Sawyer Goram-Welch, an offensive lineman for Texas, logs into the NCAA transfer portal
Texas’s Austin Sawyer Goram-Welch, a redshirt junior offensive lineman from Texas, has made use of the NCAA transfer portal. The 310-pound, 6-foot-4-inch player used social media to announce his admission into the transfer portal. along with his plans to stay with the team through New Year’s Day’s Sugar Bowl game between the Longhorns and Washington in the College Football Playoff national semifinal.
After playing in five games as a freshman and redshirt freshman in 2020 and 2021, Goram-Welch transferred from the defensive line to the offensive line to resume his career on the Forty Acres. Gor-amWelch had two tackles in his four seasons; he had one during the Alamo Bowl special teams game in 2020 and the other towards the end of the Longhorns’ 58-0 victory over Rice in 2021.
Goram-Welch, a three-star recruit by 247Sports Composite who attended Longview High, was anticipated by national scouting analyst Gabe Brooks to become a Power-Five calibre starter on defence, but under Steve Sarkisian, he joined the offensive line. After graduating from high school, Goram-Welch accepted offers from Oklahoma State, SMU, and Florida International, ranking him as the 136th best player in Texas and the 85th best defensive tackle overall according to 247Sports.
If players choose to pursue a transfer, they will enter their names into an online database called the portal. When players want to add their name to the portal, they notify the compliance office at their current school; usually, this happens within 48 hours. Coaches can get in touch with any player who has registered by accessing the database.
In theory, users can access the portal whenever they want. But they will miss a season if they don’t do it within the designated “windows” of their sport. There are two windows for college football: one after spring practise and one after the regular season. Sunday, December 3, the day after the conference championship games, saw the opening of the autumn portal window. It will stay open for thirty days, ending on January 1, 2024, at the end of the business day.
Players had 45 days after the regular season ended to enter their names in the portal prior to this academic year. This fall, the NCAA changed that regulation, reducing the time frame to 30 days.
No. Sometimes players decide to stick with their respective programmes and remove their names from the portal.
Frequently, though, the choice to access the portal is accompanied by some annoyance on the part of the player or the programme. The majority of players who use the portal don’t go back to their old school, and they’re frequently kicked off the team right away.
