Tennessee offers FCS All-American from transfer portal
As the transfer portal continues to swirl, Tennessee has extended another offer on Tuesday. This one goes out to redshirt-freshman defensive back Syeed Gibbs who played his first two years with Rhode Island at the FCS level.
The 6-foot-0, 180-pound cornerback started all 10 games he played in and finished the year with 52 tackles, three tackles for loss, three interceptions and was credited with six passes defended. His three picks marked the second-highest of any player in the Coastal Athletic Association in 2023.
For his efforts on the season, Gibbs was named as the Rookie of the Year for the conference and picked up Freshman All-American honors from the Football Central publication. He was also a member of the Jerry Rice Award Watch List.
The athlete redshirted after appearing in four games in 2022.
Gibbs entered the transfer portal on Monday officially after announcing his intentions on November 29. He’ll have three years of eligibility remaining. At the time of the Tennessee offer Tuesday morning, Gibbs had already posted offers from UConn, Liberty, Boston College, Appalachian State, UMass, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech and West Virginia.
Tennessee offered! pic.twitter.com/fkSSa1Lal0
— Syeed Gibbs (@gibbs_syeed) December 5, 2023
Understanding the transfer portal
The winter transfer portal window opened on December 4th and runs for 30 days. The winter window to enter the portal closes on January 2nd. The spring portal window runs from April 16-30th.
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.
Those dates don’t apply to graduate transfers who can enter the portal whenever they wish prior to May 1st. Also, if there’s a head coaching change, players can enter the portal outside of those dates.
Players who enter the portal in the 30 day winter window are trying to be somewhere for the spring semester.
For Tennessee the spring semester starts on January 22nd which is late compared to many schools around the country. Tennessee a year ago started a winter mini-term class that runs the first 3 weeks of January.
With the portal, schools also have to stay at 85 or below in their scholarships numbers, meaning when the spring semester starts they can’t be over 85. In Tennessee’s case, that number is closer to 82 as the Vols balance the scholarship reductions that they received last July when the NCAA ruled on the Jeremy Pruitt case.
