a retooled staff, a revamped recruiting approach and renewed confidence throughout the program, Dickert has revived the Demon Deacons and positioned them for sustained relevance for years to come.

North Texas enjoyed a historic 2025 season, finishing 12–2 overall (7–1 in the American Conference) and cracking the AP Top 25.

The Mean Green posted the nation’s top offense (45.1 points per game), reached the AAC Championship Game, and capped the year with a thrilling 49–47 New Mexico Bowl win over San Diego State, the most wins in program history.

A key driver behind that success was true freshman running back Caleb Hawkins, who posted 1,434 rushing yards on 230 carries (6.2 yards per carry) with 25 rushing touchdowns, plus 32 catches for 370 receiving yards and four receiving TDs, 1,804 scrimmage yards and 29 total touchdowns.

He earned All-America and All-Conference freshman honors, national freshman awards recognition, and MVP honors in North Texas’ bowl victory.

However, shortly after, he announced his decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal, positioning himself as one of the highest-profile running backs available when the portal opens Friday.

On Monday, On3’s Pete Nakos specifically listed Hawkins among portal names being tracked and identified Texas as one of the programs showing early interest or appearing as a logical landing spot in that early intel.

Hawkins was a lightly-recruited three-star prospect out of North Rock Creek High School (Shawnee, Oklahoma) who signed with North Texas over offers from Emporia State and Central Oklahoma. 

Texas finished the 2025 season ranked No. 13 in the final AP poll but failed to reach the College Football Playoff despite entering the year as the preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.

Sophomore quarterback Arch Manning has publicly confirmed he will return to Texas for 2026, but the Longhorns face significant attrition at running back, with Quintrevion Wisner, Jerrick Gibson, and CJ Baxter all set to enter the transfer portal.

Texas has a clear need at running back, Hawkins’ proximity to Austin, and the program’s proven history of developing NFL-level backs, such as Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Brooks, Roschon Johnson, and Jaydon Blue, all point to Texas as a logical landing spot for Hawkins.

Read More at College Football HQ

• $2.6 million QB ranked as No. 1 transfer in college football

• 25-touchdown RB shares farewell note after entering college football transfer portal

• College Football Playoff team loses All-Conference player to transfer portal

• College football team loses three All-Americans to transfer portal

Saint Peter’s Peacocks (5-5, 2-0 MAAC) at Fairfield Stags (8-5, 0-2 MAAC)

Fairfield, Connecticut; Monday, 7 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Stags -3.5; over/under is 138.5

BOTTOM LINE: Fairfield hosts Saint Peter’s after Braden Sparks scored 26 points in Fairfield’s 121-58 win over the City Tech Beavers.

The Stags have gone 5-1 in home games. Fairfield ranks second in the MAAC with 24.6 defensive rebounds per game led by Brandon Benjamin averaging 5.7.

The Peacocks are 2-0 in MAAC play. Saint Peter’s is fourth in the MAAC with 10.6 offensive rebounds per game led by Jahki Gupton averaging 1.8.

Fairfield averages 8.6 made 3-pointers per game, 1.7 more made shots than the 6.9 per game Saint Peter’s gives up. Saint Peter’s averages 8.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.6 more made shots on average than the 7.1 per game Fairfield gives up.

The Stags and Peacocks meet Monday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Benjamin is averaging 12.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks for the Stags. Sparks is averaging 17.7 points over the last 10 games.

Brent Bland averages 3.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Peacocks, scoring 16.0 points while shooting 40.0% from beyond the arc. TJ Robinson is averaging 12.3 points and 3.2 assists.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.