Tennessee defensive lineman Da'Jon Terry enters transfer portal
After having to return home and missing Spring practice earlier this year due to family issues, veteran defensive lineman Da’Jon Terry has entered the transfer portal after two seasons at Tennessee. On3’s Matt Zenits was the first to report the news.
Terry will seek a new home as a graduate transfer with a limited amount of time to get to campus as summer workouts across the country are set to get started in June. It seems likely that he will transfer close to home in Meridian (Miss.) to be near family. He will have two years of eligibility left due to having his COVID year from the 2020 season when he was at Kansas. He will be immediately eligible at his next stop.
During his time on Rocky Top, Terry worked in the rotation along Tennessee’s defensive front as a routine contributor. He recorded playing time in 34 games, including nine starts. In his two seasons in Knoxville, he recorded 35 total tackles, six for loss and three sacks.
Understanding the portal
The spring portal window ran from April 15-April 30th. However, those dates don’t apply to graduate transfers who can enter the portal whenever they wish. Also, if there’s a head coaching change, players can enter the portal outside of those dates.
Players don’t have to pick a school they are going to during those specific dates but those are the span of dates on when a player can enter the portal.
A year ago, according to the NCAA, 950 football players went into the portal. In 2020, there were less than 600 players who transferred. Coaches and media around the country feel like this year there will be a record number of players who go into the portal as one time transfers.
Vols have benefitted from the portal
The transfer portal can giveth and it can taketh away. For Josh Heupel and Tennessee it’s been much more of a positive than a negative for the Vols.
Since the end of the 2023 season, Tennessee had found more portal help with the arrival of BYU’s transfers Keenan Pili (linebacker), and Gabe Jeudy-Lolly (cornerback). Omarr Norman-Lott transferred in on the defensive line from Arizona State. Offensively, Tennessee landed left tackle John Campbell from Miami, Texas offensive lineman Andrej Karic, receiver Dont’e Thornton from Oregon and UC-Davis tight end McCallan Castles. The Vols also have found placekicker help in Indiana transfer Charles Campbell.
The reality is that the portal has accelerated the rebuild of the program the last two years. Every knows the impact of Hendon Hooker or the last two season’s via the portal. Quarterback transfer Joe Milton will be making his fourth career start in the bowl game.
