Former Oregon Duck Kristian Williams commits to Missouri
Former Oregon defensive tackle Kristian Williams has found his next career stop.
After entering the transfer portal in May, Williams announced on Tuesday that he has committed to Missouri.
A fourth-year sophomore from Memphis, Tenn., Williams will have three years of eligibility remaining. During his time with the Ducks, Williams played in 24 games and recorded 25 total tackles, 1.0 tackles for loss, and one pass deflection.
In 2021, Williams played in all 14 games and racked up 16 tackles. He was not seen during any of Oregon’s spring practices that were open to reporters, and Ducks’ head coach Dan Lanning revealed after the program’s spring game that Williams was “away from the team.”
A former 4-star recruit in the class of 2019, Williams was the No. 349 overall prospect and No. 43 defensive lineman according to the On3 Consensus. He was recently tabbed by On3 as one of “8 players in the transfer portal who can help this season.”
During the offseason
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.
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.
