Tennessee offensive lineman decides to enter transfer portal

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery01/12/22

Tennessee Volunteer offensive lineman K’rojhn Calbert has officially decided to enter the transfer portal, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. He started five games at right tackle in 2019.

The redshirt senior will have one year of eligibility remaining. He missed most of the 2021 season after suffering a biceps injury during fall camp. He worked to return from his injury and played a few snaps against South Alabama, but that was his only game action of the season.

The 6-foot-5, 325 pounder was a three-star recruit in the 2017 recruiting class. In high school, he suited up for Warren County High School.

With the addition of Calbert, the Volunteers have officially had two players enter the portal on Wednesday night. Wide receiver Andison Coby entered the portal for the Vols earlier on Wednesday.

When Calbert originally committed to Tennessee coming out of high school, he chose the Vols over offers from Florida, Louisville, Kentucky, and others.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be  contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.