Transfer Tracker: Rutgers one of the fewest departures among Power 4 teams
Rutgers Football Head Coach Greg Schiano enters year five in his second tenure with the program and is coming off a big year four where the program won their first bowl game since 2014.
Now a lot has changed with college football since Schiano's first go around on the banks and one of those major changes was the transfer portal as it's become a key factor for teams building rosters.
With that being said, let's take a look at all incoming and outgoing transfers to and from Piscataway.
BIG TEN'S MOST OUTGOING TRANSFERS THIS OFFSEASON...
T-1: Indiana – 39 outgoing transfers
T-1: Michigan State – 39
T-3: USC – 29
T-3: Washington – 29
5: Purdue – 28
6: Ohio State – 25
7: Wisconsin – 23
8: Illinois – 22
9: Oregon – 20
10: Minnesota – 18
T-11: Michigan – 17
T-11: UCLA – 17
T-13: Iowa – 13
T-13: Maryland – 13
T-13: Penn State – 13
T-16: Northwestern – 12
T-16: Rutgers – 12
18: Nebraska – 9
Rutgers is among the lowest number of transfer portal departures among all of the Power 4 conference teams, with just 12 outgoing scholarship transfers.
On the flip side, Colorado has led the country in the same category with 41 outgoing transfers. They are followed up by Indiana and Michigan State who both lead the Big Ten and Alabama leading the SEC (39 for each program), and finally Houston rounds out the top five with 33 transfers.
Cincinnati (32), Georgia Tech (32), Arkansas (31), Texas A&M (31) and Louisville (30) round out the Top 10 as the only other programs with at least 30 scholarship transfer departures.
FEWEST OUTGOING TRANSFERS IN ALL OF CFB....
Here are the 10 power-conference programs with the fewest number of outgoing transfers.
1: Nebraska – 9 outgoing transfers
2: Oklahoma State – 10
T-3: Clemson – 12
T-3: Northwestern – 12
T-3: Rutgers – 12
T-6: Iowa – 13
T-6: Kansas – 13
T-6: Maryland – 13
T-6: Penn State – 13
T-6: Stanford – 13
OUTGOING SPRING TRANSFERS….
QB Gavin Wimsatt —> Kentucky
DL Rene Konga —> Louisville
OUTGOING WINTER TRANSFERS….
QB Evan Simon —> Temple
RB Aaron Young —> Old Dominion
WR Max Patterson —> Delaware
WR Rashad Rochelle —> Indiana State
OL Mike Ciaffoni —> TBD.
OL Kamar Missouri —> UTSA
DL Q’yaeir Price —> Delaware
DL Cam’Ron Stewart —> Temple
DB Elijuwan Mack —> TBD.
DB Carnell Davis —> Duquesne
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INCOMING RUTGERS FOOTBALL TRANSFERS...
One of Illinois top prospects in the class of 2021, Athan Kaliakmanis committed to and signed with Minnesota out of high school.
Now after three seasons with the Golden Gophers, Kaliakmanis has decided to enter the transfer portal and spend his final two years of eligibility elsewhere. After a little over a month in the portal, Kaliakmanis committed to the Scarlet Knights on January 2nd, reuniting with his former OC in Kirk Ciarrocca.
Now the Illinois native joins Rutgers with 23 total games played and 17 starts over the past two seasons. This past Fall was his first go around as a full time starter and in 12 games, Kaliakmanis went 156-of-294 yards for 1,838 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
After spending all spring with the program, Kaliakmanis won the quarterback competition and was named QB1 just a few weeks ago.
Rutgers Football sent out an offer to the top FCS receiver back in early December and just about two weeks later, Miller made the move to commit to the Scarlet Knights.
This past Fall, Miller was considered the top receiver in all of FCS, hauling in 92 total catches for 1,293 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
Miller now joins the Scarlet Knights with one year remaining and is expected to be the program's top receiver this upcoming 2024 season.
Rhodes was a two-star recruit coming out of Eagle's Landing Christian Academy in McDonough, Georgia before committing to Ohio.
In 2023, Rhodes earned a 65.9 overall PFF grade, with a 76.2 in pass blocking and 58.3 in run blocking. That figure was a sharp increase from a 52.9 grade in 2022. He was also named to PFF's Team of the Week in 2022's Week 11 after a win over Miami (OH).
Rhodes started all 12 games for the Bobcats in 2023 as a 6-foot-6, 322-pounder playing right tackle until the final game of the season where he played right guard. He was a key multi-year starter on the offensive line for Ohio after not seeing significant game action during his first two seasons.
He has one year left of eligibility and is expected to be the Scarlet Knights starting right tackle for the 2024 season.
Out of high school, Ray was ranked as a 5.5, three-star prospect and originally was committed to South Florida before flipping to Florida State on National Signing Day 2019.
Moving on to his time at Florida State, Ray spent four seasons with the Seminoles where he appeared in 38 games (5 starts) and finished with 60 total tackles (27 solo), 10.0 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, two pass deflections and one forced fumble.
He boasts a PFF defense grade of 58.9, rush defense grade of 60.0, tackling grade of 56.3 and a pass rush grade of 55.4 in 2023.
Ray has one year of eligibility remaining to play for the Scarlet Knights.
It's not too often that you see scholarship transfers long snapper, but Rutgers went out and added just to the roster this offseason in Austin Riggs from Brigham Young University.
Riggs is an Idaho native, who committed to BYU as a member of the 2018 class, but before playing for the Cougars, he went on a church mission to Zimbabwe from 2018-2020. Following the mission, he made the journey to Utah where he would appear in 40 games over the next four seasons.
Riggs has one year of eligibility remaining.
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