Former 4-star Alabama receiver Traeshon Holden takes visit to Oregon
It’s no secret that Oregon is going to need to dip into the transfer portal for help at the receiver position during this cycle.
The Ducks have already seen a pair of former 4-star receivers — Dont’e Thornton and Seven McGee — depart the program to seek opportunities elsewhere. Senior starter Chase Cota is set to graduate after this season and a handful of reserve receivers could also be on their way out the door.
As newly-hired offensive coordinator Will Stein and receivers coach Junior Adams aim to bolster the depth at the position, news broke late Thursday that one of the top available players is currently on a visit to Eugene.
Traeshon Holden, a junior who spent the past three seasons at Alabama, alerted the college football world that he is on a visit to Oregon.
A former 4-star recruit, the Harbor City, Calif., native was the No. 193 overall prospect and No. 36 receiver in the class of 2020.
In 10 games with Alabama this season, Holden caught 25 passes for 331 yards and six touchdowns. He was the program’s fourth-leading receiver. His most productive game of the year came in the season opener when he caught passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns.
Transfer portal background information
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.
