The college football transfer portal doesn’t open until its single January window after the 2026 season, but the names that will draw the loudest pursuit are already making themselves known this fall. Seven players, in particular, look like the kind of talent Power Four programs will line up for if they decide to move on.
One of the biggest twists came Saturday in Ann Arbor, where Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham benched sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood at halftime against Penn State. Michigan was stuck in a 3-0 hole after producing just 80 yards and throwing two interceptions with Underwood running the offense, so Whittingham went to true freshman Tommy Carr. Carr responded by steering three second-half touchdown drives and finishing the 21-18 win with a 12-yard touchdown run and 2:58 left.
Carr’s background makes the moment even more notable. He is the grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and the younger brother of Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr.
Even after the comeback, Whittingham stopped short of naming a starter for Saturday’s game against Indiana. “Going forward we will take a good look at the tape.
Not prepared to make a decision yet,” he said after the win.
Underwood is still going to be one of the hottest names on the market if he enters. He came out of the 2025 class as the consensus No. 1 quarterback recruit and landed at Michigan after flipping from LSU in a deal worth about $12 million.
Through five games, he had 881 passing yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions before Saturday. If he hits the portal, he’d give schools that missed on him a second shot at a quarterback with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Oregon State quarterback Braden Atkinson has put together the kind of season that makes him just as appealing. After winning the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in FCS at Mercer in 2025, he beat out Maalik Murphy and Brady Jones for the starting job in Corvallis. He has now thrown for at least 300 yards in all seven games, tying the school record of seven straight set by Sean Mannion in 2013.
Atkinson’s numbers are heavy-duty: 2,604 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and only two interceptions. He threw five touchdowns in back-to-back wins over Colorado State and San Diego State, then added three more in a 48-30 win over Washington State, helping Oregon State move to 5-2 and 3-0 in Pac-12 play. For Power Four staffs hunting for an immediate answer at quarterback, that kind of production with two years left is about as good as it gets.
The receiving market has its own headliner in the true freshman from Baltimore who has exploded for 1,040 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. He has gone over 100 yards and found the end zone in every game this season, and his 90-yard touchdown against Washington State made him the first player in the country to reach 1,000 receiving yards this fall. ESPN’s David Hale had him fifth among Heisman Trophy candidates entering Week 7.
He was a receiver and defensive back at St. Frances Academy and put up 721 all-purpose yards as a senior. His 240-yard performance against Texas Tech in Week 2 is the second-best game in program history, and his three remaining years of eligibility are the most of anyone on this list.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty profile is different, but the appeal is obvious. The junior ranks fourth in FBS with 835 rushing yards after Boise State’s Week 7 bye and picked up AP Midseason All-America second-team honors last week while leading the nation in rushing and all-purpose yards. Against Memphis on Sept. 12, he ran for a career-high 206 yards, and he remains the only FBS player with three runs of 70 yards or longer this season.
Jeanty, a Moreno Valley, Calif., native, shares carries with running back Sire Gaines, who went for 120 yards in a 38-31 win at Fresno State. He has one season of eligibility left, and the pitch from Power Four programs would be simple: give him the backfield to himself.
Then there’s Toledo edge rusher T.J. Zock, another Mercer product who arrived with a resume that turns heads.
He won the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defender in FCS in 2025 before following Toledo coach Mike Jacobs to the Glass City. Colorado already had him on its radar, scheduling a visit during last winter’s portal cycle.
Zock has backed up the reputation. He leads Toledo with seven sacks and has recorded at least one in six straight games.
In Saturday’s 34-14 win at Eastern Michigan, he had two sacks, nine quarterback hurries and a forced fumble, with the nine hurries standing as a career high. He has one season of eligibility left after becoming the Rockets’ pass-rush leader in his first FBS season.
James Kelly rounds out the group after another strong showing for JMU. He intercepted a pass in Saturday’s 49-22 win over Georgia State, giving him a team-high four picks. Two of those came in the red zone during a 45-17 win over Marshall, and both wiped out scoring chances for the Thundering Herd.
Kelly, a second-year cornerback from Allentown, Pa., played high school football at St. Frances Academy, the same Baltimore program that produced the Baltimore receiver on this list. He spent his freshman season at Toledo, and while JMU is 7-0 in its first year under coach Billy Napier and has accepted an invitation to join the American by July 1, 2028, Kelly has already transferred once and still has two years of eligibility left.
The final name is Jayden White, and his return to form after injury has been one of the more encouraging storylines of the fall. He was a Freshman All-American at West Virginia in 2023 and rushed for 1,820 yards with the Mountaineers before a knee injury ended his 2025 season after two games. He moved to North Texas for a fresh start, and the results have been immediate.
White ran for a career-high 219 yards in a 45-44 overtime win at Tulsa on Oct. 1, highlighted by an 84-yard run that stands as the Mean Green’s longest play this season. Through six games, he has 687 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on 96 carries, good for 7.2 yards per carry.
He was also named the Offensive Comeback Player of the Month for September. His 7.7 yards per carry as a freshman in 2023 led all FBS running backs with at least 100 carries, and that kind of efficiency is exactly what Power Four teams will be chasing if he becomes available.
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